Quarantine home projects

Having three little kids and two jobs plus a political campaign means we do not have a ton of time for house projects during quarantine, but every once in a while we get a burst of energy and do a little work. Transplanting hosta is something I do every year or two, to try to expand the hosta in our shady yard. This year I went a little nuts. I was intending only to transplant some to the spot along the garage where the giant evergreen shrubs used to be, but we had dug out last fall. Then I decided to just keep on going and putting more hosta along the back of the yard, and then I figured why not continue along the other side of the yard along the fence. In the end I divided and replanted about 25 or so, which of course required an epic mulching project.

I had been talking about needing to get out and mulch for a few days, so one day last week when Theo and Beckett and Reed were outside playing they came in to ask if they could help me mulch. I was in the middle of working but when someone asks to help you mulch, you stop what you are doing and say yes. Beckett carried all the bags of mulch from the driveway to the backyard, while Theo spread out the mulch from the bags I opened and dumped in piles. When that task flew by, because they essentially did all the work, I then casually mentioned that I had been thinking about making a stone border. I showed the boys with a few spare stones what I was thinking of doing, but said I did not have enough stones to make it, especially because of the three new beds I would have to border. Theo and Beckett thought it was very cool and encouraged me that we could do it, and started pointing out stones we could use. Quickly we started an efficient work production line: I started digging for new rocks, which I would then throw into a pile in the middle of the yard. Then Theo and Beckett would pick up those rocks and place them along the beds to make a border. We finally placed probably 100 rocks in all. It looks terrific and the whole project including mulching probably took 25 minutes.

I have been so impressed at the boys' longer and longer attention span for doing projects like this.

Jeff cleaned and painted the front steps, which always makes a world of difference for the appearance of our front step.

The whole backyard. The mulching and stone bordering is not yet complete along the garage because we are engaged in Operation Groundhog Extermination. Our neighbor John is a former trapper who still has death claw traps, which he and his daughter Maggie have installed in the groundhog hole under our garage. So far the body count is up to three. Until we have a chicken wire fence installed under the garage to dissuade further incursions I'm not going to bother mulching and bordering that area.