Halloween Clean Up

For some time now, since Halloween if you must know, I have been wanting to remove the post holders I pound into the ground for the Flying Ghost display. 

In the past, I have found it to be a most arduous task, causing sweating, cursing, beer drinking, shortness of breath, and back pain.

In the past, I have always removed them soon after Halloween.

This year, the remained skewered to the ground all winter. 

So now it is approaching four months that they have been out there and it is time for me to be a responsible home owner and remove this blight.

I went out with shovels and rakes and implements of destruction, but no beer. I'm on my Season of Lent South Beach Insanity Diet and that means no beer. I was anticipating a fight and a beer would have been nice.

I proceeded to input my multi-pronged plan.

Prong 1: Place a post in the sleeve and move it back and forth and side to side to help loosen the soil around the post holder.

Prong 2: Place the post on the ground and use it as a fulcrum in concert with my trusty shovel to (hopefully) easily lift the post holder from its moorings.

Prong 3: With no beer to steel my nerves, say a short prayer.

Prong 4: Raise post holder from ground with the shovel as a pry bar and my courage as a force to be dealt with.

Prong 5: Remove the reaming post holder with the same ease and flare while imagining how much better this all would have been if I had a beer.

Surprisingly, they all came out easily. I attribute this to all the rain we have gotten in the last week...close to an inch.

With that job out of the way, I felt it was time for beer. Doo!