DeLappenings: Mulch & Korn

Okay, peeps.

Mulching the wrong time of year has been our long-standing transition, since living in San Antonio. Ha.

But I swear, it started by accident.

And—let’s be real: when you live in South Texas, it doesn’t really matter what time of year you mulch because it’s just a fake Fall and Winter that only consists of a week of hard freeze.

Anywho.

Back when moved here in March 2019, the house was nowhere near completion, and we spent sooooo much time trying to put it back together and getting the interior happy that it was September before I could go on an outdoor yard work rampage.

And, boy, was that a toughie one.

Here’s a post that always gives me a chuckle—and a bit of phantom pain, remembering all that work:

http://delappenings.blogspot.com/2019/09/outdoor-beautification-insanity.html?m=1

I also get a chuckle seeing our house circa 2019. Looking at the original-original pics, before we even bought the house is even wilder. I mean, such a transformation this house has gone through under our ownership (by choice and by force, ha)—and so much drama, ha.

Anywho (again).

Since that first Fall, we’ve sort of made it our annual thing to really hustle with the yard work in September, lay out our beautiful black mulch, and do alllll that yucky work so the house looks happy before the holidays.

And the reward for it all—beyond the tidy beds—is a lovely blank slate for Halloween decorations!

The property is fairly close to an acre, and though a portion of that is wild in the lower tier that backs up to the nature preserve, the part that is landscaped requires a ridiculous amount of mulching.

We learned our lesson long ago (after dozens and dozens of trips to Lowe’s; only so many bags can fit in an SUV at once!) that it’s far more efficient to pay the flat fee and have palettes of mulch delivered instead.

This round was 110 bags, and the truly depressing fact is that we really need about 250 to tackle the entire property all at once. Uuuuugh. But there’s just no way to do that all at once without literally breaking one’s back, so…we rotate every other year with a couple of the ginormous beds that take 60-85 bags each.

Now.

It bears saying that I think mulching is a lot like childbirth or painting (not comparable, but just stick with me, here). Basically, you forget how HEINOUS the activity is, until you’re in it again. And then you remember. Hard.

So this smile on the day the mulch was delivered was a naive, fool’s smile, ha. And it was wiped clean off my face (and replaced with a lot o’ dirt) about four hours and 70 bags later, ha.

Of course, because I’m NOT A BRIGHT WOMAN, when I’m tackling one physically challenging or outdoor task, I just like to pile them on, so I decided a little re-fresh of our front porch planters/bench was necessary for the season.

I’d painted them a lovely mint in the spring and wanted one more round of giving them new life before I might be ready to switch out to a different porch vibe for a bit.

I selected an orange (I think the name was “hearty orange”) that is NOT subtle, ha. But when has that ever stopped me???

A couple days of rounding out the mulch work with another coat of paint, and they were complete and ready to go—and I actually really like how they turned out! (And please note that bed of gorgeously spread mulch in the photo below, tehe):

Anywho (again, again).

It took me three TERRIBLE days, amidst really crazy schedules (see the post from a couple days ago about three feeling like ten for context), but it was amazing to look out the window and see the progress and eventual completion of this yucky job.

Of course, amidst all this yucky yard work, there was so much going on relating to the kiddos that I was really emotionally (as well as physically) overwhelmed.

At one point, after a really tough conference laying out Chicklet’s ongoing dyslexia intervention (all good things; it’s just a lot to sort through), I had to make a Target run to buy a teacher bday gift, and, welp, I indulged in a major moment of retail therapy that immediately boosted my morale.

I came home with this guy:

It seriously made me giggle, loading him in the cart. And it was a stinking JOY to set up my freshly painted planters, nearby my freshly laid out mulch, and give myself a hit of that Halloween JOY.

The kiddos LURVED climbing off the bus and discovering him. And I gave him a name: Korn. After that old rock band, ha.

(Also of note: the kiddos think we should have a family of pumpkin skeletons and have suggested further names: CandyKorn, KettleKorn…you the idea.)

I have this thing about not loving creepy Halloween things, but rather, more spooky/cutesy ones. So I adored this pumpkin head instead of a gruesome skeleton face. :)

We’re waiting until this weekend to let our official freak flag fly and bust out the inflatables, and alllll the other outdoor decorations, ha. But it has brought me a considerable amount of happiness to drive up to the house each day since all this was completed.