Dig

Morning on the South side of the Old House isn't the best time for it, to turn the sod, which I've put off...only way for a garden or a flower bed is to dig out the devil grass after soaking the ground...kept waiting for rain to do this last year, and let it go!...helped the bit of rain a couple weeks back by getting a new garden hose from Home Depot and doing a good soaking...even still, turning the dirt with a shovel is a task, especially in the morning sun...bit like rest stepping up trail switchbacks when out of breath...I did a little last evening, and more than I thought I would this morning, putting up the shovel when feeling a bit sun stricken...thing about hiking in the Sierras is that you get a feel for your stamina...mine isn't much compared to most hikers!...but I plod, and nearly finished this turning-the-sod part on the side of the House this evening--Maya looking on...sunny hazy blue hot...there's much more sod to turn, the whole backyard and front yard...the ground has become too compacted for grassy lawn, and both are presently a patch work of weeds and devil grass...there's enough of the devil grass to thwart using a roto tiller, unless it was like a riding tractor with a plow!...that'd be nice to have!...if I can do the side and flower garden strips in front and the north side, that'll be good, for now...Oh!...I've been wondering why I haven't seen any earthworms, and searching 'earthworm decline', I find, in the East, European Earthworms are thriving in the forests, forests that didn't know worms since the last ice age, and have a kind of wormless eco system that now is being altered by invasive European earthworms...and more to my search, I find that earthworms are thriving on golf courses, leaving their castings all over which annoys golfers and maintenance crews, but it seems the very careful maintenance is why they thrive--they eat the grass clippings from the grass mowing...no thick lawn, no grass clippings, no earthworms...not having a lot of detritus in the yards, old leaves and such, makes it tough for the bugs and such, and on up to Birds...did see one Sphinx Moth while weed whacking the backyard...tried to capture for pic, but Moth flew up and away, lucky not to have been whacked!...oh...and a month or so back, while sitting on the back step, Green Canary dropped out of the Tree thereabout...when I was a kid,  Monkey came down out of the Bougainvillea over the garage, and much fun until owner retrieved their pet!...Canary gone before I could get pic...