In keeping busy with construction lately, I have allowed my other chores to get behind. You know, the ones that always need to be done, week after week.

The grass is once again getting way too tall behind the house, on the banks around the drive and even in the garden. The garden is in serious need of attention and the fence from the old chicken lot is still leaning against the picnic table where I left it a couple of weeks ago. Speaking of fences, the one by the garden is still falling down, despite my earlier vow to have it done this summer. Meanwhile, construction supplies, useful wood and vinyl siding scraps and tools are strewn everywhere.

Even with the 'monsoon' ending a couple weeks ago, I have kept myself 'too busy' to handle the grass and weed problem. But the grass just keeps on growing and the plants keep getting harder to find in the garden. It may have something to do with the fact that I hate using a string trimmer, but that's not a good excuse. My tiller also is working perfectly, so my only reason for not doing it is because I've been "too busy."

The bulk of the yard is fine-the riding mower plows through it as usual, leaving a line of clumps of grass to mark its passage. I'm not one to rake; in fact, I just say 'no' to raking. After all, that stuff eventually turns into compost that no doubt is beneficial to the soil. Think of it as my gift to the worms of the world.

I fertilized part of the embankment above the house earlier this year with some of the organic fertilizer I picked up last year because the growth was looking a little sparse. It seems to work a lot better than the granule stuff, but it has a dis-stink-tive odor-especially right after it's rained on the first time.

While the treatment succeeded in stabilizing the bank and preventing erosion, the other benefits that came with the fertilizer, like extra fast and extra thick growth, haven't been as appreciated. And that's why the grass was so high-it had nothing to do with the fact that it hadn't been mown in two weeks.

I decided, with my default excuse being the wet planting season, to shrink down the size of the garden this year by about half. So I've been mowing the lower end with the riding mower, attempting to miss the volunteer potatoes that have sprung up from last year's crop. They're easy to see, sticking up in the short grass like islands of tall weeds.

The corn I planted earlier didn't come up well and I couldn't decide whether or not I would try again. Not making a decision is sometimes a decision unto itself.

On the bright side, I do appear to have a big crop of potatoes and green beans growing, along with a number of healthy tomato and pepper plants still growing-despite the weeds. Like I said, I've not had time to work in the garden this year, first because it rained too much and now because I'm putting siding on the house.

You'd think that letting part of the garden go fallow will ensure that I have more time to keep up with the parts of it that I have planted. While that works out well in theory, it hasn't panned out well in reality. I just have a smaller weed-infested garden patch instead of a really big one.

As you can see, while I'm short on some things, excuses aren't one of them. If you can find a problem, I can make up a good reason for it being there.

I learned from a master. Until I was grown, I really believed that my father "didn't know how" to make a sandwich, wash clothes, or do any number of other menial chores. In fact, I have come to believe that at some point early in his marriage he did some chores so badly that he was barred from ever again doing anything again. Sometimes those who appear really dumb aren't so dumb when you're old enough to understand. I haven't been allowed to do laundry since that time I slipped a red sock in with the white clothes.

My father also used to announce what the kids were doing, like some kind of sports commentator. "They're swinging off the chandeliers," he might say. "They're tracking mud all over the house," he'd call out.

My mother was always the one to rush into the room to handle the problem. My technique must not be as good as his was. Or at least I haven't developed his level of proficiency at getting out of things. No matter, I feel sure it won't be long until my kids start thinking I'm dumb, too.

Anyway, I did manage to make a little more progress on my vinyl siding this past weekend, finishing up the front and at least getting started on the back.

In the process of preparing to put up the vinyl, I found myself confronting a pile of junk that had somehow managed to accumulate, out of sight, in a little corner behind the house.

If there is a place out of sight, it seems to get filled with things over time, doesn't it?

This particular corner held an unused oil tank, most of my collection of buckets, numerous flower pots, three orange cones, rolls of wire, an assortment of old plastic chairs, several light-up christmas reindeer and a bucket filled with little square tiles that never found their purpose in life.

As I went through all that stuff, throwing part of it in the back of the truck to take to the dump and attempting to save what appeared useful, I soon realized that I had lost more than an hour of time and still had a giant oil tank in my way. I decided to try to give it away instead of moving it and then started working on the back of the house.

The progress there was a bit slower, due to having to rip off the old hardboard siding and the black insulation board behind it, both of which sometimes crumbled into small pieces. After clearing a section, I had to cover the studs with plywood. I couldn't risk tearing it all off in case of rain.

I managed to finish about one-fourth of the wall Saturday. On the bright side, I have the day off on Friday. I might finish up that wall this weekend. You know, I usually can picture the job finished before I ever start. It's like construction faith-you keep believing and working towards the goal until you actually see it appear. Like other kinds of faith, it gets harder to believe (and to get others to agree) the longer it takes to see results. My job is to keep my eyes on the goal and my hands busy.
 

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