Clean up, clean up, everybody...

Yesterday, I found myself a little upset. More than a week ago, we had some guys work in our "jungle", in our back yard. They removed most of the oversized bushes that had grown into trees. These things were huge, and honestly-I wanted nothing to do with it.

Years ago, before we my mom and my "step-on-me-dad" bought this house, I warned them about problems that they would be facing. I may have been a 18 year old Mr. No-it-all/smarty-pants/brat, but had a bad feeling about this house, and I was right. We have a lot of repairs that need to be taken care of, some of which is outside.

Like I said before those bushes were overwhelmingly tall, and I didn't want any part of them, at first. I was going to attempt to take them down, but we only had an electric trimmer, and extension cords didn't go far enough. I ended giving up and letting them get some paid help. They did most of it, but there are a few bushes left, and our decaying grill made of brick.

The hired help dragged and carried all of the giant bushes to the front of our yard for when garbage day arrived. Wednesday came along and this rather huge truck with a grappler came and picked up our bushes. When the refuse truck was done, there was a huge mess on our front lawn.

One week goes by, and I am thinking to myself that the hired help is going to come and finish what they started. They never came back. This week I "see" it more consciously than last week. So this morning instead of becoming frustrated, and complain about how horribly our yard looks, I decided to clean it up.

The only thing is, I took a shower before I started cleaning. Man was that a mistake!

There were branches everywhere! Big branches small branches, long branches, and branches with thorns. First I took care of the branches, while I picking them up, I notice a butcher knife (welcome to the Ghetto). A freakin' butcher knife in our front lawn. I can only imagine what its purpose was, and why it was there. I sure didn't touch it though. I grabbed my rake, and my shovel and raked the knife into the shovel, and then put it into a garbage bag.

Let me tell you that a knife was the least of my surprises.

After I took care of that I ended up hurting my right index finger on a branch that I broke in two. It left a small sore, with a deep gash. Even peroxide was burning...I hate alcohol, it stings.



I continued to pick up the branches. I broke the ones that were too big into pieces, so they wouldn't shred the bag. One of the branches was pretty big and long and dense. I couldn't break it with my bare hands, so I hit the branch against the tree in our front lawn. Wood against wood if you will. The tree and me won, and I sent part of that branch into the street. I broke it in three pieces with the help of our tree. I'm glad I come with some great ideas (I am so SMART).

When I got done cleaning our front lawn, I decided to clean the grass on the hill in front of our house. Did I mention that our house is on a hill. I have such a wonderful time shoveling the driveway during the winter (sarcastically speaking). Remember when I said that the butcher knife was the least of my surprises well...



(Still have to trim those things)

I trekked up that mountain and when I got to the top, I notice a ton of garbage up there. One particular piece of garbage was strangely enough a pair of what looked to be like Daisy Dukes. Who done came up in our yard stripped off there pants huh??? I also had to pull out a juice bottle. This wasn't any ordinary juice bottle either. I couldn't use the rake to pull out from underneath the bushes either, because it was too heavy for it. So I grabbed the shovel, and when I was finally able to reach it, I noticed that the stupid bottle had water in it. Not only that but inside floating in the water was something bright green. I found candy containers, pop bottles, cups, bags. I found everything but the kitchen sink and a condom (I'm actually suprised about that one).

I also swept the sides of our house. All and all, I think I did a pretty good job, and I got some exercise out of it. Now if only I had three more of me, then I could tackle the back yard by "myself". We got even more interesting debris back there. A broken wheel barrel, and someone's discarded car batteries. Shows you how much some people care about others property huh.

I just want to know one thing! How hard is it for someone to throw there trash into a garbage can?