I believe I work hard everyday. My ‘regular’ job is cognitively hard and on some days, emotionally difficult. When I come home from a particularly rough day or week, I’m bushed because of the mental toll of it all. I don’t have a labor intensive job. I took Thursday and Friday off from work to to the landscaping at my home. The final date of completion approaches and the landscaping is a large part of that final phase but like all aspects of this project, I have a vision, a dream. To maximize my satisfaction with the landscaping, it was imperative that I be on site. In fact, I had to be doing the actual planting. The contractor had arranged for some day laborers to help but their muscles was best utilized to grade the yard and throw seven pallets of Pensacola Bahia sod. They also planted the three 30 gallon river birches and the winged elm. The remaining 5 gallon lorapetalums, the 3 gallon plumbago and the 1 gallon assorted other plants, 2 flats of dwarf mondo, 2 dozen culinary herbs and a small assortment of impulse purchases………I planted them. All of them. I spent the majority of time kneeling and digging. Again, I tried to channel the “wax on, wax off” but I am ridiculously right handed. I wore through three pairs of gloves; I wisely waited to schedule my manicure for THIS coming Thursday. I worked six hours on Thursday and again on Friday. I worked four hours Saturday and early this morning.  I worked hard and continuously. My keens hurt and I fear getting handmaid’s knee. My collar bones ache where they attach to my breast bone. I got dehydrated the first day. I worked more wisely the others days. I enjoyed the labor, the effort, the sweat equity I put into my landscaping. By doing it myself, I divided root bound day lilies and irises. Some plants split into three plants. By doing it myself, I was able to inspect the quality of the soil and amend it by adding handfuls of Black Kow. The cliche is that you get what you pay for but in this case, I believe you reap what you sow. I am confident that my flower beds and plantings will thrive. They will bloom where I planted them and in a year, I’ll be able to divide them again. Tomorrow, I get back to my regular job but I am thankful for the energy and effort I devoted to this project.

I’ll post more once it’s totally finished.