Oh, Ick

The Old Amigo had to buy a pair of shoes yesterday. Not the best of timing in these lean days.

I keep a pair of casual slip-ons that I wear for most occasions. I'd bought the last such pair oh, three or four years ago in CO. Since they got a lot of wear, they had gotten a bit ratty, but they had another year in them.

Operative Word: "Had"

You see, I went outside to take a look at one of the key garden projects. I'm putting a path around the main vegetable garden. Brick border, bark/chips in the middle, my home-made concrete stepping stones scattered here and there. It'll give the main garden an attractive, finished look when it's done.

I'd dug about 20% of the shallow trench around the perimeter -- most of the way along the east side. This is the bit directly adjacent to the new, 30 sq ft extension of the garden (i.e. also along the east side). We've had several storms up here at the Corner. I wanted to move my guide lines so that the next leg would be the right width. And straight.

There were puddles, so I stepped into the newly dug/newly filled with Roger's Magic Dirt bit.

Schlurp! The Venerable Friendly One sank, both feet, into the new garden bit. Nearly up to the knees. Picture the moist sucking sound as the Old Amigo attempts to remove his feet from the muck and leaves behind both shoes.

I ended up digging the shoes out with a shovel. They were filled with wet, muddy compost (partially made up of manure from an organic dairy). Yes the outsides could be scraped off, wiped off, what-have-you. But the insides?

So the shoes are in the trash. Today I dug another fifteen linear feet of garden path trench. I'm perhaps one third of the way done. Today I:

1. Wore my lace-up hiking/gardening boots
2. Stayed out of the mucky garden bit

The path is going to be really nice. Really. I'll lay down landscape fabric. I'll border the path with carefully leveled bricks. Sigh.