Wabi-sabi is the Japanese concept of imperfect beauty. Wikipedia
defines it as an appreciation of asymmetry, roughness and/or the natural
process that gives things their unique appearance... which I love.
Wabi-sabi accepts peacefully the natural cycle of growth and decay. It
celebrates things like scars and gray hair. But it actually can conflict
with my OCD tendency to have things symmetrical or in a perfect order. I started Saturday with a twenty minute walk and then my usual tea, peanut butter on toast and computer time.
A day of drainage ditch work was in my plan but I didn't get to work outside until 10 am. I spent more time than wanted on finding rocks to best fit where needed. I wanted to work on the ditch wall, the flat retaining wall that goes across from the corner, and the bottom base, where the ditch ends at the large rock slab.
I was ready to mix cement at 12:30, but decided to take a lunch break first. I love the microwave bowl holder (Patty made two) that she gave us. This was the first I had used it, and found it to be very handy.
My first batch of cement was a disaster. It was a 50 lb bag of quick setting concrete. Long story short, I wasted most of it and had to use a hammer to knock it out of the 30 gal tub I used to mix it in. At least I was able to use the chunks for fill behind the wall.
My second 40 lb bag of mix was not without problems...
I had added too much water. So I added another 40 lb bag of dry mix and then more water to finally get a good consistency. But, it was a big batch of concrete, which took me over two hours to use up. I wasn't prepared for this much cement, so at the end was looking for more rocks to fit into the wall puzzle. Seen above, some rock cemented in on the base and the retaining wall. Seen right, the ditch wall almost completely cemented in.
I got the new work covered in plastic and was finished by 5 pm. I was tired and my back sore, but I felt good about the progress I had made. Joe had gone to golf after work, so I took Maggie for an hour long walk. Joe had leftover stew for dinner that I had had for lunch, so I had beer and popcorn while we watched the new show, season opener of "Designated Survivor" with Kiefer Sutherland, whom I like. I think this, and Survivor, will be the two regular shows I watch this fall.
Sunday morning started with one of four, 30 minute long dog walks, I took throughout the day. I sat with Lisa and Nolan at Church and then cleaned up the partly cured cement work when I got home. I worked a 1-4:30 shift at the pool, and came home exhausted for some reason. I sat on the back porch and read for over an hour, enjoying my book, the sounds of birds and a breeze rustling the leaves, and an occasional look out at our wonderful, however imperfect, (wabi-sabi) back yard.
Leaves have started to fall and our yard, drive, sidewalk, deck, and drainage ditch are a mess. Maybe I should embrace this natural beauty and let the leaves lie where they fall. Nope... too messy.
Joe and I wanted dinner, but neither of us was motivated to fix it, so at 7:30, Joe went to Food City to get some necessities along with hitting the salad bar. I chopped carrots, celery, broccoli, cauliflower and strawberries while he was gone. This was added to the mix Joe had brought home and we enjoyed our tasty salads. I read in bed but had the lights out before 9 pm.
A little snapper I found while digging around in the creek.
Monday was a 6:30 sunrise and would be a 6:30 sunset. I got up later than usual, having slept almost ten hours. Not sure why the need for so much sleep, unless it was a beauty rest. One look in the mirror and I would not say it helped with bags under the eyes, wrinkles, and gray hair. I like to think of it as wabi-sabi beauty. Wink, wink.
After a few hours of computerizing, I went out to work on my project. There was a 30% chance of rain in the evening so I wanted to get a move on with the concrete work. Well, while I was readying the rocks for cement, the skies got very stormy looking. I consulted with my weather expert (Shirley) who has a good, more reliable app. than I, and she said there was a 20% chance at the moment. I decided to hold off and see what transpired up in the skies.
I worked at tree trimming out by the creek since four deer had been running up and down the sandy bed earlier in the morning. A little later it cleared off and I was again tempted to mix a batch of cement. Then Shirley called and said it was raining out at the barn, where she was. So I gave up on the cement plans and took my tree trimming to a new level. The tree in the creek bed (photo below) was leaning some, so I started pushing on it and got it to finally fall over. Seen right and lower right, the creek bed with the tree now gone.
I had to dig around the roots under water and cut three of them before the tree was freed. In the process I found the baby snapping turtle, pictured earlier. I moved him to a safer swimming hole.
I trimmed all the branches off the tree and eventually got Joe to come out and saw the trunk in two places so I could move it out of the creek bed. While waiting on Joe, I started excavating the creek bed farther down stream.
I raked sticks and leaves up out of the water and dry creek bed. Then I moved dirt and sand up onto the shore line to better direct the water if ever it rains again. I continued with my digging project all the way down to the pond in front of the bench on the rock. Seen below is all the silt I had removed.
A big flooding will probably wash some of the stuff back into the creek, but it looks good for now.
It never did rain and I ended up working till dark. I was completely exhausted and sore from all of the digging. Joe and I watched a movie together and then I took a pain/sleep pill and was out for the night.
Maggie wanting to join me outside while I filled bird feeders Tuesday morning. I went in for my last day of work at 9:30, and got a lot of cleaning done before my first customers came at 11:00. Seen below, the pool (and everything else) was clean and ready for people to enjoy.
The high was 78 but I only had four people come before getting off shift at 1:00.
I hurried home and got right to work on my concrete project, mixing up a batch and officially finishing the drainage ditch wall, seen right. Yay! Not the prettiest work of art, but functional and by wabi-sabi standards was appreciable.
I ended by work in the yard watering the outdoor potted plants (including Brian's because he is on holiday).
Joe was golfing at Dorchester and we had planned to met there at 5:00 for dinner out on the veranda. Well, the cafe was closed because of a private party, so I went on to the barn to check on Amiga while Joe went to Catfish Cabin to pick up carry out dinner.
Jan (whom I haven't seen in a week because she has been moving) was at the barn grooming Cash so we caught up with each other while caring for our horses. Regrettably, Amiga is still slightly lame. Again, I treated her scratches, hoping this would help, but the lameness issue is starting to concern me.
I got home shortly after Joe did. We ate dinner out on our back porch as the sun set and later (after a long dog walk) watched the Dinesh D'Souza's movie - America: Imagine The World Without Her.
I headed out with plans to get a bunch of concrete work done.
This days struggles were with heavy rocks sinking into the wet concrete mix and not staying level in the wall. I kept stuffing the concrete (along with some small support rocks) up under the two big rocks. I ended up using my fingers because my trowel just didn't do the trick. Often washing the concrete off my fingers, still did not prevent the burning of my skin. My finger tips were raw. Is this what is meant when they say working your fingers to the bone?
I got the first batch of mix done and went in to eat a late lunch.Below, the photo of the big rocks 'set in stone' with the concrete cured, the following day.
My fingers hurt so much, I put ointment and surgical gloves on them before going back out to work. I decided to skip mixing a second batch of cement, but moved rock around and re-did Allen's side of the hill at the end of the ditch (seen in lower photo).
I also moved some more dirt from the bed of the pond, where the creek empties into it. The pond water is about 20 inches lower than usual, so it is a good time to muck around in it.
Maggie keeps watch and naps while I work.
My fingers tips hurt while scrubbing off grime and dirt in the shower. I will be so glad to get all my cement work finished.
The moss and lichen on this tree stump roots caught my eye earlier in the day, and when I got close to take a photo, I noticed the acorn as well. This is wabi-sabi beauty.
Shirley picked me up at 6:30 and we had a yummy dinner (Chicken Pasta
Buffet) and an even better chat. We were so busy getting caught up with
each others lives that we were last out of the restaurant at 9 pm.
(Joe was at his card game.)After my big meal at Legends, I had a cup of de-cafe green tea to settle my stomach and because I was cold (the temp had dropped into the upper 50's). I was soon too tired to catch up on computer notes and chats so hit the hay at 10:00. But it would prove to be a restless night because of sore muscles, throbbing finger tips, and concerns running through my head, about being able to get on as a seasonal employee back at the CC front desk in the spring.
Thursday I was off to a slow start because it was cold. I had an extra cup of tea and lingered here longer than planned. Even Maggie and Stevie were chillin' on this chilly morning.
The bulk of the day was spent out back working. Rock moving was the first item of business. I re-did several parts of the ditch dry rock bed to get the slabs well settled in, so they wouldn't wobble or move and stay permanently placed. This was a time consuming job.
Then I got my next rocks cleaned and ready for cementing (seen left). I finished off my last bag of concrete and got most of the rocks in (seen below) but decided I really needed one more bag of mix to finish my project off.
Having moved all the rocks from the yard area where I would soon seed, I started moving dirt. (Bottom two photos taken the next day when I first went out to start working.) I worked until dark, thus the reason I waited to take photos of my progress. Joe had gotten dinner started (frozen Banquet meatloaf) and I finished cooking taters and corn when I came in. After our 7:30 dinner we watched both taped weekly TV shows, Survivor and Designated Survivor. A pain/sleep aid was taken at bedtime.
Friday, the last day of September, I was bound and determined to get my grass seed sowed. Waiting for it to warm up, I went out mid morning and continued moving dirt and digging to put in some edging block (seen left).
The rock in the middle of the rounded area is what I call an 'iceberg rock' because there is way more below ground than above. I had tried digging this out of the yard, but gave up on it. Once all the dirt was loosened and smoothed out with the rake, I started spreading grass seed. I had set aside buckets of good, un-rocky top soil that I then sprinkled over the top of the seed. I ran short of dirt and used straw to finish covering the seed. Everything then got a good watering. The dried ground just kept soaking up the liquid, so this took time.
Even though autumn began on the 22nd of this month, it doesn't seem like fall starts until October, especially when it has been unseasonably warm, until two days ago. No doubt, fall is a wonderful and pretty season. Hope you can find the (wabi-sabi) beauty in it and in all the people and things around you.
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