Generous Garden Gnomes

Our property line runs about 2 inches from the back of the house behind us. So, all of those bushes, vines, & brush at the back of the yard our on our property.

Are you looking at the bushes? No. Of course not. You are looking at the crazy lines of grass with an understandable expression of confusion on your face.

You are probably wondering why there are lanes of grass in my back yard. The answer is simple.

I'm married to a 5 year old who likes to mow the grass in funky patterns when I'm not paying attention. Really, he needs direct supervision.

                   

Our neighbors probably think we are crazy. I like to think of us as quirky. The truth is, daddies & toddlers happen to find these lanes endlessly entertaining and do not believe they should ever be mowed down. Joseph loved pushing his toy lawn mower up and down the lanes last summer. And don't even get me started on the racing possibilities:

But all of that is besides the point. Look past the cute running toddler legs and the crazy mother racing back and forth in her yard and FOCUS on the bushes. Are you focusing?

Good. Because that's what it usually looks like. Only way more overgrown.

Here is what it looked like last week:

Very, very sparse. All the brush is gone! The bushes have been hacked down to stubs. Generally, very sad looking.

But you know what? The week before? It was all still there. In fact, it was crazy overgrown.

I came home from an outing with a friend the Friday before last and was thoroughly impressed with the amount of brush Stephen had cleared all by himself in only a few hours! I knew he'd been planning to cut it all down so that he could put up a fence, but I could hardly believe my eyes!! I went inside and found him taking a nap in his recliner. He must have worn himself out. Poor guy.

When he woke up, I kissed him on the cheek.

"Wow! Great job on the back yard, Stephen! That must have taken a lot of work! No wonder you passed out!"

"Yeah, I started clearing it away so maybe we can start to put the fence in next weekend. It's going to take a lot more time though."

"Hmm?? Why? Really? It looked pretty much done to me."

He shrugged and went outside to do Stephen things.

Five minutes later, he walked back inside. "Ummm... Caroline? I didn't do that... I mean, I hacked away at the vines for an hour, but I have NO IDEA where the rest of it went. Someone must have come by after I called it quits and gone at the bushes with a chain saw... It's just gone. Disappeared. All that's left is the pile of sticks on the concrete pad."

Ummmmmm. Oooookay. What??????????????

Apparently, we have magical garden gnomes. You know, like shoe elves who help out the cobbler while he sleeps, only for back yards. Very, very generous garden gnomes who take care of overgrown bushes for us.

Sweet! Fence here we come!