Commentary by Ward Degler
The bad thing about our recent burst of spring-like weather is that the rain washed away the snow. Bad because that exposed all the outdoor projects that I didn’t get finished last year.
There are those piles of leaves that didn’t get mulched or raked. And that stack of bricks. I was supposed to use most of them to finish the patio next to the koi pond. That project now is in its third year.
The landscape beams intended as a border for the compost area remain under the maple tree. That project has a couple years under its belt, too, but to be fair I didn’t think about using them in the compost area until last summer. Honestly, I didn’t really have a plan for them. It’s just that someone was giving them away, and to not take them would have been criminal.
The large patch of weeds along the back fence is dead now, but they didn’t get cut down before cold weather arrived. I stick to the excuse that I couldn’t find my weed whacker, although I secretly suspected it was hiding behind the extra hose in the tool shed.
The back fence itself needs to be replaced. I kept it in good repair when we had a dog intent on escaping and roaming the neighborhood. Sadly, we no longer have a dog, so the fence has slid to the bottom of my to-do list.
What else awaits attention? We dove into winter with the gutters about 90 percent cleaned. They are all full again and will be among my first projects come spring. And there’s the bag of fertilizer that was supposed to get spread over the front lawn last fall. I think it rained that day and the job didn’t get done. Ditto the grass seed.
I covered my little sailboat with a tarp last fall, but apparently not well enough. The tarp has caved in and the boat is full of water.
My new trailer remains half-finished as well. I’ve got the lumber for the floor and side walls along with the necessary hardware, but it was always raining when I wanted to work on it.
On a positive note, we did get the dead spruce and the leaning oak tree cut down and removed. Of course, we hired that work done, so I can’t take too much credit for it. I did make the phone calls, though, and I wrote the check.
So, it’s not like I haven’t gotten anything done. And I can hardly wait to get going on everything else. As soon as it stops raining and snowing, of course.
