IF it was cold outside,maybe low 40’s or 30’s like it should be, I would be inside knitting

IF the ground was covered with snow, I would be curled up in a chair reading Henry Mitchell or another favorite garden writer, and in my head the garden would be all dreamy and perfect .

IF the ground had frozen at all I would have already winter protected the few plants I have that need it ( 2 rose,s a bignonia vine, a daphne and guara if you care ) and moved on to perusing plant catlogues and planning  wild new gardens

BUT , alas, it has been steadily warm and pleasant outside, forcing me out of guilt to tackle a project I meant to leave until spring.

This morning , in a very grumpy drag my feet sort of way, I headed to out “fix” the compost area.

It all started with the shed we are getting that will now live where the swingset has been for 15 years (actually more than one swingset  over that time in case you were worried about the safety of the children). The girls were furious that the swings were going, but Bill said they were too old for swingsets and would get over it. In their defense . they did sit on the swings lots and chat or ponder the world. I am with them,it pained me to take it down for all the reasons you would think plus one more : it was the very first project I EVER did here taking out the grass laying pea stone and edging , placing the swingset and the lilcac bed behind it. Very sad to have it gone.

Anyway, we cut the darn thing up with a sawzall, but as we were it occured to me that the big section that was the tower leading to the slide would be perfect as a new composting bin if  lain horizontally. So I made Bill leave it intact and set my plan for the spring. But it was just sitting there, and I really could not come up with any reason not to do it now. So I did.

The project was multi-advil one, involving first re-locating about ten linear feet of the 20x 5 foot pile so we could get the structure in place, moving the amazingling heavy tower 20 feet  by flipping it end over end , making the sides from boards scattered all over the yard, then re-placing the compost that I had moved which was now blocking the path to the back. Ow.

The compost moving went like this….

Then with CJ’s help I moved the tower and we managed to only crunch one dogwood bush .While I screwing  in the boards,I  had to take a break to run and answer the phone. It was Bill, he said , and I quote, “Be careful out there, you know what likes warm compost piles”. REALLYY BILL!! Tyvm for reminding me I was working in and near snakeville, you are awesome dude.

I put on my big girl pants(, after resolving  to find a way to get him back), and headed back out.

I finished much earlier than I thought I would, and only have left the cutting of the boards that are in the way , and the making of the doors. Not bad.

and…..IF I had not done it I would not have found these

and these