Since the weather was so nice last weekend, I was inspired to go out and clear off some of the brush and weeds from the side and back of our property.  I had recently contacted a gentleman whose ad in the Ad Bulletin stated that he will cut down and remove brush at a reasonable price.  Well, he came to look at our yard, said that the work ”didn’t look too difficult,” then gave me an estimate for $900.  I nearly choked!  I subsequently resolved to do the work myself, with some assistance from Alexander and the kids when possible.

We purchased this lot (approximately one acre) and had our house built on it in 1996.  The contractor cleared off and seeded a sizeable area for our back yard at that time, although he left some trees and weeds around the fringes of the property.  We’ve left it “as is” for the past 12 years, and in that length of time, our back yard has become progressively smaller in size due to honeysuckle vines, blackberry bushes, and other aggressive plants on the perimeter that have slowly made their way inward.

So, with the assistance of my new Corona compound action anvil lopper (a fancy name for a pruner, but that thing is a gem!) and a metal rake, I managed to make substantial progress on the weeds and brush over the weekend.  I probably could have cleared away all of the unwanted plants, if not for the terrible, unruly vines (my parents always called them “monkey vines”) that literally were everywhere– on the ground, curled around the tree trunks and limbs, intertwined in the old fence barbed wire fence I didn’t even know was there, etc.  Arrgh!  I think a Tarzan movie could be filmed right in my backyard.