"Before"
To make matters worse, it was a mess when we moved in. I wasn't quite sure where the grass ended and the pinestraw bed began. We seemed to have a 4-foot wide transition zone across the yard of grass growing up through deep pinestraw. If I did rake the stuff from the grass to the beds, I wasn't sure where to end. Nathan and I decided the best thing to do would be to clean out the whole shebang. It was a very daunting job, so we talked briefly about hiring some young men to come clean it out for us to raise funds for Scout Camp. I even mentioned it to the YM President a couple weeks ago. But no one called and I got sick of looking at the mess. They say a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step, or something like that, so I determined to just start plugging away at it a couple bags at a time while Daniel napped in the afternoon.
I started on Monday, and he napped long enough that I was able to surprise myself by filling twelve 39-gallon bags. Perhaps the biggest surprise about that was how little yard I actually raked to get that kind of volume! David enjoyed being out with me and really experiencing Little-Boyhood for the first time as he played in the dirt and tortured bugs. He was so filthy by the time I was finished, but I know he had fun.
Tuesday I filled four more bags in a tiny little area. Sixteen bags, and the yard was not even halfway done. By Wednesday I was exhausted and sore and decided to take a break. Plus, I'd reached our maximum number of bags I was allowed to place on the curb for pickup that week, and our back-yard neighbor had two dead pine trees taken out that day. That was pretty fun to watch.
I mentioned what I had taken on to my visiting teacher when she called on Wednesday and she offered to come help the next day (yesterday). Boy did she ever! She brought a rake, her two kids, and some sand toys. The kids all went off to a corner of the yard and played while we plugged away at the yard. I could hardly believe how fast we were filling bags. Daniel woke up before we were finished, but we were so close to being done (!) that I just put a hat on him and sat him down in some shady pseudo-grass to have a sensory fiesta while we wrapped things up.
Right towards the end we had a big surprise as Jacquie raked back a clump of pinestraw and a bunny came bounding out from under it! At first I thought we'd just put it in a box and relocate it, so I put on some leather gloves and caught the little fella. That's the first time I've ever heard a rabbit make noise. After a minute I rethought that course of action, thinking since he was so young his mom would still be around, and I didn't want to separate them. I put him back down and he took shelter behind some long greens against the garage wall. The kids were very interested in the rabbit, but I told them he was very scared and might bite. They were exceptionally good about keeping their distance in spite of their curiosity. We picked up his fluff-lined bundle of pinestraw and put it up against him there to keep him warm, then gave him an apple slice and a sprig of broccoli--just in case. I don't know much about the tendencies of wild rabbits. I hope he does okay.
After that bit of excitement we were all hot and tired, but satisfied with an afternoon well spent. We finished the entire yard, with the exception of the bunny corner, something that I had never imagined I'd accomplish in three afternoons. Thursday alone we filled 29 bags, for a grand total of 45 bags of yard debris, plus a pile of sticks. I have sworn an oath never to let the yard get that bad again! Meanwhile, I really enjoy looking out at the back yard and reveling in what got accomplished.
This is the same view as my "Before" picture. I don't know that you can see much difference in the photo, but it's a huge difference in person.
Some more views of the entire yard...
Thursday's Results: 29 bags of debris, waiting for Trash Day. I put them in the garage so when/if it rains they won't get even heavier.
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