Annual, One Day Only, Fall, Family Yard Clean-Up Day.

We have a 3 acre yard, which would be a full time job for any ordinary, normal person, to keep looking beautiful, without the help of a yard maintenance company.  Apparently my Grandfather {who this house/yard used to belong to} was no ordinary, normal person, becuz until we moved in, this yard looked like a golf course. We have had our years where we did a pretty decent job of keeping up, and a couple of years, that even the flower beds looked awesome, and it did look good for both of the kids high school open houses,  but those years usually involved serious commitment on every one's part!!!  This year the yard became another one of those projects that got put on hold for the sake of motocross. We barely had time to mow, let alone anything else, and the weed wacker took a crap. Needless to say, things got pretty rough.

Yesterday it was decided, we would have our Annual, One Day Only, Fall Family Yard Clean-Up Day.

That's right, every year, no matter the condition of the yard, we have ONE day, and ONE day only, that we hold a Fall Yard Clean-Up Day.  One day that my husband, who IS NOT a lumberjack, is allowed to wield a chainsaw, like he is a modern day Paul Bunyan. And inevitably he will get carried away with the chainsaw, and I will get ticked off over something he cuts down. {This year it was a perfectly healthy pine tree!!!} Thus the ONE day only rule.  If we had to do yard clean-up for several days in a row, odds are, we'd kill each other.  By spring time, I've forgiven him for his lack of control with a chainsaw. And he's forgotten how pissy I get over his lack of control with the chain saw and we hold the~ annual spring yard clean-up day.  I will attempt to plant flowers, with the husband bitching the entire time, becuz I spent money on flowers, and he knows I will forget to water them and they will die.  Which is true, I hate gardening! I love the way flowers look, but hate taking care of them.  This year I planted NONE. And the weeds took over. Every spring we spray for weeds too, but we are pretty certain that we are now growing a hybrid species of weeds, immune to every type of weed killer. Yes, we've even tried commercial grade weed killers. This year the weeds under the pines grew to epic heights, nearly blocking out the sun!!!! I was afraid the dogs might become confused and get lost in there.  Our house is surrounded on two sides by several rows, of really old, pine trees, and they've become really messy.  After hours of work yesterday, our yard is looking better, but honestly, if you hadn't seen it before the work, you might not even know we'd done anything!!!LOL!!!
And of course, here are some pics.

I planted some mums for our janky looking, tiny porch area

At least these two seem to be enjoying the warm day...

This is the BEFORE.  

Found this UGLY spider. begged Ryan to kill it,
he refused. Yeah, that thing is in my yard still
YUK!!!! 

And of course I have to take some weird pics,
during breaks, of course...

another random pic of weeds.
Ryan and I debated about what this vine was
I'm certain it's a grape vine.

Cool gourds I got at Farm Market earlier that morning.
Still deciding if they'll go outside with mums
or be a centerpiece in house

Tallon loading up the truck with fallen branches
to go to bon fire pit

This is just the beginning.

Doing work!

Even Ali is trying to pitch in and help

Stella and I took a quick nap
cuz yard work is hard work

Thor steals as many sticks as he can!!!
The bon fire pit is overflowing
And there's a GIANT pile along the road ready to be mulched up.

Back section of trees...
weeds mowed down!

Looking pretty good.

I have a belief that, in everything there is a life lesson, some times you've just gotta go looking for it. So let me tell you what lessons I learned today...  When making the decision to gather pine cones, you should consider waiting until AFTER your husband is done running the mowing under the trees. Otherwise, you are likely to get blasted with dust, and flying debris. Now, if you are as slow on the uptake as I am, you will not learn this lesson until you've taken at least two pine cones to the head!! ALSO. When your husband is staring at you from behind, on the stopped mower, odds are, he's not doing it cuz you're bent over and half your butt is hanging out of your pants. And, you continuing to go about your business, becuz you foolishly think that he's just stopped to enjoy the scenery, will only result in his eyebrows doing that, furrowing together in the center, thing they do, when he's annoyed with you.  Followed by an angry response "YES! You are in my way!!!!!"

There was still a TON of work to be done, at quitting time, but we called it a day!! There are still a bunch of weeds to take care of, and I will get pumpkins for the tiny porch, and maybe another purple mum. But for the most part, that's it, The Annual, One Day Only, Fall Family Yard Clean-Up Day is over, and we are ready for Fall.  It was a pretty nice day to be outside doing yard work. Which I suppose is good, cuz I'm such a baby when it comes to cold, but unfortunate too, cuz there is nothing hotter than a dude wielding a chainsaw in a pair of Carhartt's!!! Just saying!!!