The mulch arrived today! As I had suspected, 10 yards of mulch is indeed a lot. Unfortunately the guy couldn't get his truck all the way back into the backyard after all. There was another tree a few feet inside the gate which blocked the top corner of the truck. He tried really hard too: backing up a foot, getting out of the truck and climbing into the gap to yank branches out of the way, then backing up another foot. He even scraped his hand without realizing it; when he came over to talk to me his hand was bloody. I asked him to come inside and wash the cut out but he said no, he had "some stuff" in his truck. I was thinking, what kind of stuff? a sink? but I didn't push it. For all I know the company has a rule against drivers going inside customers' houses or something. Anyway I gave him a $10 tip because it had been such a hassle. I mean really, most deliveries to my house don't result in driver injuries. He seemed embarrassed by the tip, but at least he took it.
He dumped the mulch as far back as he could get it, which ended up blocking the gate open. Jane could have run right over the pile and out if she had wanted. Thank goodness she showed zero interest in the mulch. I thought she would want to check it out, you know, a big smelly pile of shredded wood that suddenly appeared in the yard, but I guess smells only interest her if they come from food. I even stood by the mulch and coaxed her to come to me because I wanted to see what she would do, and she wouldn't come near it.
It cost a lot more than we used to pay at the county landfill, and it was much better quality. For one thing, I didn't need a bucket to collect scraps of plastic and junk, as we always used to do with mulch from the county. Plus factoring in the time I didn't have to drive to the landfill and back to get the mulch: if I spent all that time doing billable work, then Sands & Soils would end up being cheaper. Realistically of course it doesn't work out that way. Still, this spring looks like it will be busy enough that I wouldn't have had time to go get this much mulch from the county.
I had set aside this afternoon for mulch but then ended up with some last-minute work that had to be done today. Which was a good thing because it prevented me from overdoing it like last week with the dirt. By the way, mulch is much easier to move than dirt. I moved 14 wheelbarrows full (about a yard or as much as would fill our small truck), made a good start on mulching the garden beds, and I feel fine. I also shoveled some of the pile over to the left side to fill up a gap where it would have been easier for Jane to see that she could get out.
When Georg got home he shoveled the pile back far enough to close the gate. (I took this picture right before he finished.) It's a good thing we can park our cars in the driveway, because I think the mulch pile is going to be there for a while. I have work tomorrow all day, and then we have plans in the evening. We have a wedding to go to on Saturday so we won't want to work too hard in the morning, and then I have some prep work to do for my show on Sunday. At least with daylight savings time we'll have more time to work on it in the evenings.
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