Final Day

We have spent the morning supervising our own little work crew. All they needed was the orange reflective vests. They diligently worked on the front yard - we are pulling out a lot of ground cover that seemed like a good idea when we planted it many years ago, but now it's just a mess. And I want 'open space' to put raised beds for flowers, veggies, etc. wherever I can find them.

The boys did work really hard, though I wished I had a camera and video cam handy. H. is a bit 'fastidious', to put it mildly. The kid had to rinse his sandals, hands, arms, face, etc. so many times, I lost count. He doesn't like to be dirty, or hot, or sweaty. It was sort of comical to watch him grimace and fret over how dirty he was getting. What a guy! I don't think a career with any 'manual labor' involved is his calling. He kept saying 'IF I was working for a boss and IF that boss could fire me for rinsing off, etc., then I wouldn't. But you're my mom'. He's sort of got a point.

They did make a lot of progress. And thankfully, the gardener is here doing the job he agreed to a few days ago and so we are able to put all the trimmings into his pickup truck, which he will haul to the dump. Good thing 'cuz the yard clipping recycle bin is more than full.

There is more work to be done and I will spend time each morning this week - of my first week back - making 'to do' lists for each of them. They want to go to paintball with some friends, and B. wants to buy another pass for the local golf course. Since they are both in debt to us for things we 'fronted' the money for earlier this summer, they have a lot of work to do to earn what they need for their 'entertainment' fund. Good. 'Cuz I have a lot of stuff they can do.

They are also making a list of things we can offer in a garage sale - they have skate ramps and skate rails they don't use anymore. We also have an 'igloo' dog shelter that we don't use and can sell. And then all the Playstation stuff, too. Combined with miscellaneous household stuff, it would be a good sale. We're planning to wait until early fall, when it's cooler. We're going to all block the date and plan, plan, plan. Advertise, etc. That's the key to a successful sale. I might even pay one of them an hourly rate to spin a sign on the corner near the main street the day of the sale to get more traffic in here. We'll see.

I have a headache, sore throat and a bit of an earache. Lovely. Trying hard to convince myself that I am NOT, NOT, NOT getting a cold. No. I hate summer colds.

Time to start on round two - and work on work stuff.