March Plans

All right. Now maybe this is a bad idea; but I'm going to post about it anyway.

So, like I said, it's March now (I mean not like you didn't know), and the weather is showing signs of improving. And while we're still in the lion stage of things just yet, the usual rumor is that by the end of the month things will get rather lamb-like. Which I guess means gentle and soft (and perhaps itchy).

And while I know you can't count on the weather to cooperate, still, Tara has these grand plans for cleaning up the yard this month. Or rather, a specific section of the yard, the one out back that encompasses from by the downstairs garage over to the shed. In that area there are a couple (maybe three, depending on who's counting) cars, some tires, the of course requisite random junk, and a pile or three of anteaten wood.

I took some panoramas today, to document the before aspect of things. This is what it looks like by the downstairs garage (and no, the garage roof is not actually crunchy-broken in half like that):



And this is the part over by the shed:



Now, the reason I'm not sure I should post this is because I don't want to publicly lock myself into something. Like I said, weather here is going to be a major factor, not to mention that she and I do both work, albeit in freelance sorts of things with flexible schedules; also I know sometimes if I set goals and then don't meet them exactly as I wanted to I feel like a failure, even when I get pretty damned close. It's like the team that loses the World Series thinking they suck, when jeez you know they're right there at the top too, aren't they?

But Tara has this plan. Or 'plan,' I should say, as her 'plans' usually involve throwing herself at something with an enthusiasm that so bewilders the laws of physics that they momentarily suspend themselves in pure disbelief; honestly most of the time I just stand back. Well back. Cockamamie is a word that tends to come to mind around my sister.

The thing is they work. Well, so far, and knock on wood and all that, goodness. So, when she said today all the things she wanted to do this month, I was skeptical, as that's a lot to have on one plate; but if anyone can pull it off she can.

So yes, the goal for this month is to clean up all that in the pictures above, which also involves completing a stone wall, and, hopefully, renting a bobcat to move some dirt (and rocks, for the above-mentioned stone wall) around; but, like a lot of things in this place, it's not that simple, and there are all these interlocking things that will then also have to be dealt with, even though they are not strictly in this part of the yard. Like, for example, the fallen-down apple tree that is currently blocking said pile of rocks over by the shop; that will have to be hacked up first. Stuff like that. So we shall see.

I can't promise anything; but I think the impulse to record this, to document the process is outweighing my fear of pressure.

Wish us luck!