You Should See What It Looks Like From Here

There is something so satisfying about doing yard work.

Now, you could work all week long, do the best job you can do, and get paid for it, but still not feel as good as you do when you have cleaned up the yard. Today was the first full attack on the outdoor space at the weekend house. A long winter means piles of leaves, hundreds of broken branches and a general untidiness everywhere.

Oh yeah, then there's the garage. From the time the weather starts to turn cold, the garage takes a beating. Christmas decorations, cement critters and odds & ends, all end up in the garage. The one thing that never ends up there is the car. Thirteen years after buying the house, we have yet to park the car in it. It's basically just an outdoor closet. So the garage was cleaned and organized a bit too.

The work is hard and exhausting, but the results are worth it. Though it still doesn't look like spring here; the only flowers in bloom are the daffodils and the trees have only begun to bud, a day of raking, blowing and sweeping, does make a difference.

And at the end of the day, after a hot shower and a cold beer, you can look out over what you've accomplished and smile. It looks great. While the overall pristine effect lasts only for a couple of days, it's still worth it. Next weekend it will be time to throw down some mulch, bring out the cement critters and plant some flowers in the window boxes. And so it goes.

Somewhere around July, we're sick of it. Tired of weeding, tired of cutting the grass, just tired. And it's hot. So for today in the last week of April, I'm just going to be glad to have gotten a good chunk of work done.

Tomorrow, I won't be able to move.
And so it goes.