Can't ever be easy

First thing this morning we... went back to bed. I decided it wasn't nice to wake up all the neighbors at 6 in the morning. So at 7:30 we got out the tiller, and broke the pull cord. I spent waaaay too long trying to fix it. One of the bolts was blocked by a bar but I finally was able to loosen the bar's bolt enough to get the ratchet in there. Then I couldn't get the screw loose on the winder. That took forever too and then I realized I didn't need to take off the screw in the first place. So I made a new knot and reattached the starter. It didn't wind. I messed with it for a while and then came inside. After some google searching I discovered a fundamental truth about pull starters: wind the starter, then insert and knot the cord. Not the other way around. So I got it all put back together and we started tilling at about 10:00. By 11:30 we were both totally worn out. I put the sprinkler on the area, which I should have done last night. But the rental guy said not to. Maybe not under normal circumstances but we have no soil moisture and clumps of clay. We need water in the soil to make it friable. So this evening I'm going to go back out and see how much progress we made and if I need to till more or if I can just rake everything into submission. We did get quite a bit of the hills smoothed out so hopefully if there is more to be done, it won't be much.

Yes, I know I shouldn't have tried to service a piece of rental equipment. But I fixed it, so there! :-)

So in other news, I'm doing pretty well at work. It is getting easier to maintain my belief in my own abilities despite Richard's shenannegins. I get to deflate him pretty regularly. Not by really doing anything except not reacting and also being right. He is continuing to piss off just about everyone there and I kind of feel like I'm watching a spectator sport, just waiting for him to get himself fired or demoted or at least a stern talking to.

Right now we're babysitting Dave and Froggi's animals while they help a friend move stuff across the country. We now have 5 cats, 2 dogs, a snake, and a chinchilla. Dinnertime is quite the adventure. Everyone wants to eat each other's food so everyone has to be separated. Since two days isn't long enough to establish a routine in the minds of kitties, I literally get to herd cats twice a day. Lol!

Other than the yard, my goal tonight is to work on my houseplants. Some need to be repotted. I dug up my dwarf burning bush and brought it inside to see if I can save it. There aren't any leaves left on it but several of the twigs are still green.

Oh, yesterday morning I got up early and mowed the front and the back, and weeded bed 3, the long bed beside the driveway. I think there's less than half of the plant material left in the garden! But all the native morning glories are out of there and most of the crabgrass. It looks good.

If we go back into a la Nina next year, I think I'll cover bed 3 with cosmos. It is doing great in the heat and drought. And if I let one or two of those morning glories grow from the beginning of spring, they'll flower all summer too while they crawl through the cosmos. Orange and blue look good together. If we have a more normal pattern, I may try to put some veggies in instead. I think either way, I will move the Datura over there from bed 1. It is way too big for the space. I think it will do nicely between the mint and the forsythia up near the house. Last year, the first year I had it, it grew about 4 feet wide and tall. I thought it was an annual. Nope! By June this year, it had grown past the 4 foot mark. It's now about 5.5-6 feet tall and wider than that. Bed 1 is only 2.5 feet front to back and it is in front of the front porch, you know, where the porch chairs are. It makes the front porch almost unusable! It's a keeper for sure, but not where it is now.

Ok, time for dinner for the animals. Cat herding, commence!