Up Before the Sun

Unemployment Log: Entry date 20130220  Location, Back Deck

If you're ever up at 3am in February in the Pacific Northwest and decide it's a good idea to go sit outside and soak up the moonlight...don't.  It really isn't a substitute for sunshine.  Besides which, it's still February so it's cold and wet. And cold. Really. Not warm at all.

Jeff left the house this morning at 2:40.  He came home around 8 last night. Fortunately these kind of hours are a rarity but I have a feeling they will be all too common for the next week or two. His crazy hours only partially explain mine right now. I don't know why I am up and awake. Although I do like the house when it's still and quiet.  Just as I like it here outside.  The world has a different rhythm in the early mornings.

Getting ready for a party last October.
It's not nearly so festive out here right now.

Yesterday was beautiful. with clear skies and sunshine. I took full advantage of the warm-ish weather and worked in the yard. I raked up the winter leaves, cleaned out the annual beds and checked the bamboo for new shoots.  I think that's why I am out here so early. I am getting eager for spring and can't wait to watch things bloom. The yard has been such a long project and the work isn't over yet.

But now my toes are frozen and my hot coffee has turned into an iced coffee. So I am going to give you a story I sent out last year when I threw a birthday party for my lawn. Here is the entirely true story of how the worse lawn in Covington was reborn.

A long long time ago (2010) in a city far far away (Bellevue) God (my boss’s boss) spoke to me. He said, “Tess we must move our people down from the mountain (the 12^th floor) for locust (Microsoft) are coming to devour this land”.  So I gathered my flock and told them that in one full phase of the moon (30 days give or take) we must quit our land and homes and settle in a new place far from here (the 7^th floor).

Yada yada yada – we moved. It sucked. I gave myself a window seat in return for the pain and suffering. (I couldn’t figure out how to hack the payroll system and give myself a raise) From this window seat I observed that those of us blessed to be living in the Great Northwest had been denied a spring season in 2011. This was vastly unfair, as we already put up with only having one month of summer instead of the 3 that everyone else receives.

So, possibly driven mad by the unceasing rain drops upon my head, I began talking to the crow that had recently adopted our yard. He went by the name of Raphael. 

Raphael. Our neighbor named him.
Last year he showed up with a wife I call Mimi.

  I complained about the grey skies, he complained about the weeds and moss in my yard. Apparently they were making it hard to hunt for bugs and worms. As a messenger to the gods, Raphael said if I cleaned up the yard he would tell Shel, the sun, to get off his lazy ass and bring us blue skies and warm weather.

After thinking about this strange offer I decided, “what the hell, it can’t hurt”. Jeff said I had obviously lost my mind and he started looking up psychiatric care facilities. I stalled his plan by telling him we would rent a mini excavator which he could drive. Fortunately he did not see this offer as further proof of my altered status. Boys will be boys after all. 

The next weekend, equipped with the excavator and a dump trailer, we reduced our yard to a barren waste land. 

The only thing left was the baby bamboo
I had panted the year before.

Raphael was also pleased. The uncovered dirt made bug hunting much easier. From there the plan was to bring in top soil, plant grass seed, and then sit back and watch the grass grow. Well, after hauling and spreading 8 yards of soil Jeff resumed his search for psychiatric care for me. There was no way he was going to wait around for grass to grow. He was tired and sore and sick of neighbors asking if we were starting a dirt farm…or just looking for an extreme way to relieve allergies.

The solution was obvious and came in 10 sq ft rolls. Jonathan and I sped off to Home Depot in the truck and bought every single roll of sod they had in stock. For the next 8 hrs I carried, cut and laid out over 3000 lbs of sod. Jeff, his brother and 3 other able bodied men watched from the safety of the driveway. (That is a wholly different story for another time)

 

After I cut and laid in the last piece I sat back and surveyed my hard work. I was feeling pretty proud of myself.  Where, just 8 hours before, there was a barren waste land now there was lovely soft green grass.

  

It looked so good and I was so happy that I planted a tree for Raphael. 

 

Well the grass was in and flourishing for two weeks and as I sat at my desk and enjoyed my window view all that I saw was the liquid form of sunshine. We had crow that night for dinner.

 

Not really.  Raphael continues to visit our house with it's new lovely green grass.  He now brings his wife Mimi with him.

 

Hey, don't look at me like that.  I am sure plenty of normal people give names to crows. And talk to them.  Don't judge.