Spring Chores et al

Just came in from helping DH lop some bushes and trees back and had to empty the carcasses of last year's flowers out of my sneakers and brush them out of my hair. Did the butterfly bushes, which are in front of the heat pump to shade it during the really hot weather, but which had started growing horizontally into the fins, not to mention there were a couple of branches sticking out over the grass, making it hard to mow around it. So it's a shadow of its former self. It'll be back in plenty of time for the height of a/c season. Then there's the Bradford (Cleveland?) pear out front, which had suckers almost the size of my wrist and a few low hanging branches that made more mowing hazards. The redbud, still just a baby, needed a little clean up to nip off little branches growing too low, and a couple apple trees had big suckers because until a few weeks ago, they had been growing at a 45 degree angle and felt the need to grow new trunks. We'll give the apple branches to a friend for her rabbit to gnaw on. ALL of this cutting should have been done back in January. Oh well.

I also finally got the Napa, Pak Choi, and broccolis sprayed with the BT. The Napa has the most holey leaves and the broccoli's barely been touched (by bugs, that is). The Pak Chois in the raised bed are going gangbusters and will be ready to pick soon. I'd like their centers to fill in a little more first.

DGD is off from school this week and is visiting her dad, so we can sleep late in the a.m. and not worry about picking her up from school in the p.m.

NASCAR News: Yay, Tony Stewart got another win yesterday, though he was just lucky to be in the lead when the race was called on account of rain. It was past the halfway point, so whoever is leading when it's called is the winner.