Yard Work

I miss having a yard. Yes. I'm probably crazy. But I miss raking leaves. Frankly, I miss leaves. To be fair there are some trees here in NM and there are some leaves on those trees. But, I was just in Kansas this last weekend and I was reminded how beautiful, colorful and long fall is and it's wonderful!

Anyway, back in September, Dannie went to Utah for a week to help with our new nephew and Carl went to Las Vegas for a conference and so the boys spent lots of afternoons and some nights with us. Of course we had a blast all week long doing homework, seminary, and yes, yard work! (Because I plan the most fun activities ever!)

Haha!

One afternoon when school let out early, I picked Bradley up from the bus stop and we got busy right away because it kept threatening to rain and even thundered a couple times. We got wheelbarrows, rakes, gloves, cheetohs, and lemonade. (Those are all necessary for yard work.)

Like I said, there are very few leaves here, but instead, there are pine needles. FYI, pine needles are not nearly as fun because they're pokey. So picking them up is painful (unless you have gloves) and jumping in them is even more painful (I didn't dare try.) Thus, they are not comparable to leaves in the fun factor. Then once you have a wheel barrow full, you push it around the house through a patch of prickly things that get stuck to your socks and shoelaces. Haha! Oh, what memories.

Bradley was a hard, hard worker! He dumped at least a dozen wheel barrows full and they were heavy. At one point, I heard a holler of pain, a crash and then a groan of misery. I waited to see if I was needed since I assumed he'd found an unknown patch of prickly things, dropped the wheel barrow and was facing picking the needles up again. But he didn't say a thing! He just picked them up and kept working. What a trooper! This picture is of him pretending to play guitar on his rake...


Here is a shot of just how many pine needles we raked... and raked... and raked... :D


When Adam and Dale got home and saw how much fun Bradley and I were having raking and dumping pine needles, they were immediately intensely jealous and demanded they be allowed to help. Right? I think that's how I remember it...



So, reluctantly, Bradley and I allowed them to help just a little bit. And they were a big help! Bradley and I were just plain pooped by the end and so Dale and Adam's finishing touches were much welcome.

Here is a picture of me helping, too - I made sure there was a record of us all working hard together - but sadly the settings were funny and it didn't turn out real well. Oh well, it still proves I was there.