Yard Surprise

Carrie said she had a surprise for me when I got home from work on Monday.

Before:

After:

I was very surprised. Our lawnmower broke on Sunday, so I thought Carrie meant she found something on Craigslist .

The neighbors contracted some tree work and Carrie seized the opportunity. She walked over to haggle. The final price for the tree removal and grinding it into mulch was $400. 

I didn't know how to react at first. I planned to get my dad and brothers to help me chop up the tree as a summer project (and save the cash). Carrie wasn't comfortable with that and collected quotes.

Suddenly, money was spent, but a lot of work was gone, too. The large pile of mulch helped mollify me. It would've cost over $100 around here to buy that much and have it delivered. Carrie's surprise was a good deal.

And Shane loved it.

He was "glued to the window." 

Not only did he get to watch the tree cutter men, he got to play with pine sap (bleh) and help Daddy shovel mulch (yay!).

To my surprise, he was actually helpful.

He enjoyed contributing. Shane must have inherited the love of yard work from Grandma. It skipped a generation!

We spent an hour hard at work. Shane was all smiles. He chatted the whole time about how big each scoop he made was. He gave himself three congratulations for each swing of the shovel!

Time to start reclaiming the backyard from the weeds.