Taking Advantage of the Warming Weather

It's been awhile since I've posted anything. With the weather being so miserable, I've been at the whim of other people's schedule to get around. Considering we have only one car, I've not had the ability to drive where I need to go with the crappy weather. But I think that is about the change.

This weekend was finally nice enough to start doing something. I kicked it off with 54 miles on the bike in Henderson, Kentucky. I've only done this club route once before...as did the group I was riding with...and we got lost. We somehow found our way back on the route, but we were 7 miles short at the end. So I rode laps around a high school parking lot until my mileage was completed.

That was my longest ride so far this year and it is actually pretty hilly. My legs were shot from being at the gym the night before (not the best idea) and I ended up crashing in the living room once I got home. I didn't really accomplish much the rest of the day so I had to cram it on Sunday.

Woke up early on Sunday morning to make an unplanned trip back to Henderson (the back of my cell phone came off when it fell) and did our weekly grocery shopping. Once I got home, the work began.We have a huge oak tree in our front yar d that dumps a ton of leaves every fall. For the first couple of years, all I did was rake and bag them. As I've been more enviromentally aware, I've actually kept them to mulch in our garden. Last fall, I did my fair share of raking, but I didn't get all of it. I would guess to say that 1/4 of what was left was sitting in pockets around my house (the picture to the right may not seem like alot, but it was). I spent about an hour raking everything in our garden and using the lawnmower to chop it all up. This is the second year I've mulched our leaves. Our soil is pretty bad (almost like clay) and I'm hoping that this will help to loosen it up.

Second task was to start setting up the rain barrels. Last fall, I purchased some drainage tubes to connect my downspouts with some buried drainage lines that lead to the street. When I added the barrels, I cut the downspouts but never made plans for what to do in the winter (I have to take them down so the water won't freeze and burst the barrels). Three of my four downspouts were cut out and I was lucky that the buried lines were in place. Everything worked out...luckily.

We had just planted some lettuce, spinach and broccoli. We were told they like cooler temps so we thought we would give it a shot. Which means we will need to start watering them and now was a good time to start prepping for the possible rain on Tuesday.

Two barrels were installed. I decided to wait in the third so I can get a few extra bricks. I cut one downspout a little high and I need to lift the barrel to compensate. Still 100 gallons of water (at capacity) should be OK for this time of the season.

This is the thrd barrel I installed and it turned out pretty well in comparison to my first two. I took me three shots to get it right. I still have one more downspout to go and I will tackle that sometime soon.

By the way, if you are interested and live in Wisconsin, you can pick these up at a relatively low cost (in comparison to custom designs). Just go to the following link: http://v3.mmsd.com/RainBarrels.aspx

I wrapped up the weekend with an additional 43 miles that afternoon. My wife and a friend went to the IMAX to see Alice in Wonderland...altough I just wanted to see the new Tron: Legacy trailer. Yep. I'm a geek.