Went out this afternoon, after playing some PGR3 with A_B, grabbed a shovel, and mauled the front yard. After I was done, I wanted to get up on the roof and shout, “I AM A GOLDEN GOD!!!” for no other reason than I was just completely hosed with adrenaline. I probably could have picked up a car, or been shot, and nothing would have brought me down.

It’s not done yet, but since it’s been raining recently, and hasn’t rained steadily in about two days, the dirt was *perfect* for what I needed to do. Not so sticky or muddy that it made getting around impossible (though it was difficult), and soft – soft like mashed potatoes soft. Really easy to move around. So, I dug up all the bulbs in the front yard, buried the stump I chopped up about a month ago, and dug out most of one of the two remaining stumps that needs digging out. I moved an absolute shitload of dirt, though, and the difference in apperance is pretty stunning. (yes, I know that’s all irrelevant without pictures) It’s difficult, though, because what I need to do is kill the grass. Which means basically killing *everything* in the yard, then laying down mulch on top of the whole thing.

It’s difficult because the soil’s so rich, and time available to work is rare enough that every time, I’m starting from about two giant steps back. I’ll turn over half the yard, and in a week, things are sprouting again. So, I fight the larger things, like the stump, and the bulbs – things I know I can remove, and they won’t grow back, and figure that the grass, clover, and other odd plants, for the time being, are battles I can’t win. But, I’m also “shaping” the garden, in the sense that I’ve finally buried the French Drain pipe (which has always stuck up a bit out of the ground), and have pulled some of the dirt up the hill, and filled in a big sort of “pit” adjacent to our neighbor’s garage, so that the slope of the hill more or less matches the slope of their foundation, which is how it should be (and was, before our previous neighbors had excavated the area to replace the foundation for their garage.

So, it’s still a slow process, and a crapload of work, but man, the rush of adrenaline after churning through it for about an hour and some was just awesome. Felt great – satisfying, productive, and physically awesome. I’m really out of shape, but it was really good to just do something, exercise the muscles, and make progress on a project at the same time. Great stuff.