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It began as a slow day physically, with most of the body either achy or sore – there is a subtle difference, but I’m not sure what it is. About 2pm or so these irritating inconveniences started to slack off a bit, and accordingly the pace of my day picked up a little. The Spice and I had already decided that the blueberry bed down the north side of the driveway needed some type of border around it and I had looked at several sites on the web to get some ideas. The type border that I liked, the Spice didn’t and vise versa, but she finally consented to the one that was the least repugnant to her and I set the wheels in motion to make it happen. Plus it was one that was available at our local concrete block plant.

This is a large plant and supplies many types of concrete blocks for several cities around the area. This is where the blocks are actually made and there is no pristine showroom on site, only a dusty display of their products and an office where mostly the drivers come in to get their orders and destinations of the plant’s output. I checked out the display to be sure that they didn’t have something that I would have liked better than our decision. They did not so I made my order, paid and was told where to take my truck to have the blocks loaded.

I pulled my small pick-up out among the two semis and one large rental truck – just like I was somebody. A forklift driver finally came out with a palate of my kind of blocks and loaded me up. I purchased 40 of these and he even gave me some extras for breakage and also a few that were broken in half – these would be good for the corners of the bed. By the time we got through there was about a half-ton of blocks in the bed of the truck, but it seemed to still handle well and brought them home without incident.

The block of mention is 16 inches long, 8 inches wide and 2 ¼ inches thick and will be set on edge around the bed with about 5 inches buried and 3 inches above ground – they each weigh over 20 lb. They will serve two purposes, first, to hopefully keep the grass out of the bed – which is why I’m so determined to get the present grass out of the bed now – and second, it will keep the straw in the bed. I had already purchased 6 bales of pine straw, plus our neighbor volunteered some more and even brought me two loads in his garden trailer.

Along about 4:30 I finally got back to the project and had another adventure with “the frame” and cleaning the dirt off the grass roots. It is working even better than I expected and is speeding up the process somewhat. As I started out, I took three of the border blocks down to the bed area to see how they would work out. Plus I planned to intermingle the two tasks and hopefully not get quite as sore. Going back and forth between the jobs, I got the three blocks ensconced in the dirt and they look like they will work out well. I had previously pulled a tight string to keep the edge of the bed straight – for the de-grassing and to keep the border blocks straight as well.

It would be a job of just a few days if I could work for more than an hour or so at a time, but such is not the case as yet. After thoroughly wearing myself out, I came in and ate a bite and realized that I had not been to walk yet. It was way past dark-thirty, but the walking is a much-needed thing for my recovery. It was a bit chilly but with a hat and vest it was still comfortable. So out and down the driveway I went with my trusty stick, stop watch, flashlight and my small tape recorder to record any thoughts that I might have – if I had any.

I felt blessed to have the energy to walk – God is still good, all the time and in every situation. ec