Small but Mighty Big Help

I woke at 5am needing to take a couple Advil. However, come 715am, which is my usual weekend rise time, I felt just fine and was promptly up and downstairs starting a pot of coffee and tooling on my PC. Hesitantly, I checked work too. Happily, nothing pressing.

It was supposed to be partly cloudy and in the low 60's. Pretty much the same for Sunday. And while I would prefer warmer, sunnier weather, these conditions were well suited for working in the yard, mulching. I played around for a good 80-90 minutes before getting ready for a run. After stretching and getting into my running clothes, Mindy called out asking if I wanted to come snuggle. I shared that I was just heading out for my run.

I moved both cars to the curb before heading out too. That way if the mulch guy showed up while I was away, Mindy wouldn't have to scramble to move them. It was springy enough that I ran in a short sleeved wicking shirt and jacket. And like most Saturday's I ran just three miles. Fairly easy run. Sure enough, the mulch truck was out front when I returned home. Must've been near 930am. It was a large flat bed with a forklift hanging off the back. Only our skid of bagged mulch was aboard. The kind fella said our bulk playground mulch was coming later in a dump truck. OK. He off loaded the pallet pretty quick. Once he left, I counted the skidded bags. To my eyes, only 60 bags. Easy to count, 15 rows of 4.

I called Ohio Mulch talking with Anita, the same woman I talked with Thursday. She said she would have them bring the 10 bags we were short with the bulk mulch. Perfect. Before mulching, I made Mindy and I an egg sandwich. She was getting ready to head into school for a few hours. I mistook the minced garlic for mustard (same style squeeze jar) mixing it with mayo on Mindy's sandwich. Man, was it strong. I probably had a heaping teaspoon of minced garlic on it. Once she pointed out my mistake I checked out the jar. Yep! She scraped it off before eating it. I didn't make the same mistake with my own. Used yellow mustard and mayo. My preference was Poupon, but we didn't have any. My sandwich was terrific.

It was between 1030-11am before I got started with the mulch. Shortly after Mindy left, they showed up with the bulk mulch. Had 'em drop it mid drive. Bella came home from her overnight just as he finished dumping. Said he knew nothing about the ten bags I was shorted, but promised to bring 'em by on his way home, in his personal truck if that was OK by me. Sure thing! Thanks. Bella was stoked when I offered her the opportunity to help spread mulch. I mean she was very, very excited. Too cute!

To help hold her interest I opted to teach her to operate tractor. She was far more help than I imagined. Not only did she help shovel each load into the Deere trailer, but she drove it, dumped it and spread it. She moved the entire 4 cubic yards with me. We broke briefly for lunch. Mindy brought home McDonalds around 2 or 3pm. I woofed down several chicken nuggets and water. Bella was excited to demonstrate her working knowledge of the tractor operation and then loading/unloading mulch. I think Mindy got a big kick out of watching her, listening to how excited she was. Did my heart good. Mindy got changed and helped in the yard too. Asked her to go around all the beds and pull the weeds and grass we killed over the last week with Round-Up. She spent a good hour or two doing just that. She did a good, thorough job.

Jacob was finally up and out of bed after spending the last 64 hours in bed. He was showered and full of energy (piss and vinegar). He came out to help deliver/distribute the bagged mulch around the yard. We dropped all 60 bags. Based on the drop plan, I worried that we'd need an additional 10-15 bags even after they brought the 10 they shorted me. I had just put the tractor and trailer away in the shed when the mulch guy showed up with our shorted mulch. It wasn't the dump truck guy. Instead, it was the same guy that dropped the palette of 60 bags earlier. He apologized profusely sharing how they changed their skid stacking from 5 in a row to 4 without telling anyone. To make up for their faux pas, he brought us 15 bags instead of just the 10 they owed us. He was a kind gentleman. Shared that we should call back once both skids were emptied and they'd come back for them Said he gets $10 for every pick-up.

All of us were tired after several hours of grueling yard work, and since we wouldn't be spreading bagged mulch until Sunday, we opted to leave the 15 new bags alone until then. Me, Mindy and Bella headed in and got showers over the next hour. Collectively, we decided to make homemade pizzas for dinner. Bella was excited about helping again. Jacob was off playing with friends, something he hadn't been able to do for the past three days due to being ill.
Made two pizzas, one with thin crust, the other with deep dish crust. Bella pretty much did the thin crust by herself with only verbal instruction from me. She topped hers with pepperoni & cheese. I topped the thick crusted pie with cheese, hard salami, spinach, and hot pepper rings. This time we added Italian seasoning and garlic salt to the crust which made a big difference in overall flavor. I'll do that again.

Thinking it was near 8pm by the time the pies were ready. Along with pizza, I enjoyed a couple Jack & Cokes. Incredibly worn out and tired, all of us were in bed really early, especially for a Saturday.