Mulching

Every couple of years we get several cubic yards of mulch delivered to our driveway. I would love to be the person that gets it all neatly shoveled onto the flower beds within a day, or even a week. But it seems to sit for weeks, gathering "helicopters" from the maple trees, and long strands from the oak trees. Last time we had it delivered, we actually got too much, and the remainder of the pile sat there for a whole year, until the following spring when I used it up. The neighbors must have been horrified! Anyway, I was trundling wheelbarrows across the yard yesterday, with two little helpers. Both KK and Addie were eager to use their little beach shovels to pat down the mulch around the flowers. It must have seemed like a fun game to KK, because today she came up to me, shovel and bucket in hand, "Mommy, please I can do the dirt?". How could I resist? So what if she was wearing a white shirt, and the mulch leaves black stains? I showed her where to dump her mulch when her bucket was full, and left her to it. About half an hour later, I realized that she was still working! Face flushed, dirty knees and hands, she was completely absorbed in her job.

Digging into the pile

Mulch covered

Getting up

partially full bucket
dumping
off to get some more

With a little helper like this, it won't be long before I'm scraping asphalt.