I Suck At Yard Work

with the nice weather yesterday, i decided to do something outside. that something: yard work. now, i suck at yard work. in fact, of all the possible chores to do, yard work is my least favorite.

there are many reasons as to why i dislike yard work so much:

reason #1) it's dirty and i hate getting dirty. sure, call me a primadonna, but i'd rather be covered in saw dust than in dirt. plus saw dust washes out of clothes... dirt... seems to wash out some of the time. not to mention... when you start sweating... sweat and dirt = disgusting.

reason #2) blisters and soreness. inevitably, yard work seems to consume a lot of time. because yard projects take a lot of time, i end up wielding some type of tool for a long period of time. and even with gloves, i always seem to get blisters. (okay, so perhaps i have delicate hands.) in addition to blisters, i generally end up feeling very sore hours later... also because i end up wielding some type of tool for a long period of time.

reason #3) depending on the time of day, i tan... and not just any tan... i generally get the ever stylish farmer's tan. granted, i suppose i could do yard work in the buff to get the well rounded tan, but i'd rather spare my neighbors the unsightly vision.

anyway, in an attempt to be somewhat productive during the nice weather, i decided to do some yard work. behind our back yard is conservation land. technically, i am not supposed to do anything to the land behind our back yard. there are, however, things growing on the conservation land and hanging over into our back yard.

the thing that is hanging over is some type of holly vine thing. if i were a horticulturalist, i could probably be a little more descriptive than "holly vine thing". basically, if you have seen any of those holiday wreaths made from twisted vines with little red berries sprinkled throughout the wreath, you probably have seen the "holly vine thing". sure, the "holly vine thing" may look pretty. unfortunately, it tends to kill other trees and plants.

behind our backyard are trees that are absolutely covered by these "holly vine things". the "holly vine things" grow from the ground... weave up and all around the trunk and any branches of a nearby tree... take all the sunlight away from the tree... and inevitably kills the tree.

thinking i would do something nice for the environment, i figured i would try to free some of the trees from the nasty grip of the "holly vine thing". well, let's just say that the project may have been over my head.

i chose a random tree near the border of our back yard and started shearing away. a little snip snip here. a little snip snip there. a blister (reason #2 as to why i dislike yard work) and a couple of hours later... i managed to free the single tree from the "holly vine thing". interestingly enough, it was pretty neat to watch the tree shoot straight up after cutting the vines from the "holly vine thing".

as exciting as it was to see the tree stand up again, there was just too many vines. i would have loved to continue my assault on the "holly vine thing", but i was simply too fatigued... which is sad seeing as how i just worked on one tree. there are a lot more trees behind my backyard.

nonetheless, i will try my hand again at defeating the "holly vine thing"... just not in the near future because my body is extremely sore right now... (again, reason #2 on why i dislike yard work).