Busy Sunday

[ksmith]

20 bags of lava rock. Three rolls of landscape cloth. Lots of those plastic landscape stakes and the oversize metal bobby pins.

Patience. Setting out that damned cloth in an area with large rocks and existing shrubbery is a PITA.

The problem area where King always went first for mulch has been covered. I went a little crazy there--lots of cloth folded over and layered, then buried in several inches of rock. It looks OK. I think I can safely say that my weed problem in that area will be a thing of the past.

Lava rock is still not my favorite. It's the damned brick red color--given that my house is two shades of cream, dark oak or cypress are the shades of mulch or stone that would work better. I've seen black lava rock, but that wouldn't work either. Oh well. Given that there was already some red stuff in place thanks to the folks who lived here previously, I decided to suck it up and go with it. And there's some orange in the chimney brickwork,which makes for a little tonal overlap.

The best thing about the rock, though, is that because of the rough surface, it's very, very difficult to shift around. Which means it's hard to dig through. Which I hope means King won't try, or that he will at least give up after a fruitless minute or two.

Taking a break. I'll feed the guys lunch in a few minutes, then go back to work. I think this is going to be an all-day job, especially if I start the area around the birdbath, which is King's secondary mulch source, and which he visited several times as I worked near the house.

Enjoy it now, you &^%$#*.

Comments

[slave2tehtink.livejournal.com]

Sometimes one wonders why, exactly, one has pets.

Mine are all curled up being adorably cute and asleep after last night's traumatizing mouse debacle (traumatizing for me and the mouse). This is the only reason I keep them: they're adorable when they're asleep.

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

This is the only reason I keep them: they're adorable when they're asleep.

Yeah. Mine are dozing now. I want to wait about a half hour before going back out. I can't go out without King going with, and I want to give him time to digest at least part of his lunch. Just in case he eats more mulch and then upchucks.

Did you find the mouse?

[slave2tehtink.livejournal.com]

Tink has a horrible habit of grazing like a cow so she can come back inside and puke up entire strands of grass, some of them with root systems still attached. Nothing is worse than large dog effluvia.

The mouse is still MIA. The predators are all peacefully sleeping exactly as if there is not a wounded prey-beastie SOMEWHERE IN THIS HOUSE. If they weren't so dang cute when they're asleep, I'd trade 'em in on fish.

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

I've cleaned up puked-up grass. Not fun, but at least it comes up so quickly that it doesn't smell.

My, what lovely conversations petfolk have... ;-P

[slave2tehtink.livejournal.com]

I have noticed that critter keepers are remarkably similar to new parents of infants, in that we keep fairly close track of what our charges excrete, and are willing to describe it to people at the drop of a hat. Only generally speaking, parents of infants are not comparing methods of getting it off the walls.

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

One day when I was describing King's and Mickey's antics to a friend w/ small children, she said "you have two toddlers!"

"Yes," I said, "except mine will never grow up."

Dogs are eternal three year olds.


Only generally speaking, parents of infants are not comparing methods of getting it off the walls.

Except in the case of a co-worker's mil, who killed any desire co-worker had to have a son after describing the poop fights her twin boys used to get into.

How do you get it off the walls, btw? I figure that's always good info to have.

[slave2tehtink.livejournal.com]

Eternal three year olds with much better agility and big ol honkin teeth!

I use a sponge and an enzymatic cleaner to get stuff off the walls, generally. I wish there was a gel-formula enzymatic cleaner that would stick to walls so I could soak them.