Ryan Fields

Picked up a couple of new side jobs

I was out raking an old lady’s lawn the other day, as usual, one of my side jobs, cleaning up her lawn, and a woman from across the street came over.  She said “This is so-and-so and I was talking on the phone the other day and she told me that you come over to clean the lawn every spring and every fall and when the lawn gets too much for her in the summer you come over and straighten it out for her; mowing and trimming.”

She told me that she is going on vacation and a couple of times this summer and wanted to know if I could mow her lawn while she is gone.  I said “Sure, I’ll be glad to.”  She told me that she had been watching me for the last couple of years and that I did a really good job.  She then told me she was going to tell all her friends.  I said “Don’t do that!”  She said, “well, it’s hard when my friends come and see how nice my lawn looks and they know it wasn’t me!”  I said “well, just tell a couple of the ones that can really afford it because I feel my time is really valuable and I really can’t afford to mow more lawns for little or nothing.”  She said that was fine, money wasn’t an object.  So now I have three new lawns to take care of for occasion for the summer, but I can use the money!

Spring cleanup

I had the afternoon off of work today, so I spent most of the afternoon doing spring cleanup chores around the yard.  Picked up the branches and twigs, swept up the sand, raked up the leaves, repaired the snow plow damage to the lawn, straightened up the mailbox that was leaning precariously to one side. 

Went into the gardens and raked out the old growth and put down new mulch.  I’m going to be fertilizing the yard and garden soon. 

Took the power washer to the siding of the house, it sure looks good now!  Boy no wonder I’m tired - I’m beat!

Bees

Working outside every day, I’ve developed a healthy respect for bees. I leave the big bumblebees alone, but the little yellowjackets and the wasps and hornets have no redeeming purpose other than to annoy and threaten us good people who have to be outside making a living.

Around here you will also find big red wasps. They make nests in the eaves of your house, under your deck and in trees. If you are going after wasps, buy the spray cans that shoot 10 feet away - because these suckers come after you if you don’t kill them on the first shot. I’ve seen it.

From what I’ve been reading in the papers, the little bees that pollenate our flowers and fruit trees are having a hard time of it. They have been dying off and no one knows why. With all the science at our fingertips, we MUST find a way to cure the bees - our farmers desperately need them to pollenate the crops and the orchards.

Spring cleaning galore

What a winter this has been!  I take care of several properties for different people who have asked me over the past few years to do it.  They are getting old.  Unfortunately, every one of their lawns ends up being out by the road.  Well they plowed the road, it seems, like a hundred times this year, as well as sanded it.  We know where the sand ended up!  What a mess!  Some of these lawns I’ve had to work at six or eight hours, meaning with my schedule, I only get one done a weekend; that’s the only time unless I sneak in an hour or two sometime during the week to get these done!

I’m glad I only have three or four!  But I can tell you, each lawn is taking me at least three times as long to clean this year as any other year!  I know I get paid for it, but boy it is hard on the back!  And this means raking, fertilizing, and reseeding a lot of areas.  It seems that the more it snowed, the further in the snow plow set his blade, tearing up the lawn, which I have to fix.  So cleaning is so much harder than any other year.