We spent the day tearing up the yard.

It is a brilliant day. Temperatures around 70F and sunny, but a little windy.

We tore up the mulch in all of the planting beds bordering the backyard and front steps, as well as raking the leaves and thatch from the yard itself. This resulted in seven yard bags filled with yard debris. One of the bags was almost entirely filled with the sticks that had fallen throughout the yard.

Where we had placed the inflatable pool for most of last summer had turned into a rectangle of dirt. I took my action hoe to it, and scraped up the top few inches. Then took turns with the kids rolling the Garden Weasel over it, to break the big chunks into little chunks. We spread the last bits of grass seed we had and turned it in.

Midday we felt we had earned a lunch out. We hit one of the local places with spread-out outdoor seating, and had some varied hot lunches, prepared and served by someone else. So delicious. It turned a little cool under their tarp, out of the sun, with the wind taking what heat would be trapped beneath, but still brilliant. We followed this with a spin past the big park near home, to let the kids run and jump and scream before watching us do more yard work.

A quick run to Home Depot and we filled the trailer with bags of mulch. We also picked up some lengths of lattice to hang under the deck, to hopefully keep the dogs from running under there, if not keep fatter rabbits and other animals from hanging out beneath. The lattice didn't fit in the trailer, so we did the horrid thing of lashing the eight lengths to the top of the trailer with some nylon rope, and driving carefully both miles home. It worked out fine.

We spread the mulch and called it a day. We'll seed tomorrow, when it's supposed to be better.

Everyone, especially the adults, is dirty and tired, but healthy.