September 2023 – Major changes to our Yard

September 2023 well this year will be the year we changed the landscape of our entire yard. For the better? Yeah, I guess, but it sure is radical looking. Besides “the spot” from the missing barn now nearly our entire lawn has been torn apart with the install of our new septic system. Our septic guy told us that the septic tanks we had been using were the oldest he’d seen in 40 years. Was it working? Yeah but we were on borrowed time and, with our luck, we would have had a problem in mid February with 80 inches of snow and temps in the -30s. So we had it replaced.

So, no worries for the rest of our days… at least when it comes to our septic.

I’m looking at our yard like, “Are we done now?”

The fact that it stopped raining here for several weeks meant our yard was already a wasteland even before they dug it up and now I feel like we’re looking out a back door in Nevada.

As you can see we don’t have soil, we have a sand box, which is very typical for around here. Now septic code requires us to have the entire place covered with black dirt and seeded which is something I’ve always wanted to do anyway.

We had a last hurrah heat wave here in the upper 90s over labor day weekend which was kind of nice before everything started cooling down.

One perk about living in northern MN is we rarely have more than a couple of weeks a year where its hot enough to make the house uncomfortable. This year it wasn’t more than a few days and they weren’t even consecutive.

We still put in a little AC unit in our master because its basically an attic and can get pretty miserable in the summer time.

I used to just live with it as a fan and open window in northern MN is usually good enough.

But Lodi’s previous job meant he was suffering after long days outside in the heat and I know what its like to work outside in it. Your body can just get so fricking hot / cold to the bone that it just takes FOREVER to get it back.

So keeping our master temperate for him all year is a priority and I can’t say I don’t really appreciate it too!

He still reminds me how wonderful the gift of his heating blanket is every winter even though he doesn’t have to work out in the weather as much anymore.

It was kind of adorable when he first started using it.

All last winter Lodi was a heating blanket burrito on the couch after work every day and then he took it right up to bed with him.

So if you’re having trouble figuring out a gift to get your significant other I would have to suggest a heating blanket lol!

(This is the blanket I purchased for him and it is a FAR cry from the scratchy heating blankets I remember from when I was a kid. This blanket is like a cloud.)

Yeah so clearly my brain is thinking winter thoughts and I totally hate it.

Its impossible to ignore though as we’ve put up our hay for our horse and stashed our pellets for our pellet stove too.

We took the AC out of our bedroom window and the leaves have long since begun to turn.

We haven’t seen freezing temps yet but that’s only a matter of time.

We took our screens down off of our patio doors, put up our outdoor furniture and put our flags and hummingbird feeders away for the winter.

Late August into October are the freakishly “quiet house” months with no fans running to cool the house down and no heaters running to warm it up – the silence always takes a bit of getting used to.

This September 2023 Lodi and I crossed the four year anniversary of when we started dating and it’s just crazy how much can happen in a life in four years.

I guess most people stop celebrating that anniversary once they have a wedding anniversary but we’ve decided we get to celebrate both because, why not?

Unfortunately I am still in my own little funk, feeling incredibly unmotivated.

Though I didn’t do any of the actual work my brain does seem to look at the yard and go, “You’ve done enough.” I guess emotionally everything was a lot for me to process and it did cost us a lot besides.

So much for deciding to have a frugal and quiet summer!

Lodi and I are finally getting “used” to his night shift hours.

My dropping down to four days a week at my day job so we can actually have a real day off together has been really good for us.

September 2023, as usual, I just can’t believe summer is already over.

Hope you guys had a good one!