in hell i'll be in good company

[the_siobhan]

I've been trying to get it together to make a post. Not sure why it seems like such an insurmountable task. Too many feels to fit through the face holes or something.

Ontario is already opening up and I can't speak for the rest of the province, but for Toronto it is way too fucking early. So our roommate has been back to work for a week and of course somebody at his work has just tested positive. He went in for testing yesterday morning and now we just wait for the results. He lives in the basement apartment but we all share the kitchen, so he texts us when he wants to come up to cook or make coffee and Axe and I skive off to the top floor until he's done and everybody cleans in between.

Chances are extremely high that he's negative, he's in a high-risk category himself so he's super careful with gloves and masks. But Axe & I are quarantining until we know for sure. Which to be perfectly honest isn't much different than what we've already been doing except that I might not be able to visit my gf this week if the results don't come back in time.

***

I had decided that this year's house project would be Make The Backyard A Nice Place Where We Can Hang Out. (I decided this before the pandemic, so good timing I guess.) And it's a good thing because it gets me out of the house every day, which I probably wouldn't do otherwise. And I gotta admit there is something satisfying about digging in the dirt. It's definitely going to be a multi-year project though, I have pictures of the yard from last summer with 7-foot thistles and burdock up to my hips, and the only way to recover from that in a single year is by throwing lots of money at it. We don't have money, but we have a lot of rocks and manual labour so this summer it will actually be a mud-pit, (albeit a mud-pit with lots of tomatoes) but next summer it will be nice.

People who garden, now is not the time to tell me that it's going to take way longer than two years. Just sayin'.

***

Still in a holding pattern.

Comments

[dray]

Not enough face holes to make the feelings come out satisfactorily, I get it.

I hope your guys wind up all around with negative tests. Glad you're getting outside and I hope the mucking around helps relieve some of the extra stress!

[nicklausse]

Two years is a great timeline. Perennials like to have three before they're really up and running, but in two it's nice! Hoping for a negative test for the roommate. My 78-y-o chronically ill parent is in a similar situation with my aunt back to work in Florida . . . who is also 70. Eesh, what even, Florida.

[greylock]

People who garden, now is not the time to tell me that it's going to take way longer than two years. Just sayin'.

I don't know quite how large your yard is (I have vague memories of seeing pics), but 2-3 years seems feasible.

Nor do I know your 'budget', but seems to me the best idea would be to get a skip bin and a digger for a day, and tear off the first 1-2 inches of soil (I've done it manually for small areas of lawn, was not fun) and ditch that, then set some new topsoil (or not, we have sand, not soil).

Done the hard work in a day or two, and you avoid the mud-pit if you get the grass seed down (or whatever) in time for the warm growing season.

Good luck with all your test-related drama.

[the_siobhan]

My budget is, as outlined, "we don't have money". We also don't have rear access, so even if we could pay for a digger or a skip there's no way to get them back there.

Our soil is really good, which is actually part of the problem. Weeds grow fast. We're looking for a ground cover that's indigenous and grass ain't it.

[greylock]

Diggers here are dingos. So as long as you can get down there, doable.

Assuming you can get a wheelchair in.

I hope you get sorted. That kind of job, IME, is one of them 'get it done' at all cost jobs - but its easy from a distance.

[the_siobhan]

Nope. Unless dingos have legs, it's not getting up and down our stairs.

[greylock]

Stairs?

You know, it might, but I wouldn't want to try it.

Have you considered oxen and a plough? :)

[(Anonymous)]

Stairs. To go through the house. Because no rear access.

I have thought about putting the cats to work, but they object strenuously to the idea.

[the_siobhan]

That's me obviously, DW logged me out for some reason.

[greylock]

DW's been a bit glitchy lately.

You have that rail reserve! (That's you, right?)

[the_siobhan]

I dunno. What's a rail reserve in Canadian?

[greylock]

The space around a train line (which runs behind your house?).

[the_siobhan]

Ah. Yeah, that does exist. Thinking about how we would even access it. The issue is we're between two bridges and I think any access points that don't involve climbing a fence are outside of both of them. A person can cross them by stepping from one cross-beam to the next, but anything with wheels or tracks is likely to get stuck.

We did once push a motorcycle through a hole in a nearby fence, (and that was not fun, I don't recommend it) but that access was boarded up many years ago.

[greylock]

Sounds like you need a crane.
But they're expensive.

Working bee it is!