Bark

It's been three years since we last spread fresh bark on our garden areas.  It was looking pretty bad with more than a few bald patches.  It was time to spruce up the landscape so I ordered eight yards of bark to be delivered to the house.

Turns out, eight yards is a lot of bark.

Any way you look at it, eight yards is a lot of bark.

It took me sixteen hours over four days (two of which were sunny days; two were drizzly to pouring rain) to spread eight yards of bark.   But I did it!   And these are the things I learned:

• Aleve works better than Ibuprofen.
• Wet bark is considerably heavier than dry bark.
• Even when wearing gardening gloves, those %*#&  stickers from those @#*&!  sticker bushes can really hurt.
• Children are helpful for short bursts of time.  Help for 15 minutes. Go play for 2 hours.  Help for 20 minutes.  Go play for 2 hours.   
• A little OCD can motivate you to finish big projects.
• In the future... never, ever, not ever should I even entertain the idea of ordering eight yards of bark when Dan is out of town.   
• Seven yards probably would have been enough - and not just because I ran out of steam around the seven yard point.
• I am strong.