Pedley's Ponderings
Keeping up
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I’ve never understood why people complain so much about winter. All you have to do is scoop snow, and if you’ve got a snow blower, there’s nothing to moan about.
Using a self-propelled machine to make quick work of the white stuff on my sidewalks and driveway pales in comparison to mowing. First, I’ve got to trim – I can’t stand the loose ends. Then I have to go about the business of actually mowing. This is a three-hour task since I don’t have a rider. One of the previous owners of our 104-year-old Ocheyedan home bought the property directly south of us so they could tear down the eyesore that sat on it. What remains is a small football field of a yard to mow in addition to our actual yard. That takes a while with a 22-inch deck being shoved around by yours truly. It’s a good thing the engine is loud because my kids would sure learn some colorful new words if it wasn’t.
To be completely honest, I don’t mind mowing. It’s time alone with my thoughts and I can always use the exercise. What’s been grinding my gears the last two years is my mower itself. It’s finicky as all get-out and won’t start sometimes. I need to get it serviced somewhere, but I think she might be at death’s door. In the meantime, I’ve borrowed my sister’s machine. It’s not self-propelled and likes to throw rocks at my face, but it gets the job done.
I mowed twice last week not because the grass was overly long, but because the dandelions were laughing at me from my window. I can’t stand looking at them and I can really tell I didn’t get a spray in last year. I’ve resorted to pulling them when the soil is damp enough; however, I rarely get the entire root out.
Making matters worse, our 2-year-old daughter, Cecelia, was walking around the yard last weekend picking the poofy dandelions. “I wish to be princess,” she’d say before blowing the seeds all over the yard. Whether her wish comes true or not, Miss Princess will be put to work pulling weeds next spring.
I plan on hitting the entire yard with a good coating of herbicide this week. Kaity already has enough flowers planted around this property and I don’t need these obnoxious volunteers competing for attention.
Of course, spring’s arrival brings with it an entire list of projects that don’t entail pushing a mower.
The biggest thing we’ve checked off our list is creating a new fire pit. When we were demolishing the inside of our house five years ago before the remodel, we burned all the paneling and other wood in a hole near the patio where a tree once stood. It eventually became our spot for bonfires, but it looked like trash.
Kaity found a picture of a sunken fire pit she wanted, and you can guess who was charged with digging out all the old ash, dirt, nails and rotted tree material to make way for it. Sure, I’m competent enough to operate a shovel, but that doesn’t mean I enjoyed it. We still have mounds of dirt sitting on tarps on the patio that I need to remove and I’m not looking forward to it. At least the fire pit is finished, I guess.
Mercifully, one item has been removed from my summer to do list. Instead of repainting our decrepit cedar siding, we’ve decided to reside the house altogether. Financing is yet to be determined, but let me tell you, that is an 800-pound gorilla off my back. I started scraping last year and no doubt would still be scraping in 2022. I just don’t have the time for it this summer.
There’s still a mile-long to-do list, though. As always, my advice to anyone looking at purchasing a home is to buy new.
Nick Pedley is the news editor of The Hartley Sentinel-The Everly/Royal News.
