Wednesday, March 3, 2010

I've got a fever, and the only prescription is more springlike weather

Walking out the front door of our house yesterday we were excited to have the sun shining down on us and to have the sound of birds singing in the trees around us. It was awesome. Add to that the fact that we have no snow and the days are about to get a little longer with the whole "spring forward" concept soon to kick in, and I have a major case of Spring Fever! It brings back memories of college when my roommate Matt and I would spend hours playing basketball at the outdoor courts in Presque Isle, or Nichole and I dusting off the old baseball gloves and playing catch in Deering Oaks Park.

It's also time for spring cleaning. That fun time of year when you discover random crap you left out on the lawn last fall and then forgot about as soon as it snowed. We did a really good job last year getting everything put away, and we have no remnants of projects left unfinished from October I'm happy to report. Other fun things we need to start thinking about is getting things ready for this year and working on ways to make next winter and spring a little less messy. For example, we have crushed rocks leading up to our stairs going in to the house. Well, they end up all over the freaking place due to shoveling and the use of the snow blower. They are a giant pain in the ass and they have to go as soon as the ground is dry. Another example would be that our backyard typically has standing water in it after any kind of rain or snow melt. One of my first jobs to do this spring is to divert the water to the stream next to our house by digging a ditch across our backyard. Both minor projects, but we should see some major differences in messes this time next year.

One last fun project will be cleaning up all the dog bombs off the back lawn from a winter of poop trips by Yawkey. This is never a fun task, but I typically take my poop rake and just fling them into the woods, so it could certainly be worse! What will be fun about turd cleanup will be removing the giant piles of what appears to be moose crap that appeared overnight last night. Now, it might not be a moose, I'm only guessing, but here is why. There have been several moose sightings in town, and we do live in the middle of the country, so it's entirely possible. Other potential poop droppers include cows (not likely but maybe I guess) or elephants (doubtful, but lets be honest, how cool would that be). I'm hoping I can convince Nichole or Kerrigan to jump on this task, but it's pretty freaking doubtful I can pull it off. I'm just saying...