Pick Up Sticks

Spring has sprung.  Although, with the hail that we just had, I am not so sure that I should be excited just yet.  But I can't help myself.  It has been 6 years since I have had a nice long spring.  While I loved living my adventures in Colorado and Alaska, spring was not quite what it is here, in Indiana.  Colorado had a small spring and Alaska went straight from winter to summer.  Or at least it seemed that way.  It was like everything bloomed overnight (well, some would say it isn't night just dusk).  Which was amazing in itself.  But a slower spring is nice.  You can watch each day as things begin to grow up from the ground, or on the trees, or bushes, or even on the farms.  Baby animals start to emerge.  I suppose in some cases we start to see more infants too.  Long winters will do that.  ;-)

[caption id="attachment_209" align="alignright" width="150" caption="Camp Challenge, Alaska"][/caption]

In Alaska, I worked with my husband as Camp Directors.  We lived, ate, slept camp. We were at a Christian Bible Camp called Camp Challenge.    Every May we would have a clean up party.  People who supported the camp would come out to camp and help rake, scrub, paint, and hammer everything back into place after the long winter.  Now that we have moved from that environment, I still find myself wanting to get out and clean up.  But this time I don't have a clean up party to come and help.  Although, I must say that my dad came one day last week and helped quite a bit.

Pick up sticks is the name of the game. I'm not so sure I liked that game as a child.  So to do it as an adult on a larger scale. Ahem, my backyard.  I'm still not sure that I like it so much.

We are renting a house.  So with renting, I suppose you have the choice to tidy up the house if you want to. Because it is not really your house.  You could just leave it as is.  Well, that is not how my husband and I operate.  We have to get our hands dirty.  The renter before us didn't do much, if any, up keep outside.  So we have begun the gigantic process of trimming, raking, transplanting, and trimming and raking some more.  I love our backyard for the space.  I hate our backyard for the space.

[caption id="attachment_210" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Our backyard"][/caption]

So like I said, we have been playing pick up sticks.  Only it is in our backyard.   

I am excited to have our backyard oasis once it is all finished.  Although, we may need to call friends and family who love us a lot to have a clean up party.   Wanna come and play pick up sticks with us?