Like everything this year, Halloween was different. With nowhere to go and nothing to do, I’d still planned to dress up for Halloween just to participate in my office remote costume contest, but when a migraine struck midweek, leaving me feeling achy and tired for the next few days, I no longer had the energy. I’ll just have to save the idea and supplies for another year. By the weekend, I was feeling mostly back to myself, a good thing too since we’d had a mountain of mulch deposited in our driveway courtesy of a free service Andy discovered - ChipDrop. Since I first mentioned my plan to convert a large area under our two apple trees into a new flower bed through the magic of sheet mulching, Andy argued that ChipDrop and their promise of ~20 cubic yards of free woodchips would be the perfect solution, and while I initially had doubts, he of course turned out to be right. Still, it turns out that a pile of wood chips almost as tall as me takes a lot of time and energy to spread around so my mother-in-law’s offer to come help with our project on Saturday was greatly appreciated. With her help, we were able to complete most of the project in just one day. Of course, even covering an area of around 450 square foot in a roughly 6 inch deep layer of wood chips barely made a dent in Mt. Mulch, and even now, many weeks later, we have a least half left. Still, no regrets. We’ll get through the pile eventually, and it’s hard to beat free!