OBSESSION.

5 hours of work = 10 more feet of lawn

At what point does hard work turn into obsession?  Its a very good question.  One I'm not sure I want to answer.  Its good to have hobbies and all, but its safe to say I've gone down the rabbit hole on this one...

This past week, I'd gone back and forth about pruning all the ivy vines out back.  I really like that unbridled wildness and all, but I don't want guests tripping on the vines creeping and crawling underfoot. In the end, I decided to compromise and prune all the vines that had grown into the ground where the lawn should be and leaving the rest. Easy job, right?  Well, one thing led to another and 5 hours and 8 contractor bags later, this is where I ended up.  The ivy vines had grown rampant back there, snaking half-way up the yard, around trees, up the wall and even across the power lines to completely cover another tree in the front.   Part of me was a little sad to see it all go, but the way these things grow, I'm sure they'll come back with a vengeance. Fingers crossed I can coax them up the arbor once that's in place.

We have a half-day today, so I'm planning to dig out the pond later this afternoon.  I think its time to leave the vines alone now.  Partly because I don't want to go too far, but mostly because the blisters on my fingers hurt so bad.  After all that, shoveling dirt out of a 2 foot hole doesn't seem all that bad anymore.

In other news, it seems we've reduced our cat population to about 2!  In the past week, I've only spotted Padre and Satan lurking around.  Padre's pretty terrified of Cricket, but Satan will hang out in the yard even while I'm working, so he might be here to stay. So far so good!