More Than We Bargained For

Yesterday morning while my kids were reading in their rooms, I decided to hop in the shower while I had the chance. When I got out of the shower, I clothed myself in my bath robe and went to my bedroom window to open the blinds. Since our backyard is fairly private and since I typically dress in the bathroom, I generally open the blinds early in the morning. But when I peeked out the window as I began to open them, I saw four men with their backs to me staring into my backyard.

It took me a second to gather my thoughts before I realized that I recognized one of the men as my last bride's father. He's a local landscaper and we bargained a sweet deal for her wedding. He would do some yardwork for us. I would shoot the wedding for about half price.

You see, we'd been wanting to clear our some of the brush behind our lawn for quite some time. In fact, my husband had butchered it several times with his machete, but it kept growing back. Apparently bushes do that sort of thing if they aren't properly dug up.

The land isn't actually ours. It is part of our neighborhood's "protected tree area". But thankfully that area doesn't include protecting bushes, so we decided tearing them out would be a great way to give us a bit more space in the backyard. And also, to keep them from taking over our lawn.

So back to yesterday. The kids and I really enjoyed watching the bushes being dug up, torn down, and pushed aside, the seed being spread, and the - uhh...cover? - being put on top of the seed to help it grow. The area looked relatively larger than I had anticipated, but that was okay with me.

When my husband got home, we had dinner, put the kids to bed, and decided to wander out to the backyard since neither of us had actually been back there to fully evaluate the whole situation. As we walked, the yard seemed to stretch further and further back. I honestly can't believe how much room there is!

As we tried to figure out how we managed to get such a wide open space that was so much larger than we had originally thought it would be, we came to the following conclusion: There was somewhat of a clearing behind some of the bushes. Our theory is that when our landscaper reached the clearing, he just kept pushing the bushes further back so we could use that clearing as part of our yard.

Whether or not that is actually the case, we absolutely can't believe the space back there! "It's like a park," my husband said. And I conquer.

We didn't break any rules, but we sure hope the neighborhood association doesn't mind this extra large clearing in our "backyard". I can't wait for the grass to grow and for the kids to be able to have shade to play in during the day! Our yard is pretty sunny until late in the afternoon, so morning play has always been fairly restrictive due to the risk of sunburn that runs so high in our family. But now we will have an open space, a space to run, a space to live. It's so beautiful.

Oh, what? You can't picture this? Is that what you're saying, Katy? Well, just for you...here are some pictures. (Even though you could totally just run over and view it for yourself.) :)

Here's what our yard looked like shortly after the landscaper arrived yesterday:



And here is what it looks like today:

(And to be fair....the picture really doesn't do it justice. We gained about 10-15 feet of space from our lawn to the big tree in the middle and then at least 25 feet beyond the tree.)

Now grow, grass! Grow!