Fall Clean up

It is so great to wake up to a light covering of snow on your yard and know that if this is the beginning of winter you won't have moldy grass in the spring. John and I spent all afternoon yesterday cleaning up our yard. It is not a favorite task at our house so it was accompanied by the required fight. I wanted it to be a "fun" family project and John just wanted to "get it done". Ultimately Isabelle is sick and Jake had been out all night at a youth group event and was sleeping so it really wasn't a family activity it was just John and I. We mainly just got it done.

We have a loser lawn mower. We inherited it from my parents when they moved to a townhome. Our first lawnmower was from John's parents. John had mowed with it since he was a child and while it wasn't fancy it always started. But then he got busy with work and I don't mow so we hired a sevice. It was so wonderful to come home from an errand and see our lawn neatly mowed. We gave that lawnmower to a friend that had just bought his first home and went along merrily with no mower for several years. But then Jake turned 12. Isn't it a rite of passage for every boy to have to mow the lawn on Saturday mornings? So we accepted the lawn mower from my parents and canceled the service. The new mower is a multching mower which is nice because Jake doesn't have to bag, but it weighs alot and the wheels slip and other things...so John and Jake hate it. After putting too much money into repairs last summer it didn't start this fall for the clean up. I called a neighbor with a riding mower who said we could use their mower and the leaf collector for the day. Well it has changed our life and perspective on yard work. What we could never have finished yesterday with rakes and our little mower we did in only a few hours. John drove it back and forth across our lot whisking up the leaves and putting then in a huge pile and then back and forth over it again to neatly mow it. So there was a little fun. Now we have yet another savings plan and I will definately be spending the winter researching riding mowers. John did eventually get our mower started so if you know someone looking for a cheap mower...

I don't have great before pictures of the whole yard but here is Isabelle and a "snow" angel I made in the leaves. :)