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**creeeaak**
Apr. 1st, 2004 07:04 amWas tired enough after work yesterday that I spent the evening being a lump in my chair, and knitting. Got the middle section of the Stonington shawl done, and am now half way through section one of the first border.....this shawl is worked in three parts. Middle square, worked from corner to opposite corner. First border, worked one side at a time, on sts picked up along each side of the middle square, and worked out as a mitered rectangle. This step yields a bigger square with live sts all the way around, and the sideways edging (last step) is attached directly to these. Very traditional, very clever...the result is s large handknit shawl, which can be done on two needles, and which has no large cast-on or bound-off edges to make hard, inelastic spots in the fabric.
I'm tired and creaky today because I moved 5 1/2 cu yds of mulch yesterday. Most of it with a wheelbarrow, 'cuz none of the motorized equipment will fit through the playgrounds gates at the Child Care Center. Bad architect, no cookie. Heck, at one gate, the wheelbarrow only had 1 1/2" of clearance (that's total).
The grand mulch moving was in mostly preparation for the plants that arriving today--20+ flats of vinca for erosion control in a corner, and as turf replacement in a small courtyard area (because none of our mowers would fit through that little gate). And 7, 5-gal bayberries. Those go outside the fence, a screen for the HVAC stuff on the west side of the building. Got more shrubs to put into the new landscape, but they're on order. Also got most of the stuff I planted last week mulched in, all but the 5 trees at the south end of the tree trail, and that ground's still too wet to take a truckload of mulch down there.
Today's agenda: get the 2 yds of compost at the corner of the Child Care building shaped into something resembling a flowerbed, then start planting vinca (whenever it arrives). Ooooo, aahhhh. Very exciting.
Got a good laugh at the Director of Child Care's expense yesterday. She'd come out while we were mulching, to tell me all about the playground landscaping seminar she'd just been to. Wanted to know if I'd ever heard of chocolate mint, the speaker had done such neat things with it and other herbs at his facility. *snort* Have I ever heard of chocolate mint...how much does she want? She didn't understand why I thought that was funny. I am SOOOO tempted to plant a bunch in the playground. She also thinks she wants Jerusalem artichokes, because the speaker said they made a good corner planting/summer screen along the fence. Gee whiz. Those are even more invasive than the chocolate mint.
Looks like I may end up doing a lot of tree watering this summer. Courtney's SO and his sister bought a farm down by Lake of the Ozarks, and she's probably going to move down there with him. End of May, she was saying. Blech. At the rate this place does turn-around, even for part-time staff, it'll be Sept before they replace her, and no telling if it'll be someone useful.
Grounds Foreman put his ear to the grapevine and got more info on Applicant--seems he went from Kansas City Country Club (which is supposed to be a high-class golf course), to a golf course that was being rebuilt in St Joseph, was told to leave or be fired from there, and is now a property manager at Hermes Landscaping. So tell me, boys and girls, why somene would leave a prestigious position to go work at a gold course in St Joe? Even if it's a chance to help redesign and rebuild a course, it's not a name-making project. AND....Grounds Foreman talked to someone who knew the contractor on that rebuild project. He was told that Applicant had a nasty habit of adding things to the job, after the project specs had been agreed on, and kept trying to bully the contractor into doing it his way. This is NOT someone who'll do well here, even with our current Maintenance Director in charge.
And, for the record, they haven't officially made Applicant an offer yet, the administration's still discussing, and they're expecting to make a decision and have an offer made sometime next week. *sigh* What a mess.
I'm tired and creaky today because I moved 5 1/2 cu yds of mulch yesterday. Most of it with a wheelbarrow, 'cuz none of the motorized equipment will fit through the playgrounds gates at the Child Care Center. Bad architect, no cookie. Heck, at one gate, the wheelbarrow only had 1 1/2" of clearance (that's total).
The grand mulch moving was in mostly preparation for the plants that arriving today--20+ flats of vinca for erosion control in a corner, and as turf replacement in a small courtyard area (because none of our mowers would fit through that little gate). And 7, 5-gal bayberries. Those go outside the fence, a screen for the HVAC stuff on the west side of the building. Got more shrubs to put into the new landscape, but they're on order. Also got most of the stuff I planted last week mulched in, all but the 5 trees at the south end of the tree trail, and that ground's still too wet to take a truckload of mulch down there.
Today's agenda: get the 2 yds of compost at the corner of the Child Care building shaped into something resembling a flowerbed, then start planting vinca (whenever it arrives). Ooooo, aahhhh. Very exciting.
Got a good laugh at the Director of Child Care's expense yesterday. She'd come out while we were mulching, to tell me all about the playground landscaping seminar she'd just been to. Wanted to know if I'd ever heard of chocolate mint, the speaker had done such neat things with it and other herbs at his facility. *snort* Have I ever heard of chocolate mint...how much does she want? She didn't understand why I thought that was funny. I am SOOOO tempted to plant a bunch in the playground. She also thinks she wants Jerusalem artichokes, because the speaker said they made a good corner planting/summer screen along the fence. Gee whiz. Those are even more invasive than the chocolate mint.
Looks like I may end up doing a lot of tree watering this summer. Courtney's SO and his sister bought a farm down by Lake of the Ozarks, and she's probably going to move down there with him. End of May, she was saying. Blech. At the rate this place does turn-around, even for part-time staff, it'll be Sept before they replace her, and no telling if it'll be someone useful.
Grounds Foreman put his ear to the grapevine and got more info on Applicant--seems he went from Kansas City Country Club (which is supposed to be a high-class golf course), to a golf course that was being rebuilt in St Joseph, was told to leave or be fired from there, and is now a property manager at Hermes Landscaping. So tell me, boys and girls, why somene would leave a prestigious position to go work at a gold course in St Joe? Even if it's a chance to help redesign and rebuild a course, it's not a name-making project. AND....Grounds Foreman talked to someone who knew the contractor on that rebuild project. He was told that Applicant had a nasty habit of adding things to the job, after the project specs had been agreed on, and kept trying to bully the contractor into doing it his way. This is NOT someone who'll do well here, even with our current Maintenance Director in charge.
And, for the record, they haven't officially made Applicant an offer yet, the administration's still discussing, and they're expecting to make a decision and have an offer made sometime next week. *sigh* What a mess.
