My sister and her husband came down for the weekend so we could have a pruning party. My crepe myrtles and other assorted bushes and shrubs needed serious pruning. Cindy does the crepe myrtles every year for me, but there were some bushes that hadn't been pruned since I moved to GOC Central here in Beautiful Dunwoody.
They said all I would have to do was cook them a delicious dinner and they would do all the pruning and other yardwork required. Hmmm! They work cheaper than Mexicans. And they speak English.
They drove down from Columbia South Carolina Friday afternoon and I took them out to eat. Fatten 'em up before I put 'em to work.
On Saturday morning, Ryan started on the shrubs in the front yard while Sherry and I ran errands. We had to go to Crate and Barrel over at Perimeter Mall so she could buy some cognac glasses. Then it was off to Fresh Market for some filet mignon steaks, shrimp, and strudel for Sunday breakfast. We had to stop at Dunwoody Needle Art so she could buy some needlepoint stuff. Then on to Kroger to do my weekly grocery shopping.
By the time we got back to the house, around noon, Ryan had already finished off the front and was working on the berm. I had stopped at Home Depot on Friday and bought some yard waste bags. Here in DeKalb County, the county will not take yard waste along with the regular trash. You have to purchase special bags for grass clippings, tree limbs, and the like. This kind of trash is only picked up once a week. In my case, it's on a Friday.
As Ryan pruned, Sherry and I started cutting the prunings into smaller sizes and stuffing them into bags. I also cleaned up my raised beds by pulling up the leftover plants from last year's garden and covering them with mulch from my compost heap. We stopped around 5:00 so we could rest up and I could cook dinner.
We had some smoked salmon before dinner. Our dinner itself was filet mignon cooked on the grill. Sherry had a baked potato. Ryan and I had rotini pasta with shrimp and mushrooms in an alfredo sauce. We also had corn on the cob and a tossed salad. I opened a 1995 Medoc to enjoy with the meal.
Afterwards, I opened up my Howard Dean Delamain cognac (the bottle that my friend Michael bought me for betting me that Dean would win the nomination) and Ryan and I had a few snifters of that.
Sunday, !0:00 AM it was off to Home Depot to buy some more trash bags, some landscape timbers (I needed to raise the bed where I'm moving my compost heap), and nails. We worked from 10:30 to 3:00, with a short break for lunch, cutting and bagging the prunings.
Since the county won't pick up this kind of trash until Friday and it's supposed to rain Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, we put the filled bags in my garage. We filled 18 of 'em and they're not small bags.
Ryan and Sherry left around 3:30 for the 3 hour drive back to Columbia. I took a nap. Even though they did most of the work, I got every bit as tired as they did.
Here's an example of just how beat I am. The Sommelier Guild was having a board meeting tonight where I would get a free meal and drink lots of wine and I was too tired to go.
Arrrgggghhhhh!
Here are some pictures from the Great Dunwoody Pruning Party.
It was much worse than that. But that is a good shot of the Great Wall and the Great Patio of Dunwoody. One day I shall have to relate the story of their construction and Big Ed, the contractor.
Ryan and Sherry. Photos by Ryan's digital camera and enhanced by his Photo Shop skills.