A date night trip to the iSold it on eBay store! Yes, a physical store where you can’t actually buy anything…

A date night trip to the very first shopping mall – sadly more than 1/3 empty. Surreal…

More after the jump!

Grant’s soccer jamboree and end of season games…

Everybody gets a trophy!

Some significant yard work to pull out the raised planter boxes and reclaim the backyard…

The obligatory “before” shot…

The obligatory “after” shot…

The bleeding hearts are blooming…

And Gray went grocery shopping on Sunday night, the best night of the week to pick up a few things…

I spent about three hours this weekend removing those clippings that have just sat around the yard since just before the snow hit for the winter. I felt just like G.W. Bush famously clearing brush around the ranch. It’s always good to have a project with a tangible start and finish.

The result is 216 cubic feet of sticks sitting in my alleyway. Way too much to burn in our little firepit, too awkward to cut into three foot segments for yard waste removal, and the sticks are not enough substance to merit a Craigstlist ad for free firewood.

I may ask a friend if I can borrow his truck and take it to the Carver County Environmental Center. Bummer it’s going to be about $65 bucks to get rid of, though. It makes me wish I had some land outside of town. This stuff would burn in less than 30 minutes.

UPDATE: I put it on Craiglist. Ha. Let’s see if someone takes it.

I added up the cubic feet needed do to our yard — and this will cover almost the first third!

Do they sell stock in mulch?

I wish my wife and son ate strawberries, because I’m harvesting strawberries from our backyard nearly every single night. I guess that’s more for me.

They are way sweeter than you get at the store — probably because they aren’t doused with chemicals and transported thousands of miles.

It’s the little things, you know…

Before

After
Well…damn. I guess I forgot to take a good after picture. You can tell it’s not there in the top right corner of this photo.

I got it all churned up and distributed into my two compost bins (see previous post), pouring some nasty expired beer throughout every other layer to get things cooking.

Of course, I waited until it was 90 degrees and 60 percent humidity, but this is why some genius invented ice cold lemonade. I drank a lot of lemonade today.

Something I’m trying not to think about: I have no idea what I’m going to do with 100 lbs of compost.

I’m serious. You have no idea how stressful it is to walk up to a pile of brush, leaves, grass clippings and random organics that is taller than you and longer than a shark. I had no idea where to start on this beast.

Over Memorial Day weekend, with help from Chad, I burned more than half of it during our evening bonfire. That left all the musty compost remanants from the previous owners, including the dumpings from their charcoal grill, an old sink and random rocks and logs.

Today I spent the better part of three hours wielding a pitchfork and wheel barrow to get it all cleaned up from the compost area and moved to a tarp I set up by our flower boxes.

Under the rotting grass clippings and leaves I was surprised to find a large amount of clean soil compost ready to go. Probably enough to fill a deep freezer, actually. With the organic material all moved away, I was able to rake and shovel the dirt into it’s own pile and get our compost bins set up behind the lattice fence.

Here are the final results:

Later this week I’m going to run all the compost through a large shredder/chipper and fill the bins up. I plan to use the beer composting method.

When this is all turned into soil, in addition the compost soil already ready to go, we’re going to have an intense amount of compost.

Our plants might as well be on steroids. I can’t wait.

And a quick update on the lettuce, zucchini, squash and roma tomatoes…

May 18

May 30

The chives are out of control, so I’m keeping them fairly short to keep them from seeding. Also, the mystery herb is growing very fast. Leaves look like spearmint, but they are not minty at all.

The cilantro and basil plants are doing well, plus the seeds I planted above them are coming in. I also planted some spearmint, but it’s not very happy.

The strawberries are budding little strawberries, but I forgot to get a picture. Here’s a show from a week and a half ago. My neighbor gave me a hay bale to help keep the berries off the ground.

Meanwhile, there’s a compost party at my house every night after work. You’re invited. Bring a shovel.