Tag: backyard cleanup

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A Birthday, a Power Washer, and a Very Muddy Celebration

Written July 15, 2025

Hello Dear Readers,

Today is my wife’s birthday—but don’t expect balloons or a mariachi band. We actually spread the festivities out like butter on warm toast. Sushi night happened yesterday, and cake plus presents were tackled the weekend before. So today? Just some extra kisses and heartfelt birthday wishes. Low-key, high affection.

Her company gives employees a birthday off—pretty cool perk, right? You can use it two weeks before or after your actual day. This year, she cashed it in right on her birthday. That’s rare, especially since it’s quarter-end season, aka Finance Thunderdome. She’d already wrapped up the closing work, but the quarterly audit is still looming like a Monday morning.

Despite all that, she spent her day… helping me with yard work. Why? Because my kidney function isn’t at its best these days, and she didn’t want me overdoing it. I handled the mowing, and she tackled the driveway with our new power washer and a little garden knife/trowel combo my dad gave us. She wielded that trowel like a woman on a mission—despite having absolutely no prior trowel experience.

Turns out, she loved it.

She cleared out every weed hiding in the driveway cracks and expansion gaps like a champ. She looked up at me, mud-splattered and smiling, and said the weeds had grown nearly an inch into the concrete. She even used the edger to trim what the trowel couldn’t reach. Honestly, the driveway hasn’t looked this good since… well, ever.

We’ve been gradually collecting yard tools like Pokémon—slow and steady. Last year, we rented a power washer, which wasn’t exactly a bargain. She did the math and figured out that two rentals would basically pay for our own low-end washer. So we waited. And pounced on a Prime Day deal.

Best purchase ever, according to her.

She’s already planning to power wash the deck and the sides of the house next. She even schedules 1 to 1.5 hours of yard work into every holiday and weekend. Not because she has to. Because she likes it.

Yup, my wife enjoys yard work. Even when she ends up muddy, sweaty, and sore, she says it relaxes her. So today, on her birthday, she didn’t sip mimosas or unwrap spa vouchers. She ripped weeds out of cracks and blasted dirt off the driveway.

And you know what? She was happy.

That’s all the celebration she needed.

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Early Birds and Overgrown Vines: A Weekend Yard Tale

Written July 12, 2025

Hello, Dear Readers,

When I woke up this morning, my wife was already outside, hard at work tackling the yard tasks she had planned for the day. Lately, she’s been taking on more of the yard work to help me out—especially since I’ve had some pain in my foot from a minor gout flare-up. She was worried it might make things harder for me, so she quietly stepped in.

She can’t do everything, of course, but she consistently puts in about an hour to an hour and a half on weekends and holidays. And let me tell you—it makes a big difference.

When you’re dealing with kidney issues, you really have to be mindful of your body. Gout can make even walking feel like a medieval punishment. Thankfully, this time the attack was small and short-lived. But my wife, ever the vigilant one, is still concerned—about the gout, my kidneys, and probably the rest of me too.

Back when we lived in Portland, yard work wasn’t such a big deal. The summers were dry, and not much grew. Most of our neighbors had waved the white flag on green lawns long ago—watering restrictions and parched earth will do that to a community.

Now that we’re in Nashville, it’s a whole different story. We get regular summer rain, and the humidity makes everything grow like it’s auditioning for Jumanji. If you don’t stay on top of it, the yard gets wild fast.

I always want to help with the yard, but my wife is an early bird with a running start. By the time I rolled out of bed, she’d already worked out, practiced her German, and was knee-deep in hedge trimming. Since she started helping, it’s become way easier to keep things under control. She’s trimmed back the overgrown bushes so they now look neat and intentional, not like they’re plotting to take over the driveway.

There were some vines sneaking up the back of the house—beautiful, but potentially damaging. She caught them just in time, yanking most of them before they could strangle the siding. We hadn’t gotten around to the back section yet, though, and those had already grown about two feet. I’d planned to run a 5K and then help her with the vines, but by the time I was laced up and ready, she was already heading back inside. Apparently, she’d gotten up way earlier than me and knocked out her to-do list like a one-woman landscaping crew.

We picked up a power washer last weekend, and she’s got her sights set on the driveway, the deck, and the siding next. After that, it’s gutter-cleaning season. (Lucky us.) Homeownership is not for the faint of heart—or for people who like sitting still.

She’s also been pulling weeds from the front yard like it’s a personal mission. Thanks to her, the house is looking pretty sharp—no wild grass, no messy vines, no rogue weeds. We’ve still got more to tackle tomorrow and next weekend if we don’t get through it all, but hey, one trimmed bush at a time.