Or rather, damn yews. I got the bushes trimmed. I think they are yews. Of this I am not positive, but it is our educated guess. I've never seen the little red berries, but maybe they all don't have the berries. At any rate what I thought was going to be a two hour job turned into a SIX hour job (note the very non-electric clippers that I used). I don't mind the work. If fact, I was quite enjoying myself and lost track of time - completely forgetting about lunch (an event that rarely ever happens) - what with bopping along to music. All the way from Adele through the Black Eyed Peas. And, oh am I sore. In a good way, though: my shoulders, arms and even fingers! The process went like this:
Hand clipping to find the shape, albeit, much larger than I wanted. I still wanted to shave off all the shoots that were growing a good 6 inches out. I suppose I could have left it like that. But really, then the bushes would just get bigger. And bigger still. So I thought I'd thin them out a bit. My theory is that if the light can get into the inner branches, new shoots will form there and I'll have more than dead-looking wood on the inside. Because with all that dead would on the inside, it makes it impossible to cut the damn things back to the size I want them - about half the size that they are. So I made some lovely brush piles...
And after cleaning them up, it looks like I did a decent job - from a distance anyway. Don't get too close, though, or you might be tempted to say that they look like the Boy gave them a bad haircut. Please note the other side of the house has two mismatched bushes as well. I'd like all the bushes to be like that little one next to the porch. These things are monsters. Really. Two years ago I had intended on digging that little one up and have it go the way of the three that HAD been taking up much of the front yard - you can see a photo of that, here, at the old blog. I do not have a post about the summer of digging those monstrosities up. Needless to say, not something I look forward to ever, ever doing again. However. If I could just borrow a chain saw, I'd like to take these down to a cute and manageable size. The hesitation is that they would be hideous for a year and a half, but hey, we won't be selling in that time, so it'd probably be a good idea.
The list:
> Clean siding of house (need to find extendable brush, which I may have sent to the dump)
> Patch, spackle and paint ceiling on 3rd Floor
> Cat box (groan) - REALLY needs to be done now!
> Dishes (groan) - half done, but I made more...
> Head to town to
> Laundry, laundry, and more laundry
> Clean out fridge
> Make veggie stock
> Paint the Boy's rocker
> Sew the button back on my shirt
> Capture stills from Flip Video to send to Nana and Granddad.
> Learn more about this blogging business and make a list of pseudonyms for everyone.
> Write a proper introduction so any ready I might pick up will know a little something about me/us.
> Post Owl Cake photos (I'm stalling on this as I want there to be something of a blog in place - I wonder if there is a way to post directly. I don't think so. If there is, then I don't know it and I'll feel a bit foolish, but that's ok, because by the time I find out I'll probably have already started this in earnest.)
> Post other fun projects and recipes (fiddle sticks, peaches/onions, zucchini pilaf) I've come up with. Yum.
Uh, yeah, entirely too much to do in one weekend, much less one day. Ah well, I've got it started. I've been meaning to get to those bushes for about a month now. Tomorrow I go to pick up veggies. I love our farm! We've only got a partial CSA, but we've got more veggies than we can use! I'd really like to go blueberry picking, but need to do a little research to find an organic farm nearby. And now. Since my eyes are shutting on me. I'm calling it a night.
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