My Sore Back!!

 In Feb I started cleaning up the back yard. It was over taken in weeds, grass and leaves from our tree.  Our Chinaberry tree is a very messy tree. I hoed up the weeds around the tree and raked up the millions of leaves into a several huge piles. I never got around to cleaning up those piles. I finally got that done today. Brandon was HUGE help too. He raked and hauled and cut down weeds. His red wagon was put to use hauling the bags from one side of the yard to the other. Sadly, the wagon handle broke. We hope Daddy can fix it.

When we moved into this house, we were very concerned about this tree. The berries are highly toxic if ingested. Naturally, we were not worried about us, but we were worried about our dog. It has worked out. Newman has not bothered the tree at all. The tree went dormant over the winter and is now blooming. It is such a pretty tree and it smells WONDERFUL!! When it started blooming the flowers were purple. I wish I had taken a picture of that. Now they are white and  dark purple (they look black in the picture).  Again, this tree smells so sweet!  All the while I am cleaning up the berries and leaves I am singing the song "Just what makes this little old ant". It is going to be a never ending job just keeping the mess under some control.  I should have taken more before pictures. Believe me it was a huge mess. It is as cleaned up as it's every going to get, just in time for the rain the weekend. Ugh..

                                          The berries fall off constantly

I added about 6 more bags after I took this picture

Sorry Babe. We need more trash bags, a new rake (the handle broke)  and we need to make a run to the dump.  I need Tylenol and my heating pad. I never could have done this 38 lbs ago.. Yeah me!!