Today was a day. Perhaps the most productive day the Cowger family has ever seen. And by that I mean that it might be the longest that the four of us have all worked together (more or less) toward a common goal in a 24-hour period.
What, pray tell, brought on this surge of productivity, almost two months deep into our never-ending saga of togetherness??
Mulch.
And rocks.
Mulch and rocks.
6 yards or cubic yards or however you measure mulch when you get so much mulch that it comes on a truck instead of handy bags you can lug around to wherever you want them.
We got a lot of mulch.
And a matching pile of rocks. Or, as they say in the business: chips and dust. Sounds fancy, I know. We're very fancy.
And let me say this: I am very proud of us. So proud of us. We got up this morning and wasted no time getting down to business. By 10:30am we had shovels in hand and were attacking that mulch pile with determination. And if you're not familiar with our family and our ability to leave the house before noon on weekends, let me assure you that you should be duly impressed.
But we weren't just laying mulch. Oh, no. We were weeding, we were raking, we were bagging, we were yelling "Hi! Hi!! HI!!!" at passersby, we were finding toads and terrorizing the neighbours with them, we were trying to beat the world record for longest hugs ever. Distractions aside though, we (mostly) pulled together and worked like dogs and got through at least 5 yards of mulch today. We were out there for six solid hours, with at least 50% of us actively working the entire time, and with only one break for lunch in the middle. Heck, e even peed outside so we wouldn't lose precious daylight. When it started to sprinkle a little, we laughed at the rainclouds with such defiance that they just skulked away, fluffy tails between their legs.
It was pretty close to a perfect performance.
If there was anything that could have taken just a smidgen of the shine off of our self-satisfaction today, it might have been timing. The universe seems to have a way of keeping us in check sometimes, and today it came in the form of our neighbours across the street. The professional landscaper. Who happened to be mulching their yard today as well.
They got their start before 9:00, rendering our mid-morning start ever so slightly less awe-inspiring. But no matter, it's not a competition after all and besides, they don't have little kids slowing them down. And it was a nice sense of cameraderie, all of us working away together.
They were, of course, working with a bit more efficiency than we were, having a few extra adult bodies involved, an extra wheelbarrow and several decades of landscaping experience. But they were also working with 30 yards of mulch. I figured we'd all finish up around the same time.
So imagine my utter astonishment to see their 30 YARDS disappear before we broke for lunch around 1:30.
Just to clarify, that's FIVE TIMES the mulch in LESS THAN HALF the time it took us.
Showoffs. It's a good thing we adore them, otherwise I might have to toilet paper their house.
I'm kidding! We don't have a square to spare.
Tomorrow we plan on obliterating the rest of our piles. Provided this muscle relaxant/wine cocktail does its thing.
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