Oh, the lessons. Those that we should have learned by now when it comes to spring yard work. The ones that could have saved us pain and mental anguish this year if only we had remembered. For instance, how \u2026<\/p>\n
\u2022 A dingy fence is better than an aching back. It is known fact that no back pain has ever been reported by a homeowner who chose NOT to repaint a fence. Zero instances. Medical fact. But if you choose to repaint that dreaded fence, with dozens of gothic pickets that require extra attention for those tough-to-get spots, it will feel as if elephants have tap danced on your spine. Not to mention inner thigh pain. (Why does that even hurt!?!)
\nPlus, you will miss so many spots on the fence that your neighbors will gloatingly point this out while asking if you need glasses. Or, since you\u2019re covered head-to-toe in white paint, whether you used the wrong end of the brush. <\/p>\n
\u2022 You should never point out needed repairs to your wife. As we painted the fence, I noticed how a piece on the gate had come loose. By \u201ccome loose\u201d I mean that there is no scientific explanation for how it actually stayed attached. It was totally defying physics. \u201cOh no,\u201d my wife said. \u201cYou should probably fix that. And now that you mention it \u2026 the whole gate is looking like it might need to be replaced.\u201d Ten minutes later and this casual mention had turned attention to major structural repairs needed all over the house and yard.
\n<\/p>\n
\u2022 You should resist the urge to clean the porch floor. Yes, it will look great if you take all the furniture off, scrub it down and rinse a year\u2019s worth of dirt, grime, pollen and spider webs off. Once dried, it will gleam and shine, making you wonder why you haven\u2019t done it sooner. Proud, triumphant, beaming, you will marvel at it. And that is the moment the dog will tromp by with muddy feet. As tears well in your eyes and you consider selling the beast on eBay, you will remember this is why you haven\u2019t done this sooner. <\/p>\n
\u2022 You should explore deep, philosophical questions. Like, is a weed really a weed? If it\u2019s green and has flowers, isn\u2019t it really a plant, just like the rest of your yard? And if it\u2019s just like the rest of your yard, do you really need to spend hours of your life hunched over on your hands and knees pulling them out? And if you don\u2019t pull them out, couldn\u2019t you just tell your neighbors that you are going with an all-natural, organic, high-fiber Florida xeriscaped yard? That they\u2019re all the rage in California? At which point your neighbors will remark, \u201cMan, you still haven\u2019t gotten that white paint off, huh?\u201d If your back didn\u2019t hurt so much, you might be offended. <\/p>\n
Lessons to remember for next spring. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Oh, the lessons. Those that we should have learned by now when it comes to spring yard work. The ones that could have saved us pain and mental anguish this year if only we had remembered. For instance, how \u2026 \u2022 A dingy fence is better than an aching back. It is known fact that no back pain has ever been reported by a homeowner who chose NOT to repaint a fence. Zero instances. Medical fact. But if you choose to repaint that dreaded fence, with dozens of gothic pickets that require extra attention for those tough-to-get spots, it will feel as if elephants have tap danced on your spine. Not to mention inner thigh pain. (Why does that even hurt!?!) Plus, you will miss so many spots on the fence that your neighbors will gloatingly point this out while asking if you need glasses. Or, since you\u2019re covered head-to-toe in white paint, whether you used the wrong end of the brush. \u2022 You should never point out needed repairs to your wife. As we painted the fence, I noticed how a piece on the gate had come loose. By \u201ccome loose\u201d I mean that there is no scientific explanation for how it actually stayed attached. It was totally defying physics. \u201cOh no,\u201d my wife said. \u201cYou should probably fix that. And now that you mention it \u2026 the whole gate is looking like it might need to be replaced.\u201d Ten minutes later and this casual mention had turned attention […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[553,563],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1362","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2015-nutshells","category-houses"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1362","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1362"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1362\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1363,"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1362\/revisions\/1363"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1362"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1362"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1362"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}