Even without a list, I can stand in my living room and look out the front window at several days of work that must be done.

Some of the work is quick and easy, while other tasks are going to take a long time.

All must (or should) be done soon. And all must be finished before I start on my garden.

My green, emergency address sign was knocked off my mailbox post by a snowplow the only time I saw one come by this winter.

I only have it fastened up with heavy wire, which is not a good idea, and it only lasts a couple years before needing replacement. Thirty minutes for an easy fix, a lot longer if I decide to do it right this year.

The next job is cleaning all the trash and plant debris that has piled up under our Norway spruce tree.

It was about four inches tall when our daughter brought it home from college about 30 years ago, and we planted it in our yard. Now, it is about 30 feet tall and maybe 15 feet across at the bottom.

Birds, squirrels and rabbits all live in or under this tree. Maybe a couple hours if Susie helps with this job.

We have a large clump of ornamental grass in the front yard. I really like the way it looks most of the year. Now, it is about six feet tall and needs to be cut back to about one foot. Hedge trimmers make quick work of this job. It takes about 10 minutes to find the clippers and half that to cut the grass.

We have an old maple tree in the front yard. Every time the wind blows, it drops dead limbs.

For some reason, Susie seems to enjoy picking these sticks and limbs up and putting them in the trash barrels. (Maybe she doesn’t enjoy it, but I tell myself that.). We need to clean these up before the first cutting with the mower.

We have a small patch of garden between the sidewalk and the house. It is about four feet wide and 20 feet long. I borrow my neighbor’s small rototiller, which fits in this small plot, and till this up for whatever I decide to plant there.

If I don’t plant anything, wild raspberries grow there, as do sunflowers, the result of seed that falls from my bird feeders over the winter. Often, gourds that I had for decorations on our porch for the fall holidays will fall onto this area, and when I plow them under, the seeds often sprout.

The area will take about an hour to till, and maybe another hour if I decide to actually plant something there.

Two jobs left in the front of the house.

The easy one is to take down the winter birdfeeders and put out the hummingbird and Baltimore oriole feeders, and two small birdbaths.

I put the new feeders out and Susie fills them.

I have to stand in the window and watch the birds and squirrels look for their food, which has been there all winter.

One more job out front I do only every few years, but it needs it this year.

I take my weedeater and knock all the grass and weeds out of the cracks in the driveway.

Next, I plug in my large air compressor and hook on a long tube with a nozzle and walk along the cracks in the drive and blow all the dirt and debris out. So far, this sounds fairly easy. Wrong. It takes hours for me to accomplish this.

Then, I buy a bunch of tubes of blacktop filling stuff that I squeeze in all the cracks like caulking.

I don’t have to cover the entire drive with the liquid coating this year. In fact, never again.

The next time it needs it, I will have someone else do it for me.

Beside my house is a four-foot wide space between the garage and our motorhome. I stash trash barrels, flower pots, and assorted other junk there.

Over the winter, this area fills with leaves.

I move all of these items out to the driveway, then take my leaf blower and start cleaning this area. I blow all the leaves into a corner and scoop them up and either fill my trash cans or use my wheelbarrow to haul the leaves out back and dump them on the garden.

This gets me to the back of the house which is a whole other job list.

After covering grills, wooden chairs and swings with tarps to protect them over the winter, I have to uncover them all and replace them on the patio.

All the lines on Susie’s clothesline have to be tightened. (I don’t know how plastic coated wire lines can stretch so much over the winter.)

Limbs must be picked up out here also, and the birdbath needs to be replaced on its pedestal.

The last big job to do are the two gardens, but that’s a whole other story.

Rich Creason is an award-winning outdoors and travel writer whose work has appeared in local, regional, national and international publications for 40 years. Born in Anderson, he is a graduate of Markleville High School. He lives in South Madison County with his wife, Susie. He may be contacted at [email protected].