So I went out and cut the grass Wednesday before Football practice. For some ungodly reason,my lawn has been growing so fast that I have had to cut it every 3 or 4 days….Probably because of all the rain and humidity but the high heat keeps me from doing it any more often. I have 3 men living in my house and not one will get off his lazy but and cut it for me. But believe me, at least one of them thinks he can criticize the way I do it….I quickly told him if he didn’t like the way I did it, get of his duff and do it himself….But that would be work!
Now I have been slacking on the trimming because I have been hoping that said man would go and get the 2 cycle oil so “we” can use the weed eater…It’s not going to happen unless I do it myself.
Thursday, I decided to do the trimming. We have a fenced in back yard and the neighbors have a concrete patio with a nice privacy fence….right up against our chain link(which is mostly their chain link. we just have parts attached to their poles.) The grass just loves this chain link and so do the wild trees that seed themselves from other trees in every one else’s back yards…. We have no trees or bushes in our yard whatsoever…okay with the exception of rose bushes.
My mother-in-law is 81 years old. She doesn’t do anything outside except criticize what I plant. So I grab my supplies from the garage….the had trimmers, my pruner from the house, my role around garden stool, a trash bag, a rake and some gloves and I “go to town” on the wild grass that the mower can’t get to…. I start at the back gate, being cautious around the tomato and pepper plants that the “Brain Children” have planted on top of each other, trim around the fence and the rose bushes clipping off dead growth as I go and work my way up to the side gate and back along the mother-in-law’s side of the house. I even pull up the grass growing in the side walk and right up against the concrete foundation.
Then I work my way out the gate on my side and trim around the foundation and down along my side garden. Then “stupid” hit me….I should edge the sidewalk. but first I trim around the front stoop walk, front garden and over to my mother-in-law’s side. This is where it get hectic. She planted a garden of hostas and because it’s the way she always does things, instead of digging up all the grass first, she just put screen down and lay a shallow bed of white rocks around them….So the grass grows up through the screen along with other assorted weeds and tree seedlings. I wasn’t planning on weeding her side at all, just trimming around the fence and walk where the mower misses.
Stupid question Number 1: “What are you doing?”…..well let’s see, I have trimmers, a trash bag, a hand full of weeds…..Oh I must be planting weeds! RIGHT!!!!
So now I’m getting tired, but I really want to trim the sidewalk and edge it….You’ve got it! BY Hand! That’s when the work really began. You can tell this yard had not been edged in quite some time. First, I need to put shoes on as I have spent the last few hours barefoot in old shorts with my bathing suit underneath. (and it’s a good thing, too as the shorts decided they had had enough and started splitting out everywhere!) So I use the smaller pointed shovel and locate the edge of the sidewalk (3-6 inches covered in grass) and start a long drawn out process of did a few feet, pull the sod up, shake the dirt loose and toss the grass into the wheel barrow. I used 3 wheel barrows full of grass/sod to fill in the holes in the backyard that my son’s female dog has created. (Please take! You have a great root system!!) Did I mention that my husband “fixed” the wheel barrow wheel? The “new wheel he put on was flat!
The husband came out once when I asked him to take the wheel barrow around…then watched me work for awhile. My mother-in-law said I made her tired just watching me….and besides, it had always been her doing the inside work and my father-in-law (who passed away in 2001) took care of the yard…Must be nice! I can’t get my husband to do anything but complain about how I do it!!
While digging for the lost sidewalk, I noticed the grass growing in the gutter along the street…. And before you know it, I had 5 bags of weeds and clippings, 2 more wagon loads of sod/grass (I switched from the flat tire wheel barrow to a child’s wagon with a plastic tub in it), drank 4 large glasses of drinks (Water, Tea and even some soda) and 6 hours later, I had trimmed, clipped, weeded, edged and filled holes enough to stop for the evening….I drug the last load of grass around to the rear along with all the tools and trash bags.The front walk has been reclaimed and the rain water will flow smoothly along the street next time it rains.
Six Hours from the time I started…..
Hot, tired, sore, dirty and pretty pleased with my work, I finally took off my shoes and socks, threw my poor rag shorts into the garbage and sat down in the baby pool in the back yard drowning my body in look warm water….Ahhh refreshing!...But not quite as refreshing as the shower I took when I went in the house.
As I stepped out of the tub and wrapped up in the bath sheet, I heard voices waiting to get in the bathroom…So wrapped in a bath sheet from neck to toes, I sat on the Chaise in the living room in front of the AC and Fans….and almost fell asleep like that!
That’s enough Yard work for me for the week!
Hugs and Love to all!!
