Nature.. It's Not All That

It's a cool, gray Sunday in Frog Pond Holler. Motorcycles have been roaring past the house, touring in giant packs, piloted by retirees.. a sign that fall is just around the corner.

I like fall, the cooler temperatures, the change in scenery but it's also a little unsettling. The first winter we spent here, we had a ginormous blizzard and were literally cut off from everyone for several days. We had to have Uncle Barney take his four wheel drive into town for sanitary napkins and cigarettes, which he had to toss off the bank and down into the holler where we lived at the time.

Not a pleasant experience.

It happened again a few years later, after we made the big move to town. I think we were without power for like 7 days.  Now I get a little antsy when I know winter is coming. It's not like when we lived in civilazation and "roughing it" meant walking five blocks to the 7-11 to get coffee when the power was out. Although we do have the dollar store now and Jolene is 4WD, it still worries me a little.

At least I think that's what's gnawing at me.

Anywho...

I worked hard yesterday, clearing vines and brush and all sorts of other growing foilage from the back lot, which meant I also had to pop a couple Benadryl when I was done... I've decided I'm just allergic to nature.. green stuff and tiny biting insects of all varieties. I even went out and sprayed some of that backyard bug killer around the perimeter before I started and covered my arms and legs like I was going into battle at a bee colony.

It didn't help. I was scratching things that haven't seen daylight in years. I figure.. that settles it.. I'm allergic to Earth. I must be like... and alien from a plantless, bugless planet.. dropped here by accident during a recon mission.

But.. the backyard looks alot better. My next project will involve digging out about a square foot of the bank in order to move the dog lot back a little so that the oil company can get to the tank. Oh yeah.. and the garden.

Ya'll remember the garden? A real nice feller told the Amazon he'd have the yard tilled up for us to put one in this past year. They came by with a pickup truck, rigging the tractor, ground tearing uppy thingie to the back  of it and ripped up a big corner of my yard. Then he was gonna come by with the tiller and till it up, but it broke. Aunt Moses has a tiller, but she couldn't be bothered to let me borrow it, it was too much trouble. Uncle G's brother has one, but it was at the place out in the country and it was too much trouble to put it on the truck and bring it out here. The spot was too big to break up by hand.. believe me.. I tried.

So now we have this...

What am I even supposed to do with this crap? Backhoe it? Weed whack it? Burn it? Wait until the first frost and pray that it dies, then beat hell out of it with a maddock? That tall line in the back is poke salad and taller than me. Should I buy a machete?

I wish I could afford to go out and buy a tiller, but even if I did, I don't know if I'd have the stength to use it.

What do ya'll suggest?

Anywho, I'm gonna go finish my laundry and try not to think about how much I'll be itching after I tackle that monstrosity. We'll talk again soon.

Later Taters!