Progress!

Earlier this month I bought 2 pairs of $2 flip-flops in the clearance department at Wal-Mart: dark brown and cream colored. They weren't too generously cushioned to begin with, but after today, the heel sections of the dark brown pair are less maybe 1/4" thick.

We accomplished most of what we set out to do. There was a big pile of trash stuff in the center of the garage, mostly cardboard boxes and the old broken water heater we replaced a few months ago. We borrowed my in-laws trailer, hitched to my hubby's faithful sidekick Subaru Outback Impreza station wagon (also known as "the wagon of doom"), and hauled it out the surprisingly pleasant 20 minute drive north to the county dump in Hudson.

The dump is located out in a more rural area than New Port Richey. We passed houses with enviable amounts of land. There were horses lazily grazing in fenced-in pastures by the road. There were even some cows shading themselves under oak and pine trees dripping with spanish moss in the midday heat. We played the what-if game: what if we had that much land, what would we do with it? Our general conclusion was "more than what these people with patchy lawns are doing". How very judgmental of us. Daydreaming on a country drive is a pleasant and peaceful occupation.

After finishing up at the dump, we headed out to the City mulch pile. There's nothing elaborate about it, as wondrous as it seems to me. It's just off one of the main roads, across from the school bus depot, and it's a giant pile of mulch, free to take but for the price of your own labor. My older boy is built well for these kinds of projects, strong, tall and wiry, but the autism does not allow the teaching of such a complex series of steps just yet. It may just be shoveling mulch, but there's 4 or 5 things that have to be done for it to work right. One of these years, hopefully he will be able to. He would love it. He loves helping, whether it's dishes, laundry or scooping dirt into containers for planting.

Instead, the little guy "helped", more for character building than anything else, and complained the entire time. He has his own shovel, the right height for him. Little shovelfuls of mulch in the backyard are not too much for him to manage. He worked for about 20 minutes, and I sent him back to the car, red-faced, dirty, and full of praise for the effort. Hubby and I traded off with the big shovel, with him of course doing the lion's share, big strong guy that he is. :)

The full trailer of mulch wasn't quite enough for what we wanted, but it was all we could manage for the day. The south side of the garden now has a solid covering of mulch, which, if not as deep as we want it to be, is at least a start. It's going to take another trailer load to accomplish that. I tested out the seeper hoses under the mulch and they seem to be working fine still. The areas that aren't as heavily mulched were showing dampness after about 15 minutes, which is about what I want, flow-wise.

We also laid out the first batch of stepping stones for the pathway. Hubby thought to turn them sideways so they look like diamonds rather than squares, which looks lovely and makes sense, as the gardens are precious to us. The white looks sharp, a nice contrast against the deep brown mulch. The whole yard smells of pine and earth, like walking on a forest pathway. I took before and after pictures, which I will try to upload soon.

Swimming at my in-laws' house capped the day off perfectly. The water was extra-cool from the rainfall last week. Even my older son, who usually prefers to stim on the top step with a water noodle, was waist deep in the shallow end, splashing around with his little brother and shrieking with joy.

The bottoms of my feet are still a little brown, and my heels are embarrasingly callused. My feet are sore, sore, sore, and my back and shoulder muscles feel well-used. I have been surprised at how happy I have been today, hoping it will last a while.