Yardwork and stuff....

I actually took the time today to do some work outside - something that I really haven't done all summer. Thanks to our lovely drought, I haven't mowed the grass in well over 2 months (seriously - no exaggeration there) and it really doesn't need it yet. But, I think I'm going to do it in the next few days anyway because the stupid trees are coming up in the front yard and it looks awful. Figures that the drought can't kill those too....

Anyway...

I started out by "de-ghettofying" my front porch. For whatever reason, crap has just been accumulating there ever since we returned from TMOART:12 in early July.

I give you "Exhibit A":

You might have to click on it to enlarge it and see my silly captions.
Most of this crap just needed to go into the garage - you know, that little building with the crappy roof that you see in the background of the picture? Yeah, see how far I had to go to get it off of my porch and out of my sight? Yet it took me 2 months to do it.....but the good news is that I at least put it in the garage neatly and didn't just chuck it all in there in a huge pile like I usually do.

So after about 30 minutes (and a lot of sweat - I didn't realize it was actually hot outside) I ended up with this:

Actually it looks even better than that because I brought the blue bag inside (why in the world was it on the porch anyway???) and I *think* I brought the bucket inside too - I need to scrub all of the buckets just in case we decide to go pick fruit again. If I didn't bring the bucket in, I'll be doing that on my way back in from taking the trash out tonight.

Then I wandered over to the side of my house.

*sigh*

See all of that junk on the sidewalk? Especially the pile where Daniel is standing? Those are walnut shells. For whatever reason this year, the squirrels have decided that they need to break open my neighbor's walnuts and leave their shells all over my sidewalk. And let me tell you as someone who does NOT like to wear shoes EVER, those shell fragments might as well be razor blades when they are embedded into the sole of a foot. They will even embed into the sole of a shoe, to the point that they have to be pried out with a screwdriver.

So yeah, I got the broom and got busy. I dragged the picnic table and the trash cans out of the way and swept that entire area. I know that it's a losing battle, especially since the trees haven't even started to lose their leaves yet, but at least it looks better for now, and if I keep up with it, it won't be so bad to keep it clean going forward.

And of course we found some *ahem* treasures...

Now all I need to do is trim some branches, pull the trees out of the flowerbeds, and mow the grass. I was telling Nice Neighbor today that I'm going to try to get both of our yards cut this week - and at this rate it'll probably be the last time that I have to do them this summer, unless we actually start to get some rain (wishful thinking, I know).

The rest of this week is going to be crazy. I'm planning to go run tomorrow morning and Friday morning while Daniel is in school. Thursday morning I'm taking The Dude's mother to a doctor appointment. Sarah has an away volleyball game on Thursday afternoon and an away tournament all day on Saturday plus Emily has two away volleyball games on Saturday morning (and of course they can't all be in the same city - or even the same county for that matter). And then I have a funeral on Friday afternoon. But at least I have my van back so I can get everywhere that I need to go, and The Dude and I can tag team on a couple of things to make sure that everyone gets everywhere on time.

Something tells me that if I don't strap my mind inside my head, I'm going to lose it by the end of the week.