Hacking Through the Jungle

I've been sick, sometimes critically, for eight years now. In the last 18 months, I've finally started to feel human.

The problem is, so much stuff has been on hold while we dealt with my illness that it's super backed-up around here, especially after the kitchen disaster/remodel last year, and we're just flat-out overwhelmed.

One of the many good things about the lot sale last year is that we now have a smaller yard that isn't as overwhelming. Even so, getting it squared away was more than we could manage, and we didn't even know where to start. Solving that last problem took the talents of Isobel and Karen at Independence Gardens here in Portland. They came up with a plan for us in steps that we can afford and that will work well for us. (Highly recommended if you're in PDX.)

Today we began tackling the jungle, and for once when I say "we," I mean "we" and not just poor John. I got out there for a couple of hours of hacking at blackberry vines and running the weed whacker. Our neighbor Tony, bless him, even helped out for a while, bringing his own more powerful weed whacker to bear. (Enlightened self-interest; he was both being a good neighbor and knocking down weeds that might invade his own yard. That's fine by me!) John cut down a plum tree that hasn't produced a single plum and that was now in the wrong place, so tight on the corner of the new deck that we couldn't get by. I hate destroying otherwise healthy plants, but it wasn't doing what it was supposed to be doing, and it was impossible to get by it. So out it went.

Now that it's over with, I'm super tired, to the point that I'm still shaking a little. I'm really, REALLY hoping I don't have a fibro flare. Tomorrow I'll have to be a little circumspect. John took Lou to a birthday party I was supposed to take her to. I love that man. But it felt good to be out there finally, taking care of things instead of sitting in a chair watching John curse.

Now to take some magnesium!