A Good Day's Work

This morning I was over at the folks' place bright and early, putting the garden "to bed" for the winter. I accomplished quite a lot, actually. With Dad's help, I managed to get everything pulled out and piled into two piles that need to be chopped up for the compost pile. I got the new compost bins up, and the grass and newspaper I used to kill the grass in order to expand the garden cleaned up. This way was so much easier than sod-busting. I also hosed down the carpet I have been using for weed control. Hopefully I will be able to keep it for next year. It is still in pretty good shape, with no mold. We'll see how it looks come spring. I have definitely decided to put down a layer of cut grass under the carpet next year. I did it for about half of the rows this year, and those pieces of carpet are in much better condition that the ones that were lain down on bare dirt.

I had so much fun sitting in the yard after the work was done. The birds are incredibly active right now, and so I just watched them for the longest time. There were chickadees and wrens and bluebirds and a PAIR of woodpeckers. They were all flitting from tree to tree, then to the bird bath and back to the trees. The sky is a fabulous clear blue today, and the leaves are all brilliant yellow and red. It is just beautiful.

Little Sprout saw her first flock of Canada Geese. It was so cool to watch her twist back and forth to see the honking birds. She really enjoyed being outside all morning. I put a large piece of carpet out on the grass and dumped a ton of toys on there for her. She stayed on the carpet, because the grass was still very wet and cold. She didn't like that at all. Then she and Grandpa went for a walk up town to get the mail. She loves to do this because it means nap-time. She is soothed by the rumble-rumble-bump of the stroller on the sidewalk, and conks out every time. She woke up in such a good mood that I immediately renewed my resolution to make sure she gets outside time every day.

So far today, it has been pretty darn good. I can even say I got my exercise in for the day, so I don't have to worry about that for the rest of the day. I wish every day could be this good...