Annual Detrashing of the Yard

For Just One Week

This last week I was inspired by Richelle of Richelle's Reflections who has been using
her For Just One Week goals to tackle major projects. So instead of trying to do something on a daily basis I decided to try it Richelle's way and I'm so very glad I did. Spring is here and for me that always means it is time for the annual de-white-trashing of our yard. You might remember the wood stove only heating adventure from two winters ago. Well, I never got around to cleaning up the wood corner and decided to make that my one week goal.

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Here is what it looked like on Monday.



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Here is a close up of all the stray little wood chunks and various junk items that have made there way into it. Isn't it funny how when you ignore a trouble spot for a time all sorts of random junk just finds its way there. It's as if the junk has found a safe haven because it knows you won't go there. (Hmmmm, that sounds like an analogy that could be applied to all sorts of things in my life.)



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This is half way done. I can't tell you the number of insects, arachnids, annelids, and even mollusks I found while unearthing this little corner of dirt. Monster Man and Sariah had a blast pointing them all out to me as they stood at a safe, and clean, distance while the creatures were actually crawling on my gloved hands and across my shoes.




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This is the finished corner all cleaned up and weed whacked. See that area in the orange circled area? When I started that was all covered in lovely green grass, but while I was picking up wood chunks I noticed it was rather hard and lumpy. Turns out it was part of the wood chunk area and the lawn had just grown over it. I was ripping up turf and digging wood chunks out of the ground. Could this be more fodder for an analogy about how when we let our problems sit too long they can become camouflaged to the point where we can't even see them anymore? (if you can't tell I'm a sucker for analogies)




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And check this out. I thought we had used all our wood up and that there were only a few scattered remnants left on the ground. Turns out we had a huge garbage can and two big baskets worth of wood back there.




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And, lest you think I denied my children a character building experience by not having them help me, I want to show you this little side project. While I was picking up wood chunks I had my monkeys picking up all the junk, garbage, random kitchen utensils, and other various debris that just seems to magically appear under my deck every Spring. The underbelly of our deck is much like a big city river where the Mafia likes to dump it's dead bodies and criminals like to toss the evidence of their crimes. This year I didn't even bother asking who broke up my plant pots, or used my nice spatula as a shovel, or my under bed storage container as a winter sled, because I'm learning not to cry over spilt milk. But you can be sure I had those kids cleaning under there. Now it is all clean and ready for another year's worth of mischief and mayhem.


THIS WEEK my goal is to get some painting done. I promised a friend of mine that I would paint her some funny photo set ups (like the ones you see at carnivals or pumpkin farms where you stand behind a board and stick your face in a hole and suddenly your head is on a horses body) and I need to have them done before Mother's Day. Usually I would wait until the night before they were due and pull an all nighter, but I'm curious to see what it might be like to actually get something done ahead of schedule. It would be a major first for me. So my goal is to get the background and two foregrounds finished by next Saturday.
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What is your major goal this week? If you write a post about it you can share it with us here: