This weekend was wonderful!  I had 4 days!  I bit off some projects.  I have found myself doing many lately, and more maintenance type stuff.  Last year when we paid someone to lay pine straw, I watched them closely.  I didn't see a single thing they did that I couldn't do myself, with some minor modifications.  First, I turned my mini-van into a truck-and-trailer, by removing the two backseats, and cruising to Lowe's just three times for loads of pine straw.  Then, I had my husband use gravity to minimize my work by rolling each of the 90 bales down the hill as I caught them.  Then, I went to town spreading, shaking each of the 90 bales until my yard looked like this. 

I don't have a camera lens wide enough to capture the whole bit here, but I'll tell you, I'm AWESOME!  Cha-ching.  Saved $300.  Not a bad "payment" for a few hours work.  I think I surprised Dan with my abilities too.  He didn't spread a single bale!