A few years ago I collected a second haul of mulch from the TreeCycle, and unlike the year before it was a bad mulch: huge chunks of wood and some whole branches and lots of needles. I piled it at one end of the vegetable garden and ignored it for four years, until today. Today I sifted lovely loam from huge chunks of wood, added the loam to the lasagne mulch still in progress, and cleared that end of the garden. Without a pile of something to deprive it of light and air, that ground will be overtaken by weeds, I know.
So I moved the leaf pile. This has been in kind of a corner of the backyard, blocking access to the so-called dog run between the garage and the fence. If we get a dog, its latrine will be in that area, and now the hypothetical dog can get there without clambering over a tarped pile of leaves. I spread a tarp under one side and raked part of the pile on that and hauled it aside and did the same with a second tarp. Now the main pile was small enough to haul.
Also I watered all the trees except the ash and partly remulched the front gardens. The north half isn't mature enough not to have mulch between plants; the south half is if I can keep up with the bindweed.
Plus I finally put the cover on the swamp cooler, excellent timing since it's unlikely to get cold again at all, let alone the uncovered cold of December.
A good day.