Yard Faries

When I moved into this house, the yard was a little overgrown for my taste. I knew I wanted to do something with, but was really uncertain what, and was feeling less than excited about the work it would take. A few weeks ago at church, I was approached by one of my friends, asking if I would be willing to let the young men and young women come over and do a service project for my yard work. I readily agreed, envisioning all the work I would be saved from having to do personally.

Well, tonight was the night. I posted a couple of 'before' shots, taken right after I moved into the house:

One of the men in the ward brought over a chainsaw, and quickly set to work clearing the larger brush along the back fence line.

Another set of young men worked along the side fence line, removing vines and poles from the area.

Soon, the brush began to pile up, so another group of young men and women stated transferring it to a different spot in the backyard, so it's at least out of my way until arrangements can be made to get rid of it all.

Some of the adult Sunday School teachers came over and helped clear out the area on the side of the house, raking out garbage, cement blocks, and underbrush. The larger trees were left to provide a small amount of privacy between my house and the house next door.

Even the boys got in on the action, staying up far past their usual 7:15 bedtime to help clear out the large bushes in the front yard.

Even Brooklyn found a friend and companion in another girl from our church.

In the space of 90 minutes, everything was gone. The brush and branches were piled next to the shed, and everybody prepared to enjoy some popsicles.

The yard looks so bare and naked to me now, but I'm grateful that the extra brush is gone. Next spring, I plan to put in a raised garden along the side of the yard, and possibly some flowers in this area. I also plan to spread plenty of grass seed this fall, so hopefully some more grass will fill in the areas that used to be bushes and overgrowth.

This is the enormous pile of brush and tree limbs that were removed. I imagine it will take several trips to a lawn waste facility to get rid of all of this.

After the work was done, everybody had popsicles and ice cream. I'm grateful beyond measure, once again, for the members of my church. They're wonderful, and have saved me from innumerable hours of yard work in the coming years. All of these people are teenagers between the ages of 16 and 18, and willingly spent the evening doing hard labor in my backyard in the heat and humidity. I love these people!!