after returning home, i packed up my things, left a note for lauryn, then rode off to belmont around 10:45am. first thing i did when i arrived was to turn off the sprinkler for the smaller tract of front lawn, which by now is mostly self-sufficient and doesn't need daily watering anymore. i replaced the melnor oscillating sprinkler on the larger reseeded lawn tract with the melnor minimax because it doesn't sit on the lawn like the other one (the minimax is on a step spike). i then adjusted it so it waters the reseeded lawn.
walking into the backyard, i saw a large rabbit casually leaving RB3 after eating a few clumps of rudbeckia leaves. this was probably the same rabbit i saw yesterday that i tried to chase out of the yard but then disappeared on me. that's when i saw the newly-dug entry hole at the northeastern corner of the yard. i didn't block it off because i was hoping the rabbit would leave, but apparently it didn't. i had my father open the western gate so i could drive the rabbit out but at the last minute it ran east, jumping across the basement entrance, then disappeared as i gave chase. i was ready to give up when my father spotted the rabbit again, this time near the maple tree. i was hoping to drive it out the western gate but it ran behind some logs against the southern fence. when i tried to track it down, that's when i noticed the oversized hole underneath the fence. so that's how it got in. i ended up blocking that hole along with the northeastern corner hole.
my mother made some more rice noodle for lunch.
afterwards my father and i went outside to do some sunday yard work. we started by first moving the dragon fruit cactus and the water reed plants outside. we didn't want to expose the cactus to the full force of the sun right away, so we put it underneath the maple tree, where it can get some dappled sunlight for a bit before we relocate it again. i also moved out the gardenia (in the shade) to spray with neem oil before returning it to the basement a few hours later. it didn't have as many mealybugs as last time, but there were still a few. weekly preventative outdoor spraying should keep them at bay. i added some mosquito bits to the bird bath. i noticed something kind of interesting with the water: there was actually some duckweed. most likely transferred over by birds. (however now that i'd have some time to think about it, i think they may actually just be grape flower blossoms from the grape vines growing overhead).
our biggest project of the day was to prune the large yew bush next to the garage. according to my records, the last time we pruned it was july 2019. i think that was just some light pruning. i'd already gave it trim back in april, using the hedge shears to carve out a corridor from the overgrown bush. how overgrown is it? it's actually taller than the house now. we've been meaning to cut it but kept pushing it off every year until today. we planned on removing about 40% of the grown from the top of the bush. we tied an orange string around the circumference to make it easier to cut. we used the platform ladder as it was the tallest standing ladder we had. i primarily used the fiskars lopper, but occasionally grabbed the hedge shears if i was removing a bunch of small thin branches. i worked the front, then the side, before doing the back. while that was happening, my father was trimming some lower branches with a circular saw, then used it to remove some large branches overhanging into our neighbor's yard.
so we started around 1pm and didn't finished until 6pm. we cut to a point where i couldn't reach some of the center branches, nor the few branches still overhanging into the neighbor's property. so we brought out the manual pole pruner and the electric pole saw. we tried the pole pruner first, but the blade had a tendency to stick, and could only really cut very thin branches. instead we used the electric pole saw. my father started first by removing those annoying overhanging branches. he used the pole pruner as a "hook" to pull up the branches that fell into our neighbor's yard. next my father climbed the platform ladder and cut the last remaining tall branches still poking out from the center of the bush. he cut them from the back, before we moved the ladder to the front where i got to use the electric pole saw.
because of the many exposed branches and sharp pruned ends, i ended up with two dozen cuts all over my arms. it seriously looked like i was in a knife fight. some looked like cat scratches, while others were deep gorges that i only noticed afterwards. it got to a point where my arms hurt so much i went back inside to find a long-sleeved shirt i could wear. i also put a folded tarp on top of the branches so i wouldn't get anymore cuts while i worked. that wasn't all my injuries! at one point while relocating the platform ladder, a pruning saw fell off the top (my father had placed it there) and hit me on my stomach. it hurt, but i didn't see any holes on my t-shirt, so i figured it was nothing. only later when i went inside to use the bathroom did i notice the gash wounds on my stomach, like something with very sharp teeth tried to take a bite out of me.
it was also a hot day, temperature in the 80's. i was sweating so much, i could smell that acrid aroma of dried perspiration on my soaked t-shirt.
even though we finished pruning, there wasn't time to properly dispose of all the branches. since we don't have enough garden refuse barrels, my father opted to bundle up the branches with twine and throw them out on trash day. but that was a task left for tomorrow, so in the meantime, piles of branches sat on our front lawn and parts of the backyard as well.
my mother made some tripe that we bought from restaurant depot last weekend. there was also some grilled teriyaki salmon and stirfry tofu, but i could've eaten the tripe all on its own. afterwards my father cut up a costco pineapple for dessert, it was very sweet.
i headed back to cambridge by 7:40pm. when i got home, i went to the dollar store to see if they had any twine. they didn't carry it last time, but this time i saw the rolls of jute. i ended up buying 3. coming back, i noticed a distinctively pastel colored sunset. is this still the doings of our canadian wildfires?
after using the bathroom, i took a hot shower, trying to wash my various wounds. i got a blue pears soap from the dollar store, which supposedly has mint extract (probably not the best soap for wounds). some of the cuts were so deep (like the bite marks on my stomach), even with washing, the blood won't come out.
lauryn came out just once (around 10pm), to take a shower before going to bed. i didn't see her at all this entire day, from morning to night, just the lights in her bedroom. i pray to the gods of roommates that she will go to work early tomorrow so i can have the house all to myself!