Ow, Ow, Ow...but it feels good

Our next door neighbor is a bit of an eccentric guy. He's lived in the same house for all but three years of his life. We moved here about 3.5 yrs ago (seems like a lot longer). When we bought our house, we assumed the house next door was vacant. The lawn was overgrown to say the least. Over the years, we've come to know our neighbor. In the summer he always stops on his way home from work to talk to Lydia and her friends, whether we are inside or out. They like to watch the window for him. He comes for holiday dinners as we usually opt to stay home. Each summer, Jeff has mowed a bit more of his yard. First it was the piece between our driveways, then it was his front lawn. The backyard, at full height is between 4 and 5 ft high. We've often discussed what it would take to tackle it. What would be the best way to go about it? We didn't want to be insulting. Jeff volunteers with a youth group and thought he could recruit one of the boys to help....until he younger brothers found out. We got the neighbors OK to do it today while he was at work. So this afternoon we had three extra boys. "J", helped Jeff with the big stuff, "N" seemed to pair up ;) with Hannah, raking and filling bags. "I" and Parker kept Lydia occupied. When we borrowed some gardening tools from another neighbor, he ended up helping for a while. Jeff and I are in agony after pulling out trees, pruning wild rose bushes, raking and mowing. Oh to be kids again. We filled 14 large paper yard waste bags, two compost cans and three garbage cans. There's still some tidying up to do but we ran out of room for branches. Now we'll help keep up the yard next door, a mom had an afternoon off and the kids got to learn about community service.

All worth the aches and pains. And the six pizzas that the kids devoured.

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