Relaxing With The Mulch Pile

 Ever wonder what I do to relax? 

I lay mulch. 

Sounds exciting, eh?

To me, laying mulch is relaxing. Caregiving for Bill pretty much takes up a good portion of my day (and sometimes night), I find I need some respite from those responsibilities. Laying mulch is one way I get some respite.

In years past I would pay Fernando and his son Alfredo (one of the many Mexican immigrant workers in our area of Sussex County, Delaware), to lay my six to ten cubic yards of mulch. This year I don't have the discretionary income to pay someone else to lay my mulch. Not working at the hotel takes about $12,000 off of my annual income, that's a chunk folks. 

Fernando and Alfredo would lay the mulch in one day. Of course at my age I'm not physically capable of laying six cubic yards of mulch in one day. Oh I could try but I would probably end up in an arthritic heap of pain at the end of the day. So what do I do? I set a goal to two wheelbarrows of mulch a day. Overtime I accomplish the same result, plus I get exercise and I SAVE money.  I have to admit I did enjoy seeing the guys lay mulch while I relaxed in the comfort of our house but in these challenging times extreme measures are called for. Plus, as I mentioned before, I GET EXERCISE.

I don't lay mulch every day. I'm dependent on the weather for the days I lay mulch. Like today, cold and wet, I didn't lay any mulch. However, lately we've been having many mild days and on those days I'm out back at the edge of our almost one acre lot, shoveling that mulch in a wheelbarrow. 

By the way, this photo was taken of an aborted video that Bill took of me. Since Bill has had his strokes, he can't figure out how to hold my iPhone to take a picture of a video of me. I set the video or photo and tell him to hold my iPhone, hoping he doesn't drop it.  You know me, I have to memorialize with photos and videos of all my activity. I have no one else around here to do that unless I set up my tripod and set my iPhone camera to a timer. Lots of prep for just one picture or video. But maybe I'll do that next time though. I spent more time with Bill trying to get this picture than I would setting up a tripod and timer.