Handymen come, handymen go...

We've been lucky with handyman R... he's been here working on the flowerbeds, pulling up that awful (and useless) black fabric that was underneath the mulch. Honestly, for the price of that stuff, you would think you wouldn't see one solitary weed. Think again.  Now we have layers upon layers of old newspapers underneath new mulch, with the hope that the newspapers will do what the Pinterest gardeners proclaim:  last at least two years before breaking down into the soil, and keeping weeds at bay.

Fighting weeds out here is like fighting fire ants.... there are billions of each, all of which are ready to pop up in the garden or the lawn at any time. I've given up with the flowerbeds. What started out as an attempt to keep them pristine and blooming has turned into a test of my patience.  And is that how I want to be spending my time? Pulling up weeds while watching out for snakes and scorpions and spiders and ants?

Ever since reading Mitch Albom's book "The Time Keeper," I've been so very conscious of time, and how minutes, hours, and days are spent.  Time is the only thing you can never get back... once those hours are gone, they are gone. Gone. So be careful how you use them, how you spend them, how you treasure them.  And working outside in that yard isn't a treasure, in my opinion.

So blessings on handyman R, who doesn't seem to mind working outside in the heat... and tells us that gardening is relaxing to him. He's been working around the perimeter of the house, and being as careful as if those flowerbeds were on his own property.  It's a pity (for us) that R already has his own house in town, because we would have asked him to live in the barn apartment.

We had also found another handyman who did work well, and quickly, but the problem was he took it upon himself to do things we didn't ask him to do. As a result, all of the smaller pecan trees in the backyard were trimmed mercilessly the last time S was here.  My husband hasn't called him to come back here to work again, and I don't think he will.

The barn apartment remains empty... we're thinking of renting it out again, and most likely will when we can find someone who really wants to live way out here, who doesn't smoke or have pets, and who is responsible and trust-worthy and doesn't have crazy friends. Jeez.... is that too much to ask for?  Hope floats.