I have just committed sacrilege. And I'm super happy about it.

[stoney321]

I never, let me repeat: NEVER let anyone do boo in my garden. Lawn? Go to town, spray paint it for all I care, but my garden is MINE because I know more than anyone else and they'll just eff it up. (Lol. I say that jokingly, but come on, you know I really think that, too.) Unless Neil Sperry himself shows up ready to prune, hands off.

So, um, I decided last weekend that that new extension I just put in needed to go out another foot. Which meant that the entire length of the 80ft stone barrier needed to go out another foot. Which meant a lot of stone moving, sod ripping up, wheel barrow dumping, and oy, my aching back. Remember: we have caliche clay, and it's pretty much like rock. OUCH. eta To illustrate the severity of the suckiness, caliche can be mixed with sand to make BUILDINGS. That are CODE. Yeah. It's a few grains from cement, people.

So, um, I may have gotten almost 1/3 done and I may have seen a landscape crew a few doors over, and I may have bribed them to finish the job for me *cough* and rip another 3 ft. wide, 10 ft. long strip in another section of my property, cart it up and haul it away for cash under the table. (before you yell at me, it's a very good amount, I am no skinflint.)

I AM SITTING IN AIR CONDITIONING DRINKING A COLD BEVERAGE. THEY ARE DIGGING, I CAN HEAR THEIR LABORED EFFORTS. And I'm very content with this. I will, of course, bring them cold glasses of water - I don't know if I should offer them a beer, I think their boss is an uber-Christian-type.

Let me state for the record that I LOVE IMMIGRANTS, I LOVE HELPING THEM, AND I LOVE THEIR WORK ETHIC. My ethics are questionable, of course. (Is that wrong to say? I mean it though, with every fiber of my being.)

Muchas gracias, amigos, yo te love you muy mucho. :D

[ETA] Met with their boss, turns out to be a former Extension Agency guy + a horticulture teacher. Lovely man, knew loads, and informed me that my soil was bar none the worst he'd ever seen since getting in the biz in the 70s, and that he was impressed that not only did I get things to grow in it, but so beautifully. *BEAMS*

Comments

[tabaqui]

BWAAAAhhahahaa!
Dude.
I am *all for* paying other people - particularly other people with stronger back and possibly Catapillars - to do my work for me. I mean - if i have the money to make it worth their while, and they want to? Hell yes!

Nice, tinkly glasses of cold water sounds good. Or soda. Or lemonade! Heeeee.

[stoney321.livejournal.com]

BUT I HAVE MASSIVE OCD IN THE GARDEN. What if they don't get every shred of bermuda root out? WAAH. Lol.

If I had lemonade, I would pour it down their gullets, happily. It's 92 today. 92.

[tabaqui]

Heeeeeee!! Well, it'll be all churned up and naked for you to go and inspect later. And grub out the last bits of bermuda root.
*cough*

We're in the seventies. Wheeee! We had a very temperate summer last year, only had to run the AC for about two weeks total. I'm crossing my fingers that we'll have a similar season this year.
*oh please oh please oh please*

[menomegirl.livejournal.com]

We paid a work crew under the table to finish our roof after Ike came through, so no. I don't think your ethics are questionable at all. (but sweet tea might be better than water?)

kaliche? \o/ your poor back. well, that's worse than gumbo i suppose.

We planted strawberries and flowers Sunday!

[stoney321.livejournal.com]

I don't have sweet tea, I don't drink it! (I know, I know, how am I allowed to live here if I don't like iced tea, haha.)

Black gumbo would be a godsend. YUM strawberries! I've been nomming on mine for a few days now. Beat the rabbits for the first time in a while. :D

[menomegirl.livejournal.com]

Don't drink sweet tea!?! *gasp* Philistine! hahaha.

This is my 1st berry patch so I don't know how it will do. But it's what I decided on to replace the apple tree that Ike killed. *mourns it*

[minstrel666.livejournal.com]

Ooh, then this video should be right up your alley - irreverent to Arizona, sympathetic with the plight of immigrants and highlighting the hypocrisy of the whole "State law 10-somethin-something".

http://youtu.be/T0bhZXUq0Hw

[stoney321.livejournal.com]

If that's the fake Machete trailer, I've already seen it, sent it to a bunch of folks, and wished that it was a real movie. I would pay TWICE to see that. :D

[minstrel666.livejournal.com]

Actually, no - it's a sketch by this comedy trio. And the machete movie IS real. It was first a fake trailer, but Rodriguez then went ahead and made it and now it's waiting for a distributor.

[stoney321.livejournal.com]

I know there's a Machete movie coming out, but Robert Rodriguez made a fake trailer for ANOTHER one as a rebuttal to some racial issues here in the states. it's awesome.

I'll check out your link, thanks!

[denelian.livejournal.com]

no, he just redid the Machete trailer to be even MORE of a rebuttle :)

[kseenaa.livejournal.com]

Way to go! :-D

[stoney321.livejournal.com]

OMG, they just finished, and the amount of soil/grass/crap they carted off made the tires close to flat on his big ol' truck!

MASSIVE RELIEF.

[brunettepet.livejournal.com]

You do not need another back ache and you would probably get heat stroke from our super hard soil and giant rocks that lurk beneath it! It was 96° here yesterday! That is not Spring weather, dammit!

[stoney321.livejournal.com]

It's 92 here! BAH, I say, BAH!!

And I'm with you: I do not need another back ache. (Oh, side note, the crew boss was telling me that in Africa, they use caliche for roads because they get STRONGER over time. *cry* I want to rent a back hoe and dig the lawn up to a depth of 4 feet, fill it in with loam and compost and start over. Suuuuuuure. :D)

[a2zmom.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I think you did the ethical thing there. Spread the wealth. And the back aches.

[stoney321.livejournal.com]

I like to think of it that way as well. :D (Oh my gosh, R, the soil just keeps getting WORSE the further down my property I go. No wonder the grass has always looked so junky!)

[a2zmom.livejournal.com]

I am now grateful for my clay soil. At least it's digable,

[lolz.livejournal.com]

Do you have pictures of your garden? We just bought out first home in November and I'm getting first hand experience on beginner gardening and loving it so much. Flowers are actually blooming!! I didn't kill them! And soon we're putting up a new fence and once that's done I'm doing a vegetable garden. I'm just interested in seeing what everyone else has.

[stoney321.livejournal.com]

hit my garden tags - gardening and picspam will show you LOADS of pictures, during the process and the result, too.

[anelith.livejournal.com]

Brilliant thing to do, in my opinion! Spared your back, gave them some extra money. WIN all round!

Backs are not to be taken lightly.

Now you have some more garden "canvas" to play with. Yay!