Mother's Day Activities

What do you get the Mom who has everything?

Landscaping bark, of course.

So first thing Saturday morning, I rushed over to the landscaping place and purchased three yards of cedar bark (my favorite!), which was to be delivered in the early afternoon. While waiting for the delivery, we put together the wheelbarrow, which had been taken apart at the end of last summer (so it could be stored up in the loft).

There was a bit of a problem with the wheelbarrow. I couldn't find one of the bolts that hold the legs on! So I had to be a little creative, modifying another bolt to fit. That was fun.

There was also a bit of a problem with the tire. Last year, I had noticed that the tire was leaking, so I purchased a self-sealing replacement tube and installed it. It has some goopy green stuff in it that supposedly seals up a hole should one occur. When I pumped it up, it started spraying goopy green stuff all over the place. And not in just one little spot, either. Nope, it turns out an entire seam was cracked and leaking! Kinda hard to self-seal an entire seam (although it was trying valiantly), so I pulled the new tube out and put the old one back in. At least the old one was only a slow leak.

Or so I thought.

Actually, I must've damaged it further while removing it from the wheel, because it was leaking faster than before, and, as a result, the tire would stay up for only about ten minutes before going flat.

Just about the time we (finally!) got the wheelbarrow back together, the landscaping company dropped off the three yards of bark - before noon! That was way ahead of schedule. So we spent the next few hours shovelling the bark into the wheelbarrow and rolling it over to the garden area and raking it out over the plants.

And pumping up the tire every ten minutes.

But we finally got the job done, and now the front yard looks great!

Ah! But we weren't done with our day of activities yet; there was more fun to come.

See, Cheryl wants to save money on our electric bill this summer, so she purchased an outdoor "solar" clothes dryer, one with five pull-out lines which are coiled up inside a metal box; the five lines are attached to this bar thing which is pulled out and stretched from the metal box to a metal post some distance away from the place where the metal box is attached to the house or the deck. It actually came with the post, but we have to provide the house/deck.

The post has to be mounted in concrete. The concrete (in which the pole would be set) had already been purchased, back when Grandma and Grandpa Green were here. The hole had already been dug (mostly), although it still needed a bit more depth. So now it was time to finish digging the hole, set the pole in place, and pour the concrete mix.

James "volunteered" to help, so I let him finish digging the hole. It had to be twenty inches deep and eight inches wide. So he took the digging tool and deepened the hole to the appropriate size while I mixed up the concrete, and then he got to pour the concrete in the hole while we set the pole in place.

We had to set up and level the post in the concrete during the initial cure phase - about five or six hours - and then we were able to pull out the pole (since, by neighborhood rules, such devices must be "temporary") to let the concrete complete the final cure, which is supposed to take a couple days.

Now that the concrete is curing and the post hole is in place, all we have to do is wait a few more days before trying it out. But ... is it appropriate to let her hang out the first wash, or should I volunteer for that duty?


Happy Mother's Day, Cheryl!