The Summer I Take Back the Yard

So, a little over a year ago, I decided to go back to school, and while this has been a somewhat resounding success- if I do say so myself- I have noticed some slippage in other areas. For example, I seem to have gained the freshmen, well, ten in my case. I've tried to convince myself that this has nothing to do with seducing myself into a non-stressed haze by scrolling for hours through facebook and cafemom. No. That couldn't be it.

Then, because I went straight through last summer- full time with four children at home-more scrolling-as-stress reliever in my front room office, and there were moments- many moments- where I would look through the windows that line this room and shudder at what had become of my yard. Little creepy tendrils of stress would creep up the back of my neck, forcing my gaze back onto the comparative neatness of the computer screen. Ignore it. It isn't happening. There isn't a rainforest where a neat garden used to be, and wild marijuana is not growing profusely in the back alley. Not happening.

Another issue with last summer was the lawn mower. Yeah. I have issues with lawnmowers. They either don't start for a mechanical problem- or I just can't start them. One or the other, and both rendering the thing useless to its owner. Being in school full time did not seem conducive to using the little rotary mower (that I love, by the way), so I hired out the job, and spent 20 minutes every Thursday just waiting for the lawnmower man to run over some pile of concrete block, hidden under the savannah grass in the back yard and ruin his mower, believing fully that mowers aren't destined to live long in this little corner of the universe. Then there was the fact that the summer before had been the summer of "the storm", which will remain "the storm" until one can come along to top it. It was one of those storms that didn't do enough damage to get any insurance money out of it that we could use on the yard. All up to us. We little people vs. entire trees. Thankfully there are enough people with tractors here, that if we could just get it to the street, they'd chain it and drag it to "the pile".

So, we were recovering from "the storm", I was in school full time, the lawnmower didn't work, and yeah. Bad, bad things happened to our yard. If you decided to walk to the garage via the neat little sidewalk that runs between it and the house, you needed something to cut things down with. Shameful.

And so, this summer, I decided to take off school, opting instead for the restoration of sanity.

This morning, I drug my four children out the door- okay, they actually wanted to go out.. at first. I hung out some laundry on the line, and asked the older two boys to cut strips of landscaping fabric for the garden. This could have gone better. Instead of folding the fabric to make neat, straight lines, they allowed it to billow around, while yelling at each other for help. Guess who cut the fabric? Next, we decided to take down the poppies, which are done blooming for the year, and the little boys were actually quite helpful, taking wheelbarrow loads to the compost pile. We got about 2/3 of this done, when I decided to finish cutting the grass in the area I had suggested be mowed today. I had to do this, because the older boys had decided it was just "too hard". Hear that in as whiny a voice as possible, because that's the way it sounded. I pulled the wash off the line, as it was finally dry and asked the older boys to finish cutting down the poppies while I took the little boys inside for showers and to make lunch. Hearing fighting outside- I stuck my head out the window and said, "Do you want me to fire you two and give your allowances to your little brothers?"

Anyway, it finally got done. Mainly. I'm sure there is detritus to be cleaned up tomorrow. At any rate, the sun is out, the air more dry than before the thunderstorm that came through last night. All in all, a decent day outside.

mittens/halfmitts/wristlets/fingerless mittens- whatever!

Made these recently for my step-sister's birthday. Being a knitter of mittens and warm things is sort of... inconvenient when the people you love are born in the warm months. That said, I usually harden my heart and make them something anyway, considering the idea that not being able to use whatever it is now will just delay their birthday for a longer period of time.

Hats!

This one is going to be picture heavy, because I've been remiss in not getting to the other computer- the one all these photos were on- and downloading them myself. Why these weren't on my computer had something to do with the fact that we have too many computers for the size of house we live in. And.. we're not the most organized people ever.

At any rate, my husband took these photos for me, and they turned out so nice, I feel the need to post them everywhere.

I call them the neapolitan collection, for obvious reasons~







Note, this post and all knitting related posts can now be found at www.villagetreedesign.blogspot.com

Loss

Its the last day of school today. Last day for our school forever. Lot of tears, lot of anger seeping through- frustration.

I'm not sure what it is precisely, but there is a level of mistrust between the town that ate our school and our little village. It may not be personal but it feels that way when we overhear them complaining about the 35 extra mouths they have to feed with their taxes...which is odd, considering all of us pay into the same system and have been for years. I suppose I have to wonder where that kind of vitriol comes from? When is it okay to complain about children who've lost their school through no fault of their own. We weren't over here cheering on the decision, after all.

And then there was the guy taking pictures of the building the other night. Furtively standing on the corner with his nervous wife. What was that about anyway? We feel- in this issue- that we just simply aren't being told anything- on purpose. Feeling this way becomes the norm when previous experiences- including the decision to close the school- are done in similar fashion- as quietly and quickly as possible, with intent to disclose as little as possible, and mesmerize people with double talk. Sometimes it works- with some people it works. With others, it does not.

The children are encouraged that this change will be better somehow. It was just a few words in the principles speech today- but it struck me as false on a certain level. How is this change better for our community? How is it better that our little kids will be on buses for much longer times everyday now- away from home that much longer. How is it better that the classrooms will be larger, with fewer teachers to students? No, there IS a downside to this- just not for the people whose lives are tied to the larger place, and whose thoughts don't often remember what those of us here, feel and know.

Mostly I'm just sad and angry. I don't like people with abusive proclivities to power. They suck. And I like to be told when changes are in the works. We're grownups, and taxpayers, and parents- and we have the right to a say in what happens. We have a right to say what happens with our children's education. We have a right to say what happens in our community. Those taxes the Milford parents were complaining about are there for the taking- diverted from our community and given now entirely to theirs. Why do they believe they're shouldering this on their own? Simple minds, I suppose.

But anyway. That's that. Meh.