The Chore of Fall

It appears that autumn is here. It came and hit me like a speeding truck in the middle of the night around Deadman's Curve. It hurts that much. I'm feeling gypped on the whole summer thing. (Was there even a summer? Wasn't it more like a warm spring leading right into fall?)

I don't mind autumn when I think of the brightly colored leaves and brisk breezes. But I'm not so keen on autumn leading to winter.

On that note, it's time to clean the weeds out of the garden to prep it for spring planting. Okay, spring planting is more a pipe dream at this point, but I just might very well find something to plant that is low maintenance to care for and grow. I'm too lazy to really give it a good effort and take care of it.

Also drought resistant because there's global warming happening and I'm too lazy to water it. Did I mention low maintenance?

The issue of weeds was not appropriately addressed this summer, so they're almost as tall as Evan. And he's grown a lot this summer too. I think he got into the fertilizer.... Side note: buy a new wardrobe for Evan. Those aren't supposed to look like flood pants.

But back to the weeds.

So, this big patch of weeds needs attention. (Did I not mention how lazy I am?) I attacked it today. Don't know why. Oh yes, that's where I was going with this: to prepare it for winter. (Thinking of spring planting leads me to laughing hysterically, and I'll never get this written.) I'm planning on being super eco-friendly this fall--instead of burning the leaves from our 8 big trees, I decided to spread them over the (soon-to-be weed-free) garden patch, thereby making my own leaf-mulch. I read about it somewhere. It's gotta be good for the earth, right? Anyways....

Lots of garden work to do. I needed to keep Evan occupied so I can get this done. (He's deep into the stage of needing me to do everything with him. Always.) I found a job for my beautiful little master of destruction to help me with. Back note: he hasn't been all that helpful, in MY mind at least, with the gardening up to this point. So I've had to not encourage him. Hacking at my herbs and trampling my flowers is a little... um... less helpful than I'd like.

So I asked him to tear down the sunflower stems.

Yes, that's right, I asked him to destroy the garden with me. For some odd reason, he didn't hesitate. Usually when I ask him to do a chore he takes his time, often tries to negotiate, or at the very least let me know how grateful I should be that he complies. ("You're welcome, Mom," he states leveling a stare at me until I quail under it. "Thank you, Evan." I finally respond. Satisfied, he continues his task.)

Evan's time to shine. He rocked that chore and it kept his attention and energy safely focused and I was able to pull about half the weeds.

At last, something we can do together that satisfies BOTH our needs: for something to be accomplished (mine) and something to be destroyed (not mine). And it feels pretty good.

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As I was putting Evan to bed tonight, out of the blue he looked up at me and said sleepily, "You're welcome for doing all that stuff out there," pointing out the window.

That's my boy.