Hell's Tentacles

My Backyard. 

It was absolutely balmy today, perfect weather for yard work.  I found the digging fork and set my mind on extracting the weeds that surround the patio.  Eyesores! 

The winter brought very little snow, the spring brought even less rain, and it's obvious we are in a serious drought here.  This being a semi-arid climate already the drought is rather serious.  It's not unusual, although it seems to have long since worn out its welcome this  unwelcome drought!  As a result, many once beautiful lawns are now mostly dead.  It's just the way it is. 

We always battled the weeds in the back, the front seemed to fair better somehow, we actually still have some grass there.  It is a fool's errand to run the sprinkler system on a yard full of weeds, and so we are not.  We're not turning it on this year.  Even with a sprinkler system, if mother nature does not cooperate in the effort it's just almost impossible to keep the grass, that was never really meant for this climate, alive. 

So, we are concentrating our efforts at keeping the smaller more manageable area in the front alive.  This plan is working well so far, however I've mostly tried to blank out in my mind the disaster we call our back yard.  It's really one of the ugliest most unmanageable yards I've ever seen, but I will get to that. 

Today I decided to face the demons, and I went out found the digging fork, and set about to digging up some weeds.  Sure, I could spray it all with weed killer, however that would require A LOT of chemicals, and well, it works too well.  We end up with a big patch of dirt, dirt that in this dry, windy climate just blows away.  Have I mentioned that our lot is 8 thousand square feet?  It's a sizable yard, at one time I thought that a desirable thing, but my foolish fantasies have succumb to reality, and I have given up those childish dreams!

One word can describe my ambitions for the day, "defeated".  Yes, I was. 

Well, this weed has made it's way along the patio particularly, but really it's all over the yard in places, it's really the only green in the back yard sadly. 

There's not much to say except, I HATE THIS YARD so very very very much.  Yep, that's about it!

I did clear the weeds lining one pathway, haven't even started around the patio yet.  I absolutely hate garden magazines and such, big fat liars!  I can't have a yard like that,  unless of course I have thousands of dollars to spend on it. 

I see why people give up and dump 12 tons of rocks on their yards.  The sad thing about it is in time the weeds grow in the rocks and it's ugly. 

We know we can't even bother to plant grass with this lack of moisture it would die.  Case in point, our neighbors that put sod down in their front yard last year, sadly it didn't survive the dry winter and spring we have had. 

Oh well, no use in crying about the weather.  Now, my sore muscles, yes!  I tugged so hard on some of those weeds that I envisioned a China man on the other side of the world tugging back.  The roots were long and thick, and a couple of them I had to give up and hack away at with a shovel.  I dug down far enough I unearthed a big wad of cable, which really was not deeply buried at all just a couple inches, those lazy cable people never remove the cords, they just put new ones in, that's another store altogether.  I have found countless cables in the yard some with the ends cut, just long pieces of cord.  I ought to make them come bury the cords, we sure pay enough for the service I don't see why they can't clean up their mess. 

This is all just the beginning, there is a rough summer of yard work ahead.