If we've learned anything after living in North Carolina for six years, we've learned that Benjamin Franklin was wrong when he said that there were only two things in life about which you can be certain. He forgot about pine needles. They are relentless. They are to yardwork what a cockroach infestation is to... um, inside the house work? I think you get the point. We have nothing good to say about pine needles. We are baffled that there's a whole industry in pine straw here in the south. But with a yard full of pine trees, the war continues.
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| At least someone thinks the pine needles are fun. P.S. This was the pile after raking about half of the backyard. |
We spent the better part of two weekends and a bunch of weeknights in between armed with our trusty rake and the wagon and kids' plastic pool (our improv wheelbarrows), clearing pine needles and pine cones from the yard. We generally revealed dirt underneath the needles, but even dirt is an improvement.
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| I totally forgot to take "before" pictures so just squint and imagine a nice brown coating a few inches thick over the whole yard. Then marvel at this! |
Finally, the yard was clear and it was time to mow.
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| Gideon watched. |
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| Evelyn, proving that mowing is no time to leave your fashion sense behind, on her first mowing adventure with dad. |
The back yard was finally respectable, and we spent this weekend cleaning up the front and doing some spring cleaning of the garage. It's always refreshing to get everything aired out and organized. We've been spending as much time as possible outside, which has also been great.
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| Throwing open the french doors and dining alfresco. I love spring. |
That's pretty much what we've been up to around here. Enjoying the days. We're prepping for our big "Jonathan Survived Pancreatitis" BBQ this weekend, so of course I've just been obsessing about every little thing related to that. I'll fill you in on all the details afterwards.
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