Where have I been?

The weather has started to turn here in Chicagoland.  I took some time out of the sunny day yesterday to do a survey of the yard.  Boy did I shit the bed last fall.  The yard is a complete mess.  I still have tomato plants in the ground (with the stakes), clematis and hanging baskets are all dead and still in place, I never trimmed back the raspberries, It looks like I hadn’t raked since last November, a giant ice block still occupies the rain barrel and makes it un-usable, and Christmas decorations still adorn the front porch.  

Is this what happens with home ownership after only four short years?  What is crazy is that it took the walk around the yard to see what was left un-done.  I walk by this stuff daily for the past several months and never seemed to notice it.  The giant ice-cube sits like a monument to my laziness.  I hope the sucker melts away fast. 

What is worse is that this seems to be a monument of almost everything from the past year.  Forgotten, cold, immobile, useless.  It might be the bad part of blogging your house-work: just look back at the past few blogs and you get a very clear record of “where you left off”.  

Well, bad economy aside, I have to do better.  I don't want the snowman and moose haunting me in April.  I got off my ass and started by cleaning and raking the front yard.  It’s pretty exciting as a lot of plants are coming up.  I have to reacquaint myself with what I planted where.  I know I did some ritualistic “moving of plants” last October and I don't want to undo that work by pulling up any nice plants.  I just don’t remember what I put where.   

Hopefully this is the start of something new and good.  I have a lot to do.