Sunday, May 24, 2009

It's the beginning...

I usually start my backyard work during Spring Break. Raking leaves, pulling weeds, relocating plants, trimming, planting, and pulling. This Spring Break however was spent spending time with family and a last minute trip out of state. Since then I have been busy with more traveling and then a broken coccyx.

So here we are, Memorial Day weekend. The weather was beautiful....

...and the backyard looks horrible, the pool is full of slime, and I am in constant pain.

You know how sometimes you just get a feeling, an urge? I was sitting in the backyard today watching the girls jumping on the trampoline and chatting with a friend. I kept looking around at all the work that had to be done.So what did I do?

I picked up a rake. I just couldn't look at it anymore.

This is the pile that I ended up with.Things were shaping up.But sadly, I couldn't do anything about the pool. But I could make the girls do something:c)They worked out quite a system. Two wore gloves and scooped up the muck and leaves into buckets and then handed them up to be dumped into the trash bag. When the bag was full they'd switch and the bucket dumper became a muck scooper. They did it with no complaints and in about an hour they were done.And quite proud of themselves.

All that was left was a small pool of mucky water.Makes you want to dive right in, doesn't it?

We were wondering what to do next when this guy showed up.He had a borrowed power washer and got right to work. He quickly had everything cleaned up.Some people just couldn't wait for it to be done.After the sump pump and some trips up the ladder with buckets full of the remaining water the cute pool guy said it was time.

The girls knew what that meant and ran out the gate.

We have the most amazing neighbors around. They help us fill our pool every year. Shawn has always offered to pay the difference in their water bills but no one has ever asked us to.

It looks pretty funny. Hoses coming from all directions.

We couldn't keep them out of it. They had to play in the water even though there wasn't much.But...notice anything interesting about the sky? Yep. A storm blew in.

And dumped leaves off the Magnolia.

All over the patio, rock garden, and walkway I had spent hours working on. Sigh.

Such is the summer life at our house.

6 comments:

deedee said...

I want your neighbors! I also want your helpers! It takes me an hour every morning just to take care of our pool. Another hour to keep up the back yard :( Be careful with your back.

Anonymous said...

This gave me a good chuckle! :) Oh the joys of home and pool ownership. Let me tell you, our pool has given us fits like you wouldn't believe this year. Our pump had some obscure part that broke and we are waiting for it to arrive in the mail. Meanwhile Mr. Green Thumb rigs it to at least filter. But the slime...oh the slime.....I'm sick of the pool and we haven't even been able to swim in it! UGH!

Debbie said...

If only I could fit in a swim suit... Some day we will visit your little oasis.

jean said...

Look on the bright side - at least you didn't have as many leaves to pick up the second time... :-) I vacuumed up all of the whirly-gigs off the driveway yesterday (FINALLY! everyone else's driveways were already whirly-gig free) - wonder if the same thing will happen to me, and the tree was just waiting for me to clean everything up before it dropped another load? And maybe the neighbors see the 'water donation' as 'payment' for letting them use the pool? You didn't mention that they use the pool, but I'm sure that being the awesome people that you are, the neighbors are always welcome.

Cozyflier said...

So sorry sweetie! Mother Nature is vicious to us. Always does me the same only with my front porch!

Can't wait to come swim!

Jennifer Chronicles (jenx67.com) said...

Wow. I have a whole new appreciation for pools.

And, how 'bout them waxy magnolia leaves.

Your girl Reagan is getting so big!! She's beautiful.