It's Labor Day. I labored.

This has been a day for puttering. I looked out the kitchen window while fixing breakfast and decided that this was the day those ugly green "horse apples" from the bois d'arc tree were getting picked up.

I used a big plastic rake to herd them all alongside the edge of the patio. In prior years I've stooped over and picked them up, one by one, and chunked them into the trash bin or garbage bags. It's exhausting and hard on my back. This was phase one, when I raked them into seven or eight small groups.

When I quit this morning, they were loosely gathered here. Raking them up was a cross between field hockey and herding cats.

Middlest and Fourthborn couldn't help, because they both have POTS: if they change positions too quickly or bend over, they run the risk of blacking out. So my plan was to wait until the sun was at least partially behind my neighbor's trees, but before the mosquitoes come out to play, sit on the picnic bench, and have both the horse apples and the trash bin in easy reach.

We modified that plan a little. Fourthborn came out and sat on the picnic bench. She held trash bags open for me and suggested that I shovel the horse apples in. It worked very well three to five at a time, 20 per each bag because those little guys are heavy. So, eight bags only partially filled, and eleven loose anvils horse apples.

That bois d'arc tree really takes the "be fruitful and multiply" commandment seriously. I love that tree for its rugged beauty and the shade it provides. However, at this time of year I'd like to have a word or two with the person who decided, 46 years ago, that a bois d'arc tree in what would eventually be my back yard, was a scathingly brilliant idea. I got everything down to the curb without incident or injury. Ta-daa!

There was also knitting progress. I got the I-cord all the way down the back edge, across the bottom, and up the front. I also picked up stitches for the top edge, but before I work that, I want to knock out the I-cord around the armscye. It's quite fiddly and requires the use of my 4" DPs. I'd prefer not to lose (another) one in the Tardis while sitting at a stoplight.

I managed to get the balance right between food and water, work and rest today. It's been a good day. And my backyard looks almost civilized.