if church is home then
its members are family. I wish I had photographed. In the almost 4 years that we've lived in this house, parts of the yard and porch have looked like Pompeii, and not in a good way. I guess our predecessors broke up a bunch of concrete not only in the basement but in the backyard itself. Anyway, this past spring one of our home group-members suggested we all take turns working on eachother's houses. We installed ceiling fans and painted baby furniture for a family whose second baby will arrive this summer. There were plans to assist in basement purging for friends who have moved many times. Our chosen task was to take down the fence at the back of our property and to do rubble removal.
On Saturday, our friend, a softspoken and industrious lawyer, shows up at 6:30 am sharp to load concrete rubble into 15 steel buckets. He did this before heading on vacation. I stood on the deck, with bedhead in disbelief, completely heart-warmed. He helped Geoff load the buckets into the van so we could, at last be rid of the rubble and reclaim our yard! One by one, our kids and I joined the effort. Each in our own way: Manny lined up the buckets. Benicio dug in with his shovel. The girls and I watched while we made bagels and coffee. The morning went on like this, Geoff making another trip to the dump. The purging was restorative-- Geoff would say, "Our property is 1 ton lighter now!" I raked weeds off of the old tetanus-laden fence, rotting iron, slumped and broken. I filled bags with insistent and ubiquitous weed growth. Just when I was flagging, longing for water and a professional landscaper, I see Calliope's God-parents, their toddler in tow. Gamely, Nate says, "I hear you need a fence taken down!" Jess, hair in bandana a la Rosie the Riveter comes bearing an axe, a saw, and various steel blades, is light hearted too.
It can't be said enough, we could not have achieved it alone. I busied myself with more cooking, biting my lip and peering out into the yard. I come down later to see the iron thing neatly folded like so much laundry, and metal posts lined up next to it like hairpins. All this, and they found two garden snakes that ended up busying the kids up until even yesterday. It wasn't just that they found the snakes but Nate gave an impromptu lesson about how they really only nip you and how they are defenseless babies and why don't we find them some food. The kids outfitted a habitat for them complete with a shade leaf, rocks to keep them cool, and enough ants and spiders to eat forever.
At one point, the snakes were mating, we think. Benicio said, "They're fighting, no they're hugging. They're doing their own dance." Awesome observation.
You should come see the yard, especially if you can remember from before. It is as if we prayed, like Jabez, "Lord, increase my land." It's probably only 3 or 4 extra feet but it's cleared and it's not dangerous. The sky's the limit now,the next fence, do we want white picket, do we want privacy-style, or restored Germantown wrought iron? Who knows, but I know for sure that whatever we do, we are not in this alone.
On Saturday, our friend, a softspoken and industrious lawyer, shows up at 6:30 am sharp to load concrete rubble into 15 steel buckets. He did this before heading on vacation. I stood on the deck, with bedhead in disbelief, completely heart-warmed. He helped Geoff load the buckets into the van so we could, at last be rid of the rubble and reclaim our yard! One by one, our kids and I joined the effort. Each in our own way: Manny lined up the buckets. Benicio dug in with his shovel. The girls and I watched while we made bagels and coffee. The morning went on like this, Geoff making another trip to the dump. The purging was restorative-- Geoff would say, "Our property is 1 ton lighter now!" I raked weeds off of the old tetanus-laden fence, rotting iron, slumped and broken. I filled bags with insistent and ubiquitous weed growth. Just when I was flagging, longing for water and a professional landscaper, I see Calliope's God-parents, their toddler in tow. Gamely, Nate says, "I hear you need a fence taken down!" Jess, hair in bandana a la Rosie the Riveter comes bearing an axe, a saw, and various steel blades, is light hearted too.
It can't be said enough, we could not have achieved it alone. I busied myself with more cooking, biting my lip and peering out into the yard. I come down later to see the iron thing neatly folded like so much laundry, and metal posts lined up next to it like hairpins. All this, and they found two garden snakes that ended up busying the kids up until even yesterday. It wasn't just that they found the snakes but Nate gave an impromptu lesson about how they really only nip you and how they are defenseless babies and why don't we find them some food. The kids outfitted a habitat for them complete with a shade leaf, rocks to keep them cool, and enough ants and spiders to eat forever.
At one point, the snakes were mating, we think. Benicio said, "They're fighting, no they're hugging. They're doing their own dance." Awesome observation.
You should come see the yard, especially if you can remember from before. It is as if we prayed, like Jabez, "Lord, increase my land." It's probably only 3 or 4 extra feet but it's cleared and it's not dangerous. The sky's the limit now,the next fence, do we want white picket, do we want privacy-style, or restored Germantown wrought iron? Who knows, but I know for sure that whatever we do, we are not in this alone.
posted by Maria at
8:16 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
Links to this post:
Create a Link
<< Home