What We Did This Weekend:Project Reclamation

Three-day weekends are great, are they not? Well, not if the meaning of Labor Day is taken to mean that it is a day (or weekend) for manual labor, and doing lots of it.

Friday night was fun though. We introduced some friends to one of our favorite restaurants, R.C.'s. They're famous for their fried chicken, and I have to admit, it's pretty good. Ever since the days of trying to choke down Albertson's fried chicken, I haven't really been a big fan, but R.C.'s is good. Plus, you can't beat the family style green beans and buttery biscuits and gravy. Mmm.

But Saturday was full of work. I started off by going to help a member of our ward to remove a tree from their backyard. I worked at putting the smaller limbs and branches through the chipper for a few hours before I had to leave. But, I had to leave because I was going take the first steps for Project Reclamation. We're sick of bugs, moles, birds, and other living things enjoying our backyard instead of us. So, while Brookie was at a Baby Shower, I was talking to grass experts to determine the plan of action.

So, what we learned was that we first needed to kill the weed grass in our backyard with some special herbicide. But, since our grass was pretty tall, we first had to chop it down, which took some time. So while I mowed the backyard, Brooke was raking the clippings behind me. After a few hours of that, I switched to the weed whacker for the stuff on uneven ground. Then, once that was done, we called it a day. Besides, for me, it was definitely time for a shower.

Then Monday, we were back at it. We bagged the grass and then, while I mowed the front lawn, Brooke started spraying the grass killer in back. We moved some fallen branches to the back of our lot, and finished applying the chemicals. I'm sure we did more, but I must have blocked it out.

After we finished on Monday, we showered and ran to Chick-Fil-A for their chicken tenders give-away. All we had to do was show up in our BYU t-shirts, and we got a free three-piece order of tenders. We added a drink and fries to share, and ate our cheap Labor Day lunch.

We also paid a visit to the annual Santa-Cali-Gon Days Festival in Independence. We went last year and bought some home-made rootbeer from a vendor, and held on to the bottles so that we could get refills this year. But, when we filled our bottles with some rootbeer and cream soda this year, we realized that the rest of the festival wasn't so great. Next year maybe I'll just drop Brooke off so she can get our drinks, and I'll drive around the block so I don't have to find a parking spot.