Easy weeding

Our backyard is a work in progress.  There is a small patch of grass which we hope to double and a bunch of bark mulch.  Bark mulch looks great, especially when it's fresh.  And it does help cut down on weeds, a lot. It also gives us many many many splinters, but that's another story.

Even though bark mulch cuts down on the weeds, a few still pop up here and there. Yesterday we were working in the yard a bit - me with the garden, which is struggling. I'm a new gardener, don't judge me. And Robert and Adam were working on removing the tree stump of the tree we cut down this weekend.

This is the tree before.  It was a very pretty plum tree, but it had some damage where a branch had broken down the center of the trunk.  It wasn't too bad but it was bad enough that the tree wasn't so healthy and because of it was COVERED in bugs - which in turn made it even less healthy.

Plus it was in the way for our plans for that slope and corner of the yard. So down it must come.

Saturday we spent a few hours in 100+ degree weather cutting down the tree.  We then abandoned clean up for the next day - which wasn't any cooler, but we couldn't take the heat any longer.

The tree came down pretty well with only one branch being a pain and trying to escape to the neighbors yard.

Anyways, back to yesterday. I finished with what I was doing in the garden and decided to do some weeding in the yard and found a great new method.  No bending over!

• Grab a bucket (to put the pulled weeds in) and the most competitive child you have available.
• Walk towards a weed or point and say "I see one"
• Competitive child (Carus) will rush to the weed, pushing you out of the way to ensure only THEY pull it, do all the bending and pulling of said weed. 
• Hold out the bucket for the weed to be placed into.

TA DA!

Of course this doesn't work when coming across any weeds with needles, thorns, or anything that could poke - like the blackberry bushes that keep trying to come up. I'd love some fresh blackberry - I just don't want to deal with how fast they take over everything.

It also won't work when trying to pull up spider infested ivy.

Speaking of spiders - we have some mutant spiders out here.  We call them baby tarantulas.  They aren't tarantula in species (I think) but they are huge.  Probably some common garden spider.

I will not get close enough to smack them with a shoe. They have some legs on them and they will jump on me and eat me for daring to try to smack them.  Or grab the shoe and smack me with it. I use the vacuum to get rid of them, which gives a nice satisfying THWAP sound. THWAP sounds are funny too.

DUDE! They are big enough to make a THWAP sound!

See.

That is a 4-inch candle. The spider's length is as wide, if not wider than the width of the candle. The body is the size of a quarter, just more narrow.

Of note: Thank you Robert for my zoom lens. I didn't have to get super close to the spider to get these shots.