Where has the summer gone? I lost it in a whirlwind of conventions and work, which led to me messing up my left shoulder and left hand, and deciding that I really needed to re-evaluate how I was spending my time.

One of the things that I’ve decided to do is pitch the standard “work out 30-45 minutes per day” business. Why? Because working out is boring, and working in the yard is fun — and just as much, if not more of a workout. This does not mean I have stopped playing hockey or going to archery — far from it. It just means that the hour a day I was burning in front of WiiFit or EA Sports Active 2 has been transformed into far more productive and happy time in the sunshine.

Also, my yard really needs the work. It’s not that it’s that big, or that hard to manage, but it is that hard to manage when you’re not making the time for it. And the carrotwood … the infamous, annoying carrotwood … it is trying to come back, like some sort of zombie plant invader.

I think the folks who have been reading me for a while know that we took out two 30-year-old carrotwood trees in the backyard. We did this before we put in the veggie beds. There’s a long story here about the plastic-and-rock covered yard, the lack of irrigation and all kinds of stuff, but basically what it boils down to is that my backyard is covered in enormous near-surface carrotwood roots. And the ground is full of river rocks, but that’s a different story.

So I’ve spent the past few days working a little on the yard every day. Today I worked a lot on the yard. I pulled out the green bean plants that were tired and dying, and pulled out the yellow squash, and propped up a volunteer cherry tomato that looks kind of like a black cherry but tastes more like a 4th of July. Then I got to work on the carrotwood. Check out what I dug up.

Carrotwood Roots

The largest root in this bundle is as tall as I am. That’s a one-handed hatchet, for comparison’s sake.

I didn’t dig this one up. It’s way too big. So I remembered a suggestion from my Mom about how to deal with tree stumps and such things that won’t die … and I went and got the drill.

I did some drilling, and then Mark came out and helped me finish. Each of those holes is about the size of a nickel, and at least an inch deep. Hopefully it’ll help put the hurt on the miniature carrotwood forest that keeps trying to grow.