Yesterday I taught Kenny to use the tree trimmer thingy and he proceeded to do all my work for me. Sometimes I am so smart! The little guy was thinking this was all so much fun going to the trees around the patio, then the side of the house, then the front of the house, and so on and so on. While he cut off all the bush growth around the bottoms of the trees I picked up three full lawmower trailer loads of rock from around the front porch - and I barely made a dent! Good gravy there's alot of rocks out there! These were, I'm sure, intended to be a rock path or borders at some point but just never evolved and were instead just.. well, a pile of rocks around the front of the house. I worked on that until my back gave out and arms were shaking then Kenny and I relaxed in the shade for a while sipping ice water and admiring our work. He was so good and helped so much! He even helped me unload the branches on the burn pile and the rocks into the rock pit. I think he finally realized it was work when we got inside and for the first time in weeks he napped. Awwwww.

I grabbed paper and pen to head outside again and get a plan together. I think over the next week I can get all the rock moved, the winter insulation moved (read, straw bales) since it's laying willy nilly out there, and get the area cleaned up for fall planting. While this area isn't 100% it's mostly shaded all day and I think I'd like to get some ground cover in there like ivy or something. Grass just doesn't grow out here because we don't water so over-seeding will be done with bermuda, but I think this area is too shady for grass. I also figured out where to plant the 10 or 12 willows we've got started in buckets. There's an area that doesn't get shade in the morning on the east side of the house and they'll be perfect there. I've decided we need shrubs all around the house so I'll be getting that ground ready for the fall as well. I'd like to go with something green like boxwoods but I think they're pretty slow growers. I'll keep checking on this.

Naturally, all this information is in the handy dandy new farm binder. It's a pink and green design with matching tabs. Ahhhhh, life is good. :)