Mommy's Little Helper

Andrew and I have been working very hard on our yard this spring. I want to plant strawberries in the front yard, and Andrew is removing some of the bushes from the back yard. Over spring break we spent a day in the back yard, as you will remember from an earlier post, and this week we've put in a few more hours. While Andrew's parents were here we got a start on clearing the rocks out of the soon-to-be strawberry bed, but there was a lot of work to be done. Today, with some help from both Andrew and Lily, I got the rocks cleared out of the bed! Hooray! And I'm not exaggerating about Lily's help!!!

This was actually the first rock in the bucket of the day! Lily just picked it up and decided to put it into the bucket without any prompting! She put about 10 rocks in before she got board. And you can see that eventually she started tasting things, and got a little messy. But a little dirt doesn't hurt.

Isn't she cute, muddy face and all? She has been so anxious to be outside the past few days. Yesterday she crawled to the door and started crying and patting the door. "I want out!" was communicated very well, we thought. Today, again, she crawled to the door. I was outside already, but she was taking a nap when I went out, so she didn't know that. Andrew brought her outside to say "hi" to me, and when he took her in she threw a fit. So outside with mommy she came! And she had a ball... for about the first 2 hours! Then she needed a nap. So Andrew, who had been hacking up bushes in the back, took her in and put her to bed, because he was in need of a friend with a truck to finish up the really big bush, and I was "almost done". (...30 or 45 minutes later...) This is the unfinished bush. Two down, one to go.

We are going to replace this bush with either a rose bush or a raspberry or blackberry bush. I can't decide! I love berries, but the roses would be SO pretty. Any input would be appreciated. The wheelbarrow in the picture is a permanent fixture. It's broken down and antiqueish, and oh so cute! Besides, we'd practically have to dig it out if we wanted to remove it. But we don't, so it's all good. I can plant something in the planter in the wheelbarrow, but I don't know what yet. We have 2 of these planters, the other is not in any special place in the yard, but I could try to make it cute. Also, Andrew and I are talking about buying a few window-type-boxes to plant tomatoes and maybe some sugar peas in. I've never been so excited about yard work in my whole life!!! It has been so fun though! and It feels good. Just to see the box empty of rocks, still sitting without any plants in it is rewarding. I can hardly wait until our first strawberries ripen!!!