Monday we did yardwork at the rental property.
Tuesday I started pruning our bougainvillea in our back yard. To be fair, the last time I pruned them was in August, and we had a lot of rain in September. I'm using an electric hedge trimmer with a 21" blade on a six-foot extension, waving it as high above my head as I can, and standing on tippy-toe... the hedge is easily 100' long. This time I was using the loppers almost as much as the hedge trimmer. I got a little overenthused with the loppers and thinned out a mock orange bush-- it looks more like a mock orange lollipop now.
Wednesday I took it easy with "just" taekwondo training.
Today I finished the downhill side of the bougainvillea and began trimming the top. At least the top is only a couple feet across and I can hold the hedge trimmer at waist height. But again I was using the loppers to extract those one-inch branches that split off into eight shoots. I finished the first 50-60' and only have about 40' left.
In a few hours (near sunset) we'll stuff the trimmings into our four 65-gallon green waste cans and get them to the street for tomorrow's pickup. The bougainvillea hedge looks like I subcontracted to Wolverine of the X-Men, but at least next time I prune I'll be able to cut off the twiggy little blossoms instead of the big honkin' branches.
I'll be glad when this job is done (tomorrow or Saturday). This is one of those weeks when I'm making sure that I have at least six hours between the 800 mg ibuprofen doses.
I've been filling in my spare time today with laundry (which I also last did in August). Four loads through the washer, three hanging up on the drying racks, one in the dryer, one load of each left.
Tuesday I started pruning our bougainvillea in our back yard. To be fair, the last time I pruned them was in August, and we had a lot of rain in September. I'm using an electric hedge trimmer with a 21" blade on a six-foot extension, waving it as high above my head as I can, and standing on tippy-toe... the hedge is easily 100' long. This time I was using the loppers almost as much as the hedge trimmer. I got a little overenthused with the loppers and thinned out a mock orange bush-- it looks more like a mock orange lollipop now.
Wednesday I took it easy with "just" taekwondo training.
Today I finished the downhill side of the bougainvillea and began trimming the top. At least the top is only a couple feet across and I can hold the hedge trimmer at waist height. But again I was using the loppers to extract those one-inch branches that split off into eight shoots. I finished the first 50-60' and only have about 40' left.
In a few hours (near sunset) we'll stuff the trimmings into our four 65-gallon green waste cans and get them to the street for tomorrow's pickup. The bougainvillea hedge looks like I subcontracted to Wolverine of the X-Men, but at least next time I prune I'll be able to cut off the twiggy little blossoms instead of the big honkin' branches.
I'll be glad when this job is done (tomorrow or Saturday). This is one of those weeks when I'm making sure that I have at least six hours between the 800 mg ibuprofen doses.
I've been filling in my spare time today with laundry (which I also last did in August). Four loads through the washer, three hanging up on the drying racks, one in the dryer, one load of each left.