Insomnia Pays

As my mind raced along, the clock steadily turned from 1 AM to 2 AM to 3 AM and later. I don't normally have insomnia but for whatever chemical harmonic that came about from antihistamines and Pepsi and who knows what else, I tossed about in bed with my mind racing. I would like to be able to report that it solved major world problems like hunger, war or hemorrhoid cream ads, but it did not. For whatever reason I was figuring out ways to measure the height and diameter of the maple tree in our front yard. I was also devising ways of mapping the elevation of my yard using a laser pointer. At one point I got up and went to the computer to the USGS website to see if I could download elevation information for my yard. I couldn't figure out how to do it without having to pay for it.

In all this churning of thought one idea made it through to the morning that is worth keeping. I have wanted to try out paths in my yard. A walking trail that meanders from the driveway, between some dogwoods, around the back of the cherry tree, past the hamock and back out into the front yard. I have thought it would make a nice backbone for eventual landscaping by creating destinations along the way - little sitting areas - that would turn my 1/2 acre into a lush paradise. The problem is that I am too cheap to buy the bricks or gravel or whatever to make the path. Sometime in the middle of this morning, between measuring maple trees and calculating elevations, the answer struck me.

I normally mow my lawn at 3" height in strick obediance to the guru's on This Old House. When I'm done, I'm going to set the mower down to 1.5" and mow my path. It costs me nothing and if I don't like it, it will grow back within a week. That probably saved me $1000 in crushed gravel and months of hard work, assuming of course that I would actually ever do it. If It works, and it looks nice, I will post some pictures and maybe leave my house to a foundation as a public garden for generations to enjoy. Sometimes a night without sleep is worth its weight in gold.



(Image from: http://rockymountainnationalpark.com/)