By the power of Grayskull...

It was sunny here in beautiful Seattle and yard work called. Given that our backyard hasn't seen a lawn mower in close to two years, I'd say it is a bit overgrown. It's not that we are that lazy, mind you (well, a little lazy, to be sure) but our house remodel plans include a bulldozer in the backyard, so there seemed little point in doing a lot of work back there. As it turns out, that plan is a bit farther down the line than we thought so now we are paying the price of months of neglect. I kid you not that the thistles were near five feet high in places and the blackberry brambles have started to consumer a cedar tree.

Being the resourceful gal I am, I fired up the old weed whacker and started hacking my way into the brush. There was something incredibly empowering about slicing and dicing my way through the soggy mat of grass, dead leaves, moss and vines. I felt like He-Man, wielding my sword and cutting a path of destruction as I went. In the afternoon that I spent out there, I finished whacking the small area that I set out to recivilize from wild nature, raking the grass carcasses into soggy piles. The remaining half acre will have to just survive as it is. No doubt the voracious Japanese knot weed that has infested that back area will consume it next year. But at least my little plot by my back deck is reclaimed.

Now I need to layer it with newspaper and get a whole lot of manure so I can smother out the weeds and prep it for next spring. My hope is to put in a small vegetable patch. But that is for other sunny days.

Tired, scratched from battle with the brambles, hands shaking uncontrollably from the jarring of the weed whacker, I came back into the house smiling. One hot shower later and I was ready to put the chocolate bundt cake in the oven. A well earned reward, if I do say so. Wonder if a Dolph Lundgren movie is on tonight...