Hedge Hogs

Hope everyone had a safe and happy 4th of July! We decided to take advantage of a truly gorgeous day and get some yard work taken care of. Seriously, this whole untouched-for-years thing is really taking some dedication to get under control.

Enter: The HedgeHog (no really, it even says it on the blade.)

Borrowed from Nate's parents, I for some reason thought it would be the best idea for the power tool wrangling duties to fall to me, and Nate could tackle the massive tear-up of a creeping pile of vines around our flowering cherry in the front yard.

Idiot.

No, I really did enjoy seeing the results I created, and finessing it all became really fun once I got the hang of things. However, two and a half hours of finagling and I feel today like I've been run over by something much, much larger than a hedgehog.

But. Major results!! Check it out:

Aside from the hedge itself, I also went after an enormously overgrown azalea (you can see it on the right in the photo above). It's blooming cycle is done, so it was the perfect time to have at it.

See Nate photo bombing in the window on the right?

It kind of cracks me up how much the sunlight has shifted from the before to the after - Proves how long we were out there I guess! And while I was busy reclaiming the front walkway and cleaning up some small hedges in other beds, Nate tackled this crazy vine situation:

 So gung-ho was Nate on getting down to his destructive business that I didn't quite get a chance to snap a true 'before' shot, but you get the idea there in the 'Mid-Rip' visual. I had to point out my center-bed hedge shaping action too, I guess just to prove I earned the full body soreness I have today.

We had plans to do the (larger and even more overgrown) backyard yesterday too, but our bodies and our stuffed-to-overflowing yard waste bin had other plans. So hopefully our muscles are recovered by the weekend, because that's what's on the docket. 

Oh and of course, it just wouldn't be our house if we didn't unearth something random. Nate found the large rock under the vines in the picture above, and along with that we found....

 Three non-functional solar lights and a hockey puck. Excitement, eh??


Now. Where's the ibuprofen...