Laboring for days on end

We spent the long Labor Day weekend working outside in the yard - all 2+ acres of it - trying to restore it to some semblance of neatness. Our mower, "The Toe-minator", had been out of action for almost a month, and we had been dependent upon the kindness of neighbors lending us their mowers until the parts arrived to fix ours. But for some reason, most of the rest of the yard work didn't get done. I'm going to stick to the "It's been too hot and the mowers weren't familiar and some of us have been sick" reason for that. In any event, our yard is now back to looking pretty good. The high points in our weekend: our son is now big enough to reach the brake and clutch pedal on the mower and will soon be participating in the joys of mowing. I found a nest of baby copperheads under a rose bush (they're aggressive little buggers, BTW); and no, I just left them alone. I found out that yellow jackets can also nest in a hole in the ground - after I mowed over their hole, they stung me on my hand, my stomach (through my shirt), my leg (through my jeans), my back (flew up inside my shirt) and my upper arm (flew up my shirt sleeve). I left the yellow jackets alone, too, but I'm going back to get my revenge on them later.


The picture was taken Monday afternoon. The good thing is that I didn't smell as bad as I looked.