The Boys Are Back In Town

So, I mentioned a few weeks back that Buzzard worked really hard getting the house in order so I would be all surprised when I returned home from Arkansas. That meant a lot to me, so Hannah and I decided to do something special to welcome Buzz home from Colorado. I tried really hard to think of something meaningful I could accomplishment from the comfort of the couch, in the air conditioning, perhaps even while watching a little food network. But nothing really came to mind, so I decided to tackle some yard work.

Our back yard was so completely out of control that I practically needed jungle attire and a bushwhacker to enter all six square feet of the premises. We never did our annual spring clean up this year. All my flower pots still held dead stubs from last summer's flowers. Weeds choked out my little bench, and were spilling out of the flower beds invading the grass. We have a super tiny yard, but every bit of it was a tangled mess of prickles and thorns. These are the dreadful before pictures....

So, Happy Hannah and I, with our sunny little yard work dispositions (NOT), headed out to the shed to forage around for some lawn bags and weed clippers. I thought I was going to lose my trusty side kick when she knocked over a hollow rabbit statue and a swarm of angry hornets came charging out. They had quite a nest built up in there. Hannah and I doused the statue, and everything else within thirty feet of it, with 3/4 of a can of wasp and hornet spray, which was about 800 times the necessary dose. It seemed to do the trick.

I hauled several bags of mulch home from Home Depot. It stormed hard the night before, so they were soaking wet and weighed a half ton each as I muscled them into my trunk. Great news, they were light as a feather when I unloaded them because all that excess water leaked in my car.

The little blue plant was a $3.33 impulse purchase because every time I see a cute plant that says "heat and drought tolerant" on the tag I psych myself into thinking I can somehow sustain its little green life. This one had such pretty little flowers that I figured it was worth a shot, not to mention the fact that I was sure Buzzard would notice and appreciate my grand effort toward property beautification.

We worked dog hard for a day and a half. We trimmed, weeded, pruned, raked and bagged. We moved the furniture, cleaned the patio, and rearranged all the pots and statues. I didn't want to spend a lot of money on plants and flowers at this stage because it is too hot for things to thrive in August. But, we did our best to spruce up what we had, and in the end, it was downright respectable.

When the boys rolled into town on Sunday night, Max noticed the yard right away. I told him it was a huge surprise for Dad. "Hugely surprised" would adequately describe my reaction when, by Tuesday afternoon, Buzzard had still not commented on the yard. So, I finally mentioned that Hannah and I had a little welcome home surprise for him and challenged him to figure out what it was. He walked through the house carefully and nervously offered a few observations.

"Is that a new table cloth on the kitchen table?"

No.

"Did you rearrange something in those bookshelves over there?"

No.

"Did I have new clothes hanging in my closet that I should have recognized as new?"

No. I know better than to expect that you would notice a new shirt.

"Well......I did notice that you moved the table and chairs out back. And did you lay out a bit of new bark??"

Well, yes. Yes I did. As a matter of fact, I certainly did.

Welcome home, Buzzard.