Spring Has Sprung

Normally, in the fall, there's stuff you do to get the yard ready for winter, one last mowing, clean off leaves and other stuff, put the mower away for the winter. All that jazz. I'm the one that usually does most of that kind of stuff in the fall. However, I was a bit distracted last fall when all this should have been happening. In October, Blaubeere and her kids came over and gave us some much appreciated help with the last mowing of the lawn and raking the front yard.  But the backyard, other than getting mowed, didn't get much attention.  Then, winter and grandkids happened and the yard got a lot of use over the winter and into spring.  By spring the yard was in pretty rugged shape. 

Every time you mow the lawn you need to walk over it and check for stuff.  Stuff you don't want to hit with the mower.

The first mowing of the season is usually a little more work.  This time, since we'd had some nice weather and the little grandkids had been here about a week before and left a mess out back, it was more work than normal. 

Early spring growth is uneven, especially if you have a dog.  A bigger dog makes it even more noticeable.  They fertilize in some places and burn the grass in other spots. Uneven grass, lots of clumps.  Yeah.

All over the backyard

And the barrel of toys had been tipped over and scattered up by the house.  So, yeah.  It took a little more time to walk the lawn and clean up the toys, both the kids toys and the dog  toys. This dog doesn't fetch.  You throw something, you might get it back once but almost never twice.

Put I got that stuff  picked up and got to the mowing.

About two and a half hours later it was all done.

I like a freshly mowed lawn, 

And all the clumps of grass were gone.  Couldn't do much about the burned spots, though.

In any case, the yard looked a lot better.  Mowing a lawn provides an opportunity to get a close look at the lawn.  We need to get the sprinklers turned on.  It was pretty dry.