Before and After

These pictures don't show things exactly as I intended since the second one is after the sun was gone, but I worked hard this afternoon to make the garden look neat.  Everything was overgrown, weeds were everywhere.  Most of the plants have finished blooming, though you can still see some Cosmos that I planted from seed and some of that Flox type stuff that takes everything over.  The Seedum is going to turn pink soon.  I've kept up with things this year better than most, and it's only been the last few weeks that it has begun to look shoddy.  Since I haven't been going to the horse shelter to work, I have had more time to do these domestic things.

Today, though, I told Renee, who is in charge of volunteers, that I would be returning to my old schedule in September.  My shoulders have not completely recovered, but I feel that I can do the work now.  I've been going once or twice a week for awhile, doing more each time.  Yesterday I conquered the last hurdle...the dreaded manure pile.  Dumping the wheelbarrow full of manure is the hardest thing we do (at least I think so).  It was always hard for me, but I got to the point where I just couldn't do it.  Shoveling is bad enough, but pushing a full wheelbarrow up a narrow board to the top of a huge hill of poop, then turning it upside down, is quite a challenge.  Yesterday I found that by using the smallest wheelbarrow and keeping my load relatively small, I could do it.

Having thus recovered, I am going back four days a week.  I will be glad to be doing something that is really worthwhile and allows me to be intimately involved with horses.