I...am...so...sore. I can't imagine how much I'm going to hurt tomorrow. Yes, today was the start of The Great Backyard Cleanup Project. Warning: Many photos ahead.






The green ground cover that looks sort of like ferns is actually thousands of baby golden raintrees. The big tree is a golden raintree. A golden raintree is a very messy tree, really nothing but a big weed, but this one is so big and lush in the summer and gives so much shade to the yard, I tolerate its many faults. Every one of those thousands of baby golden raintrees has to be pulled out by hand - they are so soft and flexible a rake can't do it. The rest of the wildness is overgrown bushes and out of control lantana.

Looking in the other direction, we have the site of the future patio:



and the out of control confederate jasmine:



And the centerpiece of the disaster, the long-neglected and half empty pond:



The pond will be staying. I'll have to spend another weekend re-plumbing it with a better filtration system, but I have to keep it. I have to keep it because despite my criminal neglect, there are still at least ten, and possibly a dozen, big, healthy and beautiful goldfish, each 4-6 inches long, hanging in there somehow.


and a big fat frog, perched on the remains of the casing of the old bio-filter:



I trimmed the tree, cut back two of the three shrubs, and bagged 12 huge trash bags of baby raintrees, dead leaves, twigs, and other crud. I found a snakeskin but fortunately, no snakes. I worked until my my arms and back ached,then decided to save some fun for next week. Tuesday night will be the next round of fun, because Wednesday is yard trash day, so this first load of crud will get hauled to the curb when I get home from work, making room for next weekend's load.

There's a mountain of tree branches and other debris and the 12 huge bags of evidence that I worked hard, but it looks like I barely made a dent. I am so sore I will barely be able to lift my arms tomorrow, but it felt very satisfying to get out there and do hard, physical labor like that, cleaning up the mess that lingers as an ugly reminder of the chaos of the last two years. During those two hellish years I looked out there and thought "Someday I'll have to deal with that." "Someday," and "Eventually," were mantras - awful mantras, because as time passed it became a code for "after my husband dies." Well, someday is here, and it's time to get out there and live in the here and now. That backyard is going to get sod, fresh plants and a new patio, I'm buying a new grill and patio furniture, and by April I plan to have my friends over for a party, to celebrate the rebirth of the yard. Because the fish, the frogs, this crazy little hibiscus and I are all hanging in there.