Yard Work :( Hayley Ouimette

This post is about my experience of doing yard work for the past 3 MONTHS!

First I'll give some background information to really explain it. During corona, my dad hasn't been able to work since he is a dentist and it hasn't been approved for him to go back up until a week ago. With this free time on his hands, after 9 years of saying he was going to do it, he finally did it, we are re-mulching. This plan has been in the works for longer than I can remember, so think about how it looks now. I'll answer, really really bad. I was afraid this was going to happen the second they announced quarantine and my fear came true.

It was about the second week of staying at home that I noticed he had his work pants on, which is never good for me. He grabbed gloves, a shovel, and a trash bin and headed to the yard. My mom, brother and I looked at each other in panic, we all knew what this meant. We sent ourselves to our rooms to and got changed, mentally preparing for what it's going to be like the next few months. You see, I have been able to avoid this terrible thing for YEARS convincing my dad that we didn't have the time with school, work, sports, etc. This time, I had no chance, there was nothing I could say.

You might be thinking, hey it's just mulching it can't be that bad. Wrong. With mulching comes raking all the leaves, trimming every bush, pulling every weed out of the ground, and so much more. To give you a visual of what we had to cover, the back yard up to the fire pit, front walkway, and the whole pool area. Anyone in their right mind would look at this and know that its too much work because of how long we have gone with not doing it. I'm being a little dramatic, it wasn't THAT bad and always looks neat and trimmed from my dad, but still, it was A LOT.

The first week I think was the worst, as it was such a shock. I was more sore from pulling weeds and bringing trash bins of leaves into the woods than any soccer game ever. My back was so sore it killed to even put my shoes on. After a couple weeks it was getting easier and I was finding more ways of getting out of it with "projects" or things I that took me all day. After the first month, my dad was going into his off doing files and things like that which made it less often but weekends were hours worth. Oh yeah, my new favorite thing is rain. When it rained we wouldn't so bad weather was my savior.

A few days ago we got the mulch delivered. It takes up the entire driveway. The pile is so high if I stood on it I would be leveled with my basketball hoop. Now my days consist of buckets after buckets of bringing mulch to the back, laying it down, and doing it all over again. So as much as I'd love to be like "Oh yeah during quarantine I have picked up so many new hobbies and have been doing fun things," I have been doing yard work.

I must say, now that it is all coming together, I get why he has been wanting to do it for so long, it looks so good. I didn't realize how much of a difference it makes everything look and how cleared leaves, no weeds, and shaped bushed really make a difference. We still have a lot to do but I'm realizing it's not that bad. Don't get me wrong, I cant wait for the day we are finally done, but it keeps me outside and busy. It's cool to see hard work [ay off and love the end result.