this is how we use expensive area rugs out in the sticks

I bought this Karastan area rug a long time ago from a rich lady that posted it on Craigslist for $200. It likely cost well over ten times that new and was in excellent shape, so I felt that I was getting a pretty sweet deal.

It graced the wood floors back in our last home for several years but was pretty gross by the time we moved out here after much wear from two large dogs, countless beer spills from the social gatherings we used to frequently hold, and just moving across the country in general. I initially laid it out in our little cabin because it doesn't fit any room in the main house well, but it really needed a good cleaning and just wasn't working for me, and I didn't feel like shelling out a couple Benjamins to get it professionally cleaned.

So yesterday, it became reinvented as a kill mulch.

Being all wool, it should serve well for the purpose of killing the grass and creating a new planting bed. I'm thinking that I might be able to reuse it in another spot after it's finished the job, although it might end up just becoming one with the soil -- I think it will be an interesting experiment.

Rug connoisseurs will see this as a travesty (including myself, just a little bit), but I figure that I got good use out of it, and it's time to make use of something that I don't want to spend money on to clean but can't bear to just throw away.

I'm also thinking that due to its rectangular shape, I might make a mini potager garden out of it instead of just one big garden bed (that I would need to step into in order to access plantings and end up compacting the soil, which I'm trying to avoid).

By the way, a certain puppy thinks that he fits well on a queen-size bed:

Lastly, my bro-in-law arrived yesterday afternoon! I didn't take any pictures because we started celebrating almost immediately, and everyone is a little worse for the wear today.