Feeling My Age...Winter Hiatus Over

It appears that I've settled into the spring surge of yard treatment, planting and mowing. Despite the heavy snows we had here in the BToS back in February and all the soreness I had after blowing and shoveling, the regular seasonal work of the yard is here.

Besides coinciding with my position in life, autumn is also my favorite season because plants and trees begin to take a break from their constant growing and their need for my attention. Autumn kind of lets things naturally wind down for the holidays and winter hiatus most of us observe.

I truly got back into action last week. I take care of treating my yard and the neighbor lady's yard with fertilizer, anti-crabgrass, summer grubs and winterizer. Scotts provides this 4-step program to make it happen. Only problem is someone has to purchase and apply to the lawn.

I also received 6 trees over the past week. I planted an American Elm early in the week. Supposedly this is a variety that is resistant to the old elm diseases. We'll find out. It was pretty good size and required some actual digging and soil manipulation.

American Elm at maybe 4'

The other 5 trees are Mountain Ash and were very small allowing for much simpler planting technique. I planted those Thursday morning.

Mountain Ash about 2'

After lunch when the lawn had dried, I managed to mow the neighbor lady's front and side yard and my front and side yard before I decided that I'd had enough mowing for one day.

Friday around noon I picked up again and finished mowing my back and her back yards. Probably was about 2.5 hrs mowing over the two days.

That's not a lot of exercise, but when I've been on winter hiatus, it takes me a while to get back in gear for this type spring/summer activity.

Saturday was an off day as kids and grandkids were in to visit and it was my day to cook burgers on the grill. If I do say so myself, the burgers were excellent and it was great to see the family together. Nice off day, especially with the wonderful, sunny days we've had recently.

Sunday I was back at yard work by spreading the fertilizer/anti-crabgrass treatment on the yards. It can be much more tiring pushing a spreader with a full load of treatment granules than walking behind a self-propelled mower.

It also doesn't help that I've been lax in my stomach stretch program. I have counted calories but not really controlled them since November, 5 months now. This morning I was up 5 lbs on the trusty scale. Not bad over a holiday period, but definitely not good for my long range body condition.

Maybe I'll pick back up on that later this month. Son-in-law is staying here the next 2 weeks, so it'll be difficult keeping the calories down while feeding him decent meals...of course he could do to lose a few inches on the waist too. Don't tell him I said that...I doubt he ever reads this blog. :-)

I am taking the afternoon off after an OFL (old farts lunch) today with a bunch of old co-workers where I had a steak and cheese sub with a few fries. I must say it was a nice change from my normal fare. Yard work will pick up again with mowing on Wednesday; and they're calling for temps in mid-upper 80s...I thot this was early April here in the BToS...temps are usually in the 60s.

Do good stuff; have some fun,
JD

PS - If Tuesday is as nice as forecast by the local weather gurus, I may dig the ol' Valk out, put some gas in 'er and ride for an hour or so.

PPS - Beautiful day today (Tues, 6Apr) with full sun and temp up around 88, so I broke the Valk out and took 'er for a short ride early afternoon. Only about 14 miles, but long enough for her to be tellin' me that she needs a good cleaning. She's still showing dirt from last long trip I took on her back in autumn 2007. I hate to admit I've put off cleaning that long. At least I've been maintaining the important stuff like oil changes, lube, etc.

PPPS - In response to MITB's comment. Here's a link to an old road test of a '98 Valkyrie Tourer. Mine is a 2001 model, but specs are same. I'll put together a post on it when things slow a bit. Also a google search on Honda Valkyrie will surface more info than you ever wanted to read. The technical design is completely out of date by today's standards, but it's a wonderful ride.