I didn't really think that hanging out at the pond for an afternoon with Stacey & the kids would turn out to be another work detail. But we have Grandpa Severson's blood coursing through our veins, so you certainly can't just sit back and watch the kids play.
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It all started pretty simply with Stacey pulling some of the floating uck away from the pier.. then it moved to the seaweed... then we both had rakes and so did the kids and everyone was pulling up some sort of wet slimy muck out of the water. We cleaned up what we could reach around the pier and around the old bridge. (We left the big nasty pile of Raccoon poop on the old bridge for someone else to enjoy - under close inspection, the kids decided it looked like it ate a lot of berries!)
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Then we turned to pulling some of the weeds that had grown up around the beach area. Then digging out a few next to the pier. We'd kind of left it at that, but I went back down last Saturday to work on a few more things... like turning the sand box back into a sand box instead of a weed garden. I really wish the first weekend we went to clean up that I would have taken a few pictures. I almost wanted to turn and walk away it was so bad you didn't know where to start. Not only was so much of everything overrun with last summers flooding, but an entire year of neglect and no use also meant that weeds had grown up where the kids playing and normal traffic would have kept them from growing.
.
After reclaiming the sand box, sitting on the edge of the timbers looking down at the pond.. I just still didn't like how the beach looked. So shovel and rake in hand... I plodded down. I dug. I pulled. I carried. I sweat... As I dig out the overgrown mass around the pier, I realized that there was a good foot of the pier being covered with dirt & plant roots - I dug it out... now there is a good 8 inch drop from where the grass ends to the pier... ya that's not going to work. So I continue to dig and carry dirt, grass, and sand until I've got the hill dug out & sloped down to the pier from about 4 feet away. I filled in a bit around the opposite side of the pier to keep that cleared from weeds as well. Then I dug out some of the weeds growing on the far side of the beach...
.
After all is said & done - this project has been vaguely reminiscent of the year that Chris was a baby. The shore was too steep for him to sit and play, so I dug out a small swimming area for him to play in the water along the edge of the pond. You can still see where that was, 21 years later...
.
Two years ago I bought a water trampoline for the kids - perhaps a few adults - to play on, I was wondering what I'd bring down this year, but I think a big ol' pile of new sand just may do the trick. A few phone calls and promises later, they'll be delivering the sand sometime in the next week.....
.
What we don't do for our kids... nieces and nephews..
.
It all started pretty simply with Stacey pulling some of the floating uck away from the pier.. then it moved to the seaweed... then we both had rakes and so did the kids and everyone was pulling up some sort of wet slimy muck out of the water. We cleaned up what we could reach around the pier and around the old bridge. (We left the big nasty pile of Raccoon poop on the old bridge for someone else to enjoy - under close inspection, the kids decided it looked like it ate a lot of berries!)
.
Then we turned to pulling some of the weeds that had grown up around the beach area. Then digging out a few next to the pier. We'd kind of left it at that, but I went back down last Saturday to work on a few more things... like turning the sand box back into a sand box instead of a weed garden. I really wish the first weekend we went to clean up that I would have taken a few pictures. I almost wanted to turn and walk away it was so bad you didn't know where to start. Not only was so much of everything overrun with last summers flooding, but an entire year of neglect and no use also meant that weeds had grown up where the kids playing and normal traffic would have kept them from growing.
.
After reclaiming the sand box, sitting on the edge of the timbers looking down at the pond.. I just still didn't like how the beach looked. So shovel and rake in hand... I plodded down. I dug. I pulled. I carried. I sweat... As I dig out the overgrown mass around the pier, I realized that there was a good foot of the pier being covered with dirt & plant roots - I dug it out... now there is a good 8 inch drop from where the grass ends to the pier... ya that's not going to work. So I continue to dig and carry dirt, grass, and sand until I've got the hill dug out & sloped down to the pier from about 4 feet away. I filled in a bit around the opposite side of the pier to keep that cleared from weeds as well. Then I dug out some of the weeds growing on the far side of the beach...
.
After all is said & done - this project has been vaguely reminiscent of the year that Chris was a baby. The shore was too steep for him to sit and play, so I dug out a small swimming area for him to play in the water along the edge of the pond. You can still see where that was, 21 years later...
.
Two years ago I bought a water trampoline for the kids - perhaps a few adults - to play on, I was wondering what I'd bring down this year, but I think a big ol' pile of new sand just may do the trick. A few phone calls and promises later, they'll be delivering the sand sometime in the next week.....
.
What we don't do for our kids... nieces and nephews..
YEAH...Sand! That is great! :)
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