Friday, April 4, 2014

April Showers Bring a Lot of Mud

Helpful Hubby and I own property north of Atlanta. Over the winter, we removed about 6 acres of dead growth, overgrown privet, and vines too entangled to identify. The extra cold weather made the newly exposed ground hard as the ice in the creek, so mud wasn't an issue. But now the spring rains have come and all bets are off.

The mud is coming.

Now, don't get me wrong - I love rain. I love the smell of a spring rain, when the pollen vacates the air and the world has a sparkling new green blanket covering the dirt. But when you clear land of years of neglect and overgrowth, one is left with a shoe sucking viscous material with the strength of quicksand colored the same color as Effie's hair in  "The Hunger Games: Catching Fire"!

It grabs, it spreads, it stains; Red Georgia clay is the stuff of nightmares. In our long ago youth, Hubby and I used to enjoy spelunking. There are hundreds of small (and large) caves in the North Georgia area. Most are wet, which means you are on your belly crawling through the cold mud. We kept our clothes in a garbage bag. No sense dirtying up the washing machine, it will just stain your tub.

Gradually the grass will come in, and the mud will be a fading memory. But as long as we are Terra-forming it will return in abundance. So if a spring arrived and you don't hear from me, send the rescue squad. Chances are I am stuck up to my hips in red!

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