Twin Engines: I Heart Yard Waste!

1. I knew I'd have to do something about the yard but have not thought about it for a second. While I was trimming the bushes with my helpers last night (okay, I thought about it for ONE second) my neighbor brought a flat of marigolds for me, which meant I HAD to do something about them today so they don't die (on purpose). Which turned into me planting the marigolds, planting the free tomato seeds the kids got a Lowe's kids' building project, and tackling the area that I think was once a garden and does have a couple of poppies, but now just grows weeds. Impressive weeds, though. Those dandelions had roots the size of carrots! Made me think of fancy salads with dandelion leaves - that's the kind of garden I can grow here. Then I kind of went berserk on the dandelions because our yard is infested. My hand hurts now and I need some ibuprofen. But we have a wagon full of dead dandelions and few less in the yard. I'm not even going to think about the violets.

2. Our new backyard has a patio beneath a GIANT tree whose shade is going to be GLORIOUS this summer - I know because it already is. It's perfectly situated for evening shade, right where we need it the most, for eating our evening meals al fresco. While we had a beautiful raised deck in MN, it was the hottest, sunniest part of the entire yard. We couldn't eat out there most summer nights :(.....so I guess another perk to downsizing is a wonky, uneven backyard patio with the MOST glorious shade tree EVER for summer evenings. It's where we took our lunch and snack today, homemade Orange Julius drinks.

3. I've counted 17 "elephant ear" plants popping up through the mulch (what IS their real name????) praise the LORD! because I was all like, this is an acre of mulch, what the HECK am I going to do with it???? Not a lot, hallelujah!

4. The city has a tree chipper that is coming by on Tuesday. I know because it came by on Friday while I was prepping for C's party and I was all like, AAAGGHHH! Must! Take! Giant! Heap! Of! Branches! To! YOUUUU!!!! And I rushed out there and threw 10 measly twigs into the (what I'm going to call) wheelbarrow so me and this nice guy who works for the city (and whom I see EVERYWHERE no lie) are YELLING at each other over the noise of the chipper and through his earplugs WHEN ARE YOU GOING TO BE BACK?!?! TUESDAY!!!! That's how we now have giant piles of twigs on our curb - they got moved from the backyard (thanks Grandpa A and Uncle A;)

5. Our "I Heart Yard" waste container. Now I am going to tell you one of the FUNNIEST things that has happened in our almost 11 years of marriage. Hubs likes to be classy at all times, so instead of dumping our yard waste in any old container and spray painting "yard waste" on it, he went and bought a brand new garbage can. In our new town you can either put your yard waste in a compost bag or a container of your own at the curb on garbage day - WAY WAY better than putting that stinky stuff in the back of your minivan to go to the compost site, lemmee tell ya! So he was all excited and decided to be REALLY fancy and spent a HALF hour DESIGNING a stencil so it looked nice! Oh, my, it was hard holding my tongue but I'm so glad I did! Because after painstakingly cutting the "yard waste" stencil and applying it to his pristine new can, it came out looking like this! Now I die laughing every Wednesday when I take it out to the curb because our whole neighborhood and the whole world know that WE HEART YARD WASTE!!!!!