Who would have ever thought I would mention Bobbie Gentry, of all people, in this space twice in the course of two weeks?
Well, if the shoe fits...
If Bobbie Gentry thought it was dusty on the third of June when she wrote and sang Ode to Billy Joe, she should have been mowing grass with me on the late afternoon of the fourth of June in the year 2023, up on Pine Grove Road. Had she been, she would have had a whole lot more to sing about.
Dusty doesn’t even begin to describe it.
As of this writing Monday morning, I don’t remember when it last rained and the dust from our dirt road that has engulfed everything in sight, combined with the dust stirred up by the mower blades against the parched earth and dry grass was almost too much to bear.
At times I had to stop and wait for the dust to clear before I could see to proceed and then matters were not much better because my eyeballs had a thick, itchy coat of dust on them as well as every other part of my body that was exposed, which since it was kind of hot on the fourth of June, 2023, was pretty much all of my body that is legal to be exposed on Pine Grove Road or pretty much anywhere else other than a nudist colony.
I don’t think we have one of those on Pine Grove Road!
The more I mowed, the more the dust storm swirled around the house turning the porch, and the swings, and the rockers, a whole new color with each passing round.
My poor wife, Danny, even gave up on trying to rinse the dust from the road off of our vehicles because I was stirring up a much bigger fog than any of the chicken trucks do on a regular basis.
Then, finally, after the mowing was complete — and it does look fine, mind you — it was time to drag out the blower and commence to blowing all the dust I had just hours earlier began blowing up on the porches, back off of the porches into the yard from whence it came. It was a vicious cycle, mind you, a vicious cycle.
I would dare say the septic tank might even need pumping out after I showered and watched my skin return to its normal color and the red dirt swirl around, and around, and down the drain.
But it’s done. And, perhaps it rained Monday evening and settled things down. I hope so.
And that, my friends, is just the Sebastopol side of the story.
On the other side of the story, it seems that we, my wife and myself, have entered the reclamation season of our lives. We’ve decide to reclaim the portion of the yard at our Ross Barnett Reservoir house, that unfortunately we have kind of let slide over the last few years.
That house is our weekend and holiday retreat which means we only have a day or so of yard-working time available and a day or so don’t get it done in this day and time for some reason beyond me!
I can honestly say I have never seen so much honeysuckle, poison ivy, Virginia creeper, yellow forsythia, and satan’s very own creation, saw briar, in one location in my life and it was all too close to the house to burn.
All that invasive stuff is as bad, or worse, at the reservoir as the bamboo and privet hedge is at the Pine Grove Road house. That is absolutely too much for one person to bear for certain.
But bear it we shall and little by little, week by week, a day or so, and a day or so at a time, we are getting there.
We are, however, scratched, stabbed, scraped, burned, blistered, sprained and any other negative adjective that can be associated with honeysuckle, poison ivy, Virginia creeper, yellow forsythia, and satan’s own creation, saw briar, pulling and chopping one might be able to conjure up, as well as itchy, dusty, tired and, above all else, old and almost worn out!
But, like I said, we’re getting there, little by little, we are getting there and it’s beginning to look pretty good. I do not see the light at the end of the tunnel yet, but I think I caught a glimpse of a glow in the distance.
And that looking pretty good part kind of helps with all those bad parts aforementioned, so, I suppose we’ll keep on the same track, ‘cause it kind of feels good at the same time.
Kind of...as long as the hydrocortisone cream, BCs, Salonpas patches, ibuprofen, and Bandaids hold out anyway!
