I know a few of you are fellow gardeners, or at least garden enthusiasts, so I thought I'd take a little time to show you around mine (virtually, that is.)  A lot of this is already posted on my facebook, so it may be a little on the boring side for some of you.  Sorry about that!  I'll try to add in extra tidbits and random thoughts to keep it fresh.  :)

( Lots of garden pictures... )

I've decided this is the year to expand my vegetable garden.  The spot it's in right now just won't hold all the plants I want to grow.  So over the last couple years, I've been slowly working toward clearing an area at the end of the yard for additional growing space.  Due to some trees in the neighbor's yard, it won't get quite as much sun as my original space but that might come in handy during the worst heat of the growing season.  Anyway, this basically means one entire edge of the backyard will be garden and chicken coop - a suburban homestead!

Yesterday I started raking the last of the trimmed weeds (the kind that have actual bark, and become legit trees if you're not diligent about trimming/eradication) and counted at least 10 stumps that need digging up.  I managed one by myself:

It's a long, hot, physically intense process to get even a smallish one like this dug out solo, but I figure manual labor is good cardio and I could sure use some of that.  Plus this success let me know that I'm physically capable of doing the needed work, which I wasn't entirely sure of until it was over.  I'm OK with being slow as long as I get results!

After lunch, I started on the biggest stump.  It turned out to be two tree-weeds intertwined.  Luckily for me, Ben got home from work and was wiling to help me.  Between the two of us we got it dealt with, but in the process I strained something in my back...again.  I have a spot in the middle that's been injured before, and it's the first place to get injured again whenever I lift something wrong.  Totally my fault - I know to avoid certain positions, to lift with my legs, etc.  But sometimes I'm in too much of a hurry and I forget, and I feel that dreaded pop.

So I'm taking it easy now.  It's supposed to rain, so I doubt I would have been digging stumps today anyway.  The two biggest stumps are out and everything else should be somewhat easier.  When my back is less tender I can get back to it slowly and carefully.  This getting older and more easily injured stuff really sucks!