I was off today but Jaime wasn’t so I took the opportunity to do some lawn work. This was my last day off before my parents come to visit and our schedule is pretty packed so I won’t have time for much of anything this coming week. After mowing the lawn and weed whacking I realized I probably should have been wearing sunscreen, I’ll regret that in the morning. Afterwards I went to visit Jaime on her lunch break. I was planning on going to the thrift stores but we thought we were a little short on money so I just went straight home, a little down about being broke. But I checked the bank account and got happy again, we were perfectly fine, it was just that when she looked yesterday all the bills had come out at once and our paychecks hadn’t gone through yet. So that put me in better spirits and I dug my metal utility cart out of the shed. Rock hunting time!
I specifically got the cart for collecting big rocks and to help move the trees I transplant. We only ended up using it a couple times last year before my friend moved out of my guest room and decided to hate me. No big loss, but I did lose my rock hauling partner which makes it a lot harder on me because these aren’t small rocks we’re talking about. In the new part of the trailer park, they cleared out a huge area to expand but couldn’t fill the lots they already had so left it open after cutting down all the trees and moving the boulders. All the bigger rocks got pushed into giant piles making it convenient for me to take them.
On my first trip up the closest pile to the road I found a good sized snake skin and thought to myself I wouldn’t want to move a rock and find him underneath it. The first rock I spotted has a flat bottom and rounded top so it’ll rest perfectly on the ground, but it was about 150 pounds and lived at the top of the pile. All my weight lifting has clearly paid off because I was able to not only lift it but walk down the precarious pile and then throw it the last few feet over the pricker bushes. While up there I found a long somewhat skinny rock with a flat side that was clearly too heavy to move. Somehow I managed to dead lift it out of its hole and carefully slide the 200 pound rock down the pile and then pick it up again to put it in the cart. And then one more small one to help balance out the cart that I was barely able to move.
I sweat profusely the entire way and had to stop for multiple breaks in order to keep myself from passing out but I made it up the small hill and then down the other side, all the way back home. Three tenths of a mile never felt so long. That’s kind of far now that I think about it, I didn’t realize when I started but I just measured it on good old Google Earth. No wonder I had to sit down after.
I put the rounded rock with the flat bottom in its new location beside the walkway and decided to redo a retaining wall with the longer rock. The wall keeps falling down so I figure if I replace eight basketball size rocks with one giant rock it’ll hold up better. So the eight rocks that once made up the retaining wall got placed in the empty cart and brought to the back of the lawn where I’m in the process of making a rock wall to hold back the enormous patch of weeds no one is able to mow. Most of those weeds are bigger than my baby trees with trunks an inch in diameter and thorns that easily pierce through work gloves. Slowly but surely I’m fighting to take the land back.
I told myself I was done while using all my strength to pull the first load back but this is me, let’s face it, I knew I was going back for another. This time I remembered to bring my camera in order to document it for the blog, something I’m still getting used to. The snakeskin blew away and almost fell down a hole between rocks but I was able to retrieve it for the photo. Then I spotted another nice flat rock that would be perfect for the other half of the redone retaining wall, big but definitely moveable unlike the giant boulders I really wanted. So I moved it and what was underneath but the snake I didn’t want to encounter, and its equally proportioned friend. I apologized profusely to them for disturbing their spot but if I put the rock back down it would crush them so I held it up until they both slithered off. I didn’t have a free hand to grab my camera unfortunately but they didn’t seem too mad as I held the rock up, no threatening poses or anything, they just sat there at first and then slowly went off into a hole. I felt even worse for moving their rock when I went back up the pile and one of the snakes was in the same spot, just with no rock above it. I considered putting it back but it was too heavy to carry uphill. Not only is it uphill, it’s a pile of unstable rocks with gaping holes between them and no safe place to stand, so climbing up it in the first place is kind of stupid. I did manage to get to my camera in time to get a picture of the returning snake.
While getting my second rock of the trip, a large round one near the bottom of the pile, one that I believe we attempted last year before getting the utility cart, I spotted a bald eagle flying overhead. He soared right over me. I wasn’t quick enough to get an up close picture but did manage to get him flying between a couple trees. I can’t say I’ve ever seen one of those around here before, they really are majestic creatures.
In order to even out the load I grabbed another smaller rock, maybe bowling ball size, it did its job to balance the round rock. Just before leaving a couple of curious yellow birds landed in a tiny tree right beside me to see what I was doing. One of them was maybe four feet away, I thought he was going to land on my shoulder. They moved around a lot but I was able to eventually get a couple pictures but they had already moved on from me and went to some bigger trees not too far away. We always wondered what bird made the annoying chirp, now I know, it’s the cute little yellow ones that hover in the air almost like humming birds.
This cart load was slightly easier to pull home, about a hundred pounds less. The flat rock finished up the wall of the garden in front of the deck, now it just needs to be redone. The others went to the stonewall in the back of my yard which is coming along nicely, it’ll end up being bigger than I’d originally intended.
So luckily the sunburn wasn’t bad, it had turned into a tan by the next morning. My arms were a little sore but not bad, the only muscles that actually hurt were the ones I used pulling the cart of rocks, right around the elbow. Could be worse. My reforestation and rock gardening are fun but its time for me to get back out on the trails.
I put the rounded rock with the flat bottom in its new location beside the walkway and decided to redo a retaining wall with the longer rock. The wall keeps falling down so I figure if I replace eight basketball size rocks with one giant rock it’ll hold up better. So the eight rocks that once made up the retaining wall got placed in the empty cart and brought to the back of the lawn where I’m in the process of making a rock wall to hold back the enormous patch of weeds no one is able to mow. Most of those weeds are bigger than my baby trees with trunks an inch in diameter and thorns that easily pierce through work gloves. Slowly but surely I’m fighting to take the land back.
I told myself I was done while using all my strength to pull the first load back but this is me, let’s face it, I knew I was going back for another. This time I remembered to bring my camera in order to document it for the blog, something I’m still getting used to. The snakeskin blew away and almost fell down a hole between rocks but I was able to retrieve it for the photo. Then I spotted another nice flat rock that would be perfect for the other half of the redone retaining wall, big but definitely moveable unlike the giant boulders I really wanted. So I moved it and what was underneath but the snake I didn’t want to encounter, and its equally proportioned friend. I apologized profusely to them for disturbing their spot but if I put the rock back down it would crush them so I held it up until they both slithered off. I didn’t have a free hand to grab my camera unfortunately but they didn’t seem too mad as I held the rock up, no threatening poses or anything, they just sat there at first and then slowly went off into a hole. I felt even worse for moving their rock when I went back up the pile and one of the snakes was in the same spot, just with no rock above it. I considered putting it back but it was too heavy to carry uphill. Not only is it uphill, it’s a pile of unstable rocks with gaping holes between them and no safe place to stand, so climbing up it in the first place is kind of stupid. I did manage to get to my camera in time to get a picture of the returning snake.
In order to even out the load I grabbed another smaller rock, maybe bowling ball size, it did its job to balance the round rock. Just before leaving a couple of curious yellow birds landed in a tiny tree right beside me to see what I was doing. One of them was maybe four feet away, I thought he was going to land on my shoulder. They moved around a lot but I was able to eventually get a couple pictures but they had already moved on from me and went to some bigger trees not too far away. We always wondered what bird made the annoying chirp, now I know, it’s the cute little yellow ones that hover in the air almost like humming birds.
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