Spring Time Clean Up !

This past week I had spring break and that meant that it was time to do some spring cleaning and maintenance work. I was happy because that meant that I got to spend time outside working with my hands. Plus it made me feel important because every time I went outside Logan stood at the storm door pounding on it with his hand to get my attention, or just stood there and stared at me wanting to be with his old man.

The week was busy though. Monday I had spent the entire day working with my friend Jason spreading mulch for a friend of mine that I've gotten to know real well over the past couple of years through church. All together we spread 7 yards of mulch around his property. Then Wednesday I helped a friend get things together for her tennis tournaments this coming season, and mulched her flower garden. Then I finally had time later in the week to take care of my lawn and flower beds.

O, yeah we also took down to limbs from a couple of trees in the back yard that were hanging on our roof and our neighbors roof. It was fun to get the family involved. As usual, Renae or I was around with the camera to take pictures :) There is still work to be done, but I got a nice start on some of the projects!

It all started last Sunday when Logan decided that he was going to help Mom and Dad clean out the rest of the leaves and weeds from the flower beds.

Then I taught him some things about life...

and he thanked me for the heart to heart.

Here is a picture of the house before we moved in...notice the lawn is waist high and take special notice to the ugly bush blocking the left window.

This was last spring when I put in the landscaping logs put down the first layer of mulch. Notice the ugly bush again...

Now fast forward to this year. Now came the day for mulching over this year's spring break.

With all the crazy warm weather we got, the flowers were coming out to say hello

Hopefully they hold on for a little while.

This was a piece of downspout that came down last fall. I threw it off to the side and thought that I saw a couple of chipmunks hiding in there from time to time...guess they made it their home.

Now we are ready to start laying the mulch. Notice the hack job that Renae did on the bush in the top left...it won't be there for long.

Logan made another appearance and wanted to help me do some mulching.

Bag #1 down and out.

Renae is great with taking pictures of the flowers. Isn't this awesome!

Notice how Logan is observing me and what it is that I am doing.

Because before long he was in the bed with me, helping out.

How does that old saying go? "Like Father, Like Son."

That bush I told you to notice earlier...yeah, after I got done with it all that was left was the bleeding hearts...

The last big task to do was get rid of some tree limbs hanging on the roof and the neighbor's roof.

So one by one they came falling.

Then it was time to get rid of some dead branches higher up...so dad helped me get the pole to about 20 feet.

Renae caught this shot right as the limb broke loose and starting come down.

And almost taking me out. All in all I suffered one hit...and it was smack on the upper lip and nose.

This is me standing over one of the piles of limbs that we took down. There were two more almost this same size.

My neighbor was funny. She heard the noise earlier so she came out to see if everything was alright, and then watched me cut every limb down. She was thankful though, because she is the reason we took these limbs down.