We drove by the house on our way to Heather's and quickly figured out that we were in for a weekend of hard labor. The snow plows had ripped up a lot of grass and sprinklers and scattered beds of gravel in huge swaths onto the grass. The voles had built an entire colony of underground tunnels all throughout the yard. With over an acre of landscaped property that included hundreds of tunnels. It looked like a disaster area. We were pretty disheartened. I had brought pansies to plant but that seemed like the least of our concerns. 
Thankfully Friday was a warm, sunny day so we went to work on Friday afternoon with Heather and the kids to help us. We cleaned out the flower beds and started planting pansies. We startled a few rodents and Steve went in for the kill. I'm sure we didn't dent the population, but they knew things were changing.
I'm glad that the weather was so nice on Friday. The kids enjoyed being outside. Elsie and Anna stand on the last patch of snow in the yard. Everyone helped a little with the flowers.
Saturday, we headed back to work before conference and then again between the sessions. It was a little colder and the wind was blowing furiously. The kids mostly stayed in the house except for Brinley, Jantzen and Tanner. After we finished the flowers, Jantzen and I joined Steve, Heather, Tanner and Aaron on gravel duty. We removed a lot of hacked up sod and used the backs of the rakes to pull the gravel into piles. Then Steve would scoop it with a flat shovel and put it back on the driveway. We worked hard against the wind to get tons of gravel off the grass.
We were all happy to retreat to Heather's when it was time for conference to start. Tanner had put together packets for each of the 4 older kids so everyone was really good to watch all of the sessions of conference. That was really neat. We were impressed by Tanner's efforts and all of the kids' willingness to answer the questions and solve the puzzles, etc.
Thankfully our hard work made a big improvement in the way the yard looks. Steve put some tasty morsels down the vole holes and we're hopeful that the grass will come back strong as the weather improves.
I'm glad that the weather was so nice on Friday. The kids enjoyed being outside. Elsie and Anna stand on the last patch of snow in the yard. Everyone helped a little with the flowers. 
Saturday, we headed back to work before conference and then again between the sessions. It was a little colder and the wind was blowing furiously. The kids mostly stayed in the house except for Brinley, Jantzen and Tanner. After we finished the flowers, Jantzen and I joined Steve, Heather, Tanner and Aaron on gravel duty. We removed a lot of hacked up sod and used the backs of the rakes to pull the gravel into piles. Then Steve would scoop it with a flat shovel and put it back on the driveway. We worked hard against the wind to get tons of gravel off the grass. 
We were all happy to retreat to Heather's when it was time for conference to start. Tanner had put together packets for each of the 4 older kids so everyone was really good to watch all of the sessions of conference. That was really neat. We were impressed by Tanner's efforts and all of the kids' willingness to answer the questions and solve the puzzles, etc. 
Thankfully our hard work made a big improvement in the way the yard looks. Steve put some tasty morsels down the vole holes and we're hopeful that the grass will come back strong as the weather improves. We loved hearing our prophet and the general authorities give us counsel. There were so many great thoughts conveyed. One of my favorites was this one by Pres. Uchtdorf "By becoming the answer to someone's prayer, we often find the answer to our own."
We loved visiting our kids and grandkids and we have to confess that the physical and spiritual exercise was good for us. We appreciated all of the help. As we drove home, the temperature continued to get colder. By evening we felt like we had arrived back in the midst of winter because
we came home to this with temperatures in the low 30's. What happened to spring?
1 comment:
Glad to hear that you were able to get all your yard work done. It sounded exhausting but rewarding. yay.
Post a Comment