This weekend has been a big success with regards to the yard. Jon was out of town so that helped a bunch. He typically hurts this (although there have been times when he has done a lot of work when I was working my two jobs and I couldn’t help. So, I don’t want to be accused of not giving credit where credit is due!) because he works a lot and never wants to do it and I am a wonderful wife and want to spend time with him. He was out of town helping with some familial obligations so I decided to go out and get some work done. One of my favorite things is to work on something when he’s not around so when he arrives it’s a surprise. I think I like doing this because I LOVE surprises so I enjoy making them happen for others, no matter how small. However, this weekend was not small (albeit not THAT exciting).
As luck would have it, my mother called me on Saturday morning to ask me about coming to a Labor Day party on Monday. We got to talking about how Jon was out of town and how my yard is a horrible fricking disaster that I’m sure makes my neighbors secretly hate me. She said well, I was planning on working on Rebecca’s house today (my sister-in-law still owns a house from her former single life that my mom has been helping to fix up because she is the in-house maintenance lady ha) but I think I’m going to come help you. She stated that under the guise that it would be more fun but I think she just feels embarrassed that people she knows from church live by me and know we’re related. Regardless, she headed over with her tools and we were underway ripping out the weed garden section of my yard around the flag pole. Yes, you read that right, the flag pole. The previous owner was in the military so I imagine he found it very important to proudly display the American flag. I, on the other hand, am lazy and don’t have any motivation to do so. Therefore, it is a gigantic, rusty eyesore. Anywho, we worked on it for about 5 hours together less a lunch break and then she headed home.
The following morning I received another early morning call from my mom. Her ambitious self was on the phone asking me what I was doing that day. She said, want to take out the flag pole? Let me provide some additional details about this thing. The pole is screwed into a brace that is cemented into the ground and with rusted screws it has been extra protected from movement. Jon and I have been dreading this task as we figured we would have to jack hammer it out and somehow keep it from falling on our house. Also, the pole is about 40 ft. tall and seemingly made of very heavey plumbing pipe. I begrudgingly said ok thinking that this was heading for disaster. A 65+ year old woman and a weak, lazy 27 year old are going to end up in the hospital and a hole in the roof of the house. However, I had apparently underestimated the magic materials that my mother would bring with her. We tried to unscrew the screws but very quickly confirmed that the rust made it impossible. So, my mom whipped out this spry and voila, the screws twisting out. Soon, we found ourselves on the last one. As it loosened I began pushing on the pole and it began to fall… AND in the opposite direction of my house! Success! Until… it hit the tree limb and got stuck. Because I live in a town very similar to Mayberry, a neighbor man who lets us borrow his tools all of the time just happened to be walking by. He insisted on helping us and after a few short minutes the pole was safely on the ground… sans any personal injuries! This was a big win when it comes to my morale. Now I’m on the real mission to finish tearing out the flipping yard so that next year we can begin planting and no longer look like we live in an abandoned drug house. I really only have two more sections left and I think I can get them done in the next week or so. Hopefully, I will have a fantastic update soon!
Oh, and btw Jon was surprised. He kept asking how we did it and I think is not-so-secretly happy that he didn’t have to be a part of it. J
Me pretending to hit the pole as it was stuck in the tree (great art direction by mom).
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