Come mid-October, it is time to think of beginning to prepare for winter, at least to the point of cleaning up the yard. As you are mostly aware, this has been a difficult year for Sue and me, so we dragooned the kids into giving us a hand on Friday after school. I picked them up at school, took them home to change, and then went through the drivethrough at Tim Horton's for a snack before setting them to work.
I had mowed the easement beyond the back fence earlier, and Sue had pulled some weeds and emptied the flowerpots. The biggest challenge for the kids was the Joe Pye. It took almost three bags to hold the clippings.
They would cut each stalk at the bottom and then cut it into three pieces over the wheelbarrow before transferring the pieces to the bag.
There was some cavorting, mostly by the boy, of course. He managed to dump seed and chaff into Danica's hair. In the next ↓ picture you can see him still holding the stalk that he had shaken over Danica.
After they dealt with the Joe, Hosta and lilies out back, we headed to the front where Jonathan found another Hosta to cut.
Meanwhile, Danica cleaned-up the row of daylilies with one more Hosta awaiting JJ's pruner in the foreground.
When work was done, we headed back to theirs for pizza that Shauna ordered for delivery.
The next day, yesterday, I took the five bags to the compost yard, but as I was leaving I spotted this bright, orange tree and decided it was worthy of a photo. (You can see other cars pulling into the yard. It was a busy morning.)
Later yesterday, their dad dropped by. He is able to hoist the lawnmower into the loft, if I may call the overhead shelves that. Then, he hauled our bicycles into the basement, the bikes that we didn't get out on even once, for by the time I had more or less recuperated from my trials and tribs, Sue had her surgery followed by that dratted E. coli infection. Sigh.
Our townhouse garage is tiny, but with the bikes and lawnmower out of the way, we will be able to squeeze the car into it once a few other items have been rearranged. Getting the car into the garage for winter helps to facilitate snow removal that costs us a small fortune, and it's just better overall during the winter months to get it out of the elements.
21 comments:
That was major prep work for the winter! Impressive. Glad your grands were agreeable to doing the grunt work...you didn't show the whip in your hand once. Nice red tree too!
That is a glorious tree. What lovely grandchildren you have. I've just been out doing a bit of chopping too. My bags didn't end up as neat as yours though.
For a small property, that's a lot of cleanup. Lets hope you get out on the bicycles next year!
I'm glad I live where it doesn't get too cold or snowy in the winter though we do occasionally get a snowstorm here.
Good to have able and willing grandchildren to help. I cut down and dug out the tubers of four very large dahlias yesterday and then put daffodil bulbs I got from Vicki Lane in the holes. More garden work to be done here next week.
That’s a lot of work, I’m glad they were able to help out!
I love the photo of the one red tree among the green ones.
Can I borrow your grands?
We have a lot of cupflowers that are 8-10 feet tall and they have thick woody stalks. It is our annual nightmare to take those down for the winter, so I feel for those two. Good job!
You're a lucky guy with all the help you have nearby. This is a great chore for kids to do.
That is a task I have to tackle this week although we don't get collection of garden waste until the next week.
How wonderful to have assistance!
We usually do a few things here at Thanksgiving with the adult kids, but, as I wrote, we went into the city. I'm not going to worry about what I cannot accomplish. (Famous last words!)
Winter, bring it on!
That's incredible. My grandkids are too busy to help us, so I have to hire a yardman and house cleaner.
You just remind me to fertilise my own garden
What glorious help.
A job well done. This reminds me that, er, I guess we have a job still to do out in the yard. Do you loan out those kids?
Do they hire out?
Great helpers there.
A garage is the best!
Kids will be kids!
What a productive couple of days! The kids shone through for you, and that's the best part. I hope Danica gets the boy back some way, some how. I miss Tim Horton's, which we used to frequent when we lived in Ohio. I hate winter. The end. xoxo
Well done by all! Good kids there. I bet it all looks nice now. I am slowly working through my gardens as things die back. It is quite a job, and I sometimes worry about how it will get done as I get older.
How wonderful to have the help! It's weird to think of winter today since it was 70 degrees, but that will change soon.
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