And, yea, obliviousness conquers all.

The garden is probably as weed free at this moment as it's ever going to be (until winter, when I'll probably till it all up. And spring, when I'll till it all up again.) Even that little patch over by the broccoli-beans is cleared out now. (I planted some bush beans there. Maybe they can encourage the broccoli-beans to choose one identity or the other.)

In other news, the trail is coming along. I'm at least several hundred feet down it, and so far it looks... only slightly better than it did before. But! I'm sure it's going to look amazing in the end.

Which brings us to our story of the hour.

Half past nine, the shrubs and saplings at the far end of the trailwork were getting nervous. They knew it would only be a matter of time before they too were pulled up or otherwise ravaged by the fearsome trail-clearer known as Katie.

They only had one chance. And that chance was poison ivy.

"When she sees it, she'll have to stop. She hasn't bought any disposable gloves to deal with it yet, and surely it's too hot out for her to consider wearing long sleeves anyway," suggested one of the random shrubs that look kind of like miniature blueberry bushes. "Poison ivy, won't you help us?"

"Sure," said poison ivy.

And so, this very morning, the forest waited as Katie approached, certain that she would see reason, certain that she would stop at the sight of the poison ivy lurking at the edge of the trail. They would be safe for at least another week, they were sure.

However, the fearless Katie began working, and, to their utter horror and dismay, with all disdain proceeded to pull up the poison ivy with her bare hands. All hope was clearly lost for the shrubs and saplings in the path of the trail.

So as not to end on such a despairing note, I, er, noticed I was pulling up poison ivy with my bare hands a couple seconds after I started doing it and had to go wash my hands. Once you've touched the stuff, you have about fifteen minutes before the oil bonds to your skin. So I went ahead and pulled up any little sprigs of poison ivy I'd been meaning to pull up on my way back to the house to scrub my hands off with soap.

Suffice it to say, I am a beast.

Non-garden update: Hunter

The news has long been out via facebook and me just generally driving around, but I officially have a car. (Well, almost officially. I'm picking up the title from the dealer this afternoon.)

Anyways, here he is:

Don't let the sleekness fool you-- he's a 1999 Honda Accord, manual transmission and all.

The other day, he earned his name at the expense of a directionally-challenged squirrel.
Hunter is, in fact, very fancy. This sunroof opens AND closes. As do all the windows, the doors, the trunk, he starts every time now that he's got a new battery in him... he even has a little button you have to press to make the gas compartment come open. Honestly, driving recycling trucks for so long had me prepared to drive something with mismatched doors, no speedometer, and a tendency to list to the left when driving over 30 mph. Hunter's like a luxury car!

Here's a picture of the stick-shift. Blogspot for some reason wanted to rotate the picture, which I'm cool with. This is what the inside of Hunter would look like if he were a spaceship ready for liftoff.

Note to self: in case of space travel, make sure to release emergency break.

Now I'm off to house-sit for the weekend. Updates on the garden (which is growing, miraculously enough) and the trail (which I've cleared about ten yards of) will probably happen eventually.

Too busy gardening to post.

Behold:

I think this crab holding this bar of Irish Springs soap would be the best advertisement for soap ever. (For the record, I'm trying to scare deer away with my overwhelming cleanliness. That, and they're supposed to be afraid of the smell of soap.)

All in all, things are going well. Here's the flower garden. Mom planted a lot of things she's had in pots for a while now.

And here's a few more pictures:

Red-orange is now the color of success...

Did I mention I went a little color crazy?

The compost kind of blends in with the leaves, but really, it's going pretty well. It's not too wet, not too dry... the pile needs to be a lot bigger, but that'll come in time.

And last but not least, my nemesis. You're time will soon come, poison ivy.

Meh... and the picture is sideways. Ah well. You get the idea. With everything sort of planted, I'll be free to do a little more work on the trails. Or else I'll take a crack at honeysuckle heaven. Maybe both? And poison ivy control?

... maybe I'll just do some weed control for a bit.