So...gloves on hands (should have worn the rose gauntlets) and lopper in my hands, I headed down what was once a path heading downhill behind the flower bed behind the house. Pulled out leaf litter, lopped grapevinage that was threatening takeover, took down some saplings and majorly cleared out blackberry thornage.

Great exercise, by the way. Especially exerting one's self while balancing on steep uneven ground (ALL of our yard is uneven ground and then some of it is steep, too). Then I hauled the thorn bushes up to the deck where I sat on the steps and cut it all into short pieces and bagged in a trash bag to go out (AWAY!) in Tuesday's trash.

Then I planted and potted a few things, cut some roots sticking out above the driveway, crawled up on the bank and thinned some hemlock branches and American basswood suckers and threw previously cut brush down on the pile.

Then I made lunch. (And the dishes in the dishwasher were done.)

Think I'll wrap up the song list on the Press Room shanty sing thread, do some necessary online research and then maybe put enough clothes away that I can get a change of sheets and pillowcases and change the bed (which is waaay more complicated than you think, since I use the bed as a desk and what would be Tom's side if he were sleeping upstairs is piled with binders, notebooks, papers, the phone, books, magazines and page protectors).

By the way, I'm closer to getting my "new" car -- he ended up having to replace the catalytic converter, too (single most expensive part on the car) and was having the car cleaned & waxed Friday. I don't think he's going to make a cent on it, but I'll have what is a practically new 2002 Outback. The engine was rebuilt and a bunch of other working (and non-"working" like the bumpers) parts have been replaced.

Linn