lawn

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I May Have Left It Too Late Again

I looked out the window this morning and thought, “I may have left it too late”.

I may have left it too late again

I wanted to cut my grass one more time this fall. I don’t like it being too long through the winter. 

Today is a bright, sunny day and, though the temperatures are a little lower than what I’d like, it would be a good day to cut the grass.

However, there is one problem with that plan: we have leaves all over our lawn. My idea of one more quick cut before the snow flies is a good one, but first I’ll have to spend an hour vacuuming up the dead leaves.

If I had done it two weeks ago there would have been very little clean up to do first and it would have been much warmer outside. But I kept saying to myself, “the front yard doesn’t really need it yet, even though the back yard could use the cut now”. 

Well, four days ago I noticed that the front yard could use a mow. The grass was looking a little fuzzy, like the hair on your head does just before you go get a haircut. 

The thing is for the last four days the weather has been a little overcast and rainy – not optimal for getting out there with my lawnmower. 

This morning, however, with how sunny it is, I’m considering doing the task. I realize that the longer I leave the leaf problem, it will only get worse since our tree still has about sixty percent of its leaves hanging on for dear life. Many haven’t even changed colour yet. 

But that extra work of getting rid of the leaves before I cut the grass is creating a dilemma of whether to cut or not. I’m wondering if I’ve missed my window. Maybe I should just let the grass go until spring.  

I remember when I was a kid and it was my turn to cut the grass in the backyard. The task would take an hour and a half; there was never a time I wanted to do it. I would look at the lawn and think, “maybe I’ll wait till tomorrow”. 

I always left it too late and then paid for it. I ended up spending two hours cutting the grass because it was so long. 

I hated that task, but when I left it too late, I hated it even more.

You would think that so many years later I would have learned my lesson and not put off the things I should do … but here I am, considering if I’ve left it too late. 

I think I have one more window today and tomorrow before it rains again. 

I have a few other things that I need to attend to first. … I hope in the spring I won’t be shaking my head and muttering that I left it too late again.

Here’s the thing: Often we have adequate time to get something done, accomplished or settled. But how quickly that time goes. Concerning your relationship with God, don’t make the mistake and think you have lots of time. Be sure you have a relationship with Jesus Christ now. You don’t want to miss your window and for eternity shake your head that you left it too late.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What are you most prone to leaving until it is too late? Leave your comments and questions below.

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My Front Lawn Looks Amazing

I was looking at my front lawn this morning as I left my house.

Lawn

The tree in the front yard is a beautiful, brilliant yellow. There are still lots of leaves on the tree … but it’s kind of like someone who’s had a good head of hair but is getting older – that hair is starting to thin out. It was so thick that most people didn’t notice for years that there were some bare spots on that melon.

Well, that’s the stage our tree is in. It’s thinning out and all that hair loss is showing on the grass below.

That’s right, the leaves that have come off the tree are strewn all over our lawn.

I have to tell you, it’s a great fall scene … at least it was this morning with the sun shining and air still. It was a beautiful sight to see.

As I looked at this awesome, live picture, I thought to myself, “You know, those leaves aren’t going to pick themselves up and put themselves in the collection bag. And though the grass isn’t really growing much any more, it’s still green and could probably use one more cut for the year.”

Today would be a great day to get this all done … but I don’t want to ruin the picture, the scene.

I also know that when the tree does go completely bald, I will be picking up leaves again. So if I work on the front yard today, I will still need to work on it another day or two.

And way back – I mean way back in my brain – I have this thought …

If I just wait the wind will come and blow some, many – maybe not all, but close to all – of those leaves somewhere else.

I know I shouldn’t think like that; I should be responsible. They are from my tree and, therefore, they are my leaves.

My only rebuttal to that is when the fall leaf collection is done, yes I will have picked up a lot of my leaves, but there will also be a lot of leaves bagged and taken to the curb that are from other trees.

You see, I know that my neighbours’ leaves are going to leak off their lawns and end up on mine.

That’s the part that doesn’t make me too eager to get at the task.

It’s such a nice day out that I could spend my time mountain biking … and I’m running out of good days to do that too!

Maybe I should be thinking more of my neighbours instead of just focussing on me and my desires. I should really be thinking of them first.

How can I wreck for them that amazing fall scene that they see when they look out their front windows or when they drive into our court?

That would be wrong, even selfish of me to take all that beauty away from them.

Well, I guess that settles it … I’m going biking.

Here’s the thing: It’s easy to talk ourselves into things we want to do. It’s dangerous when we do that with God, like convincing ourselves that God is behind the very thing we’ve talked ourselves into. Get a second opinion, check it with scripture, and don’t just take your own thoughts as the truth.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What kind of things do you try to talk yourself into? Leave your comments below.

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The Grass Is Not Greener Over There

We are having a pretty dry summer so far and that has good and bad side effects.

brown grass lawn

On the good side, there are not many days my outdoor activities get rained out.

I can get my golf game in and my mountain bike rides in without worrying if I’m picking the best weather days; most days of the week the sun is shining.

In the spring, when it was raining a lot, the soaked mountain biking trails would often be closed so we wouldn’t destroy them. Now if it rains, the trails are so dry that they suck up the rain and we never have to miss a day of biking.

Another good side is I don’t have to cut the grass that often. With the little rain we’ve had in the last month, my grass is not really growing; it’s turning brown … except for the part where they installed a fibre optics cable junction!

Last fall Bell Canada made a mess on my front lawn doing their installation. They finally re-sodded the little area this spring and have been faithful watering it ever since. That’s the only really green part of my lawn now.

… Which leads me to the downside of not having any rain. The grass doesn’t grow but the weeds are in fine form! They seem to be able to stay green and flourish under these drought-like conditions.

While I may not have to cut my grass every week, I still need to cut the weeds if I want to keep the lawn looking even.

So we’ve been thinking maybe we should look into putting a sprinkler system in our yard so that we can give the grass a fighting chance against the weeds. (One year we came home from vacation and our lawn looked completely brown except for thriving, foot high cactus-like weeds, spastically placed all over it!)

 

If we were getting a decent amount of rain, I’m sure we wouldn’t be looking into underground sprinklers at all. But in order for the weeds to not completely take over, we did a little investigation.

After we completed the online planning guide from one company, we looked at their end cost and started wondering if a green lawn was worth taking out a second mortgage on the house!

I’m leaning towards considering that brown is the new green.

We’ve already had to make adjustments like that. When they banned the use of chemical weed control in our city, dandelions became a beautiful yellow flower of spring.

Almost every home sports them and they’re cheap – you don’t have to buy them and they come up every year.

Maybe I just need to look at that brown grass and think of how nice it looks that way. Maybe I just have to ignore the green weeds.

For sure, I can embrace brown grass if it means more time in the sun and less interruptions from my outside activities.

Here’s the thing: You can get used to allowing a certain sin in your life. If you live with it long enough, you may even get to the place where you think it is perfectly fine. But don’t fool yourself! Grass is supposed to be green and you are to confess your sin and turn from it. There’s no other way of looking at it.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What in your life have you come to accept but instead should cut out? Leave your comments below.

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I Never Thought I’d Like This

I find it interesting that you can trick yourself into liking something you don’t really like – in this case, something you don’t usually like doing. Recently, I bought a new weed trimmer.

This garden tool goes by several names, “weed-whacker”, “weed-eater”, “whipper-snipper”, and I’m sure there are a few more.

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Regardless of the name, they don’t really have anything to do with weeds. They are designed to trim the long strands of grass that grow along the edge of your lawn that your lawn mower can’t get.

Now, I don’t really like yard work. I cut the grass when it needs it, but while I’m cutting the front lawn, I keep looking at the basketball hoop in my driveway thinking, “It’d be nice to take some shots right now.” Funny thing is, it’s the only time I have that urge. When I’m done cutting the lawn I no longer have the desire to make a few hoops.

I can think of a million things I could be doing when I have to do yard work, and none of them include taking care of or maintaining anything growing around my property.

So it really surprised me the other day when I got my new cordless … we’ll call it “grass trimmer”, and was anxious to get out there and start using it. The really amazing thing was that not once did I have the urge to put it down and pick up a basketball.

My new trimmer is fantastic! I can push two buttons in and turn the bottom part so it can be used as a edger. I have never edged anything in my life so it came as a real revelation that edging really makes your lawn look good.

When I was all finished I went in the house and looked out the window at how stunning my walkway looked leading up to our front door.

I used my knew toy . . . err . . . a . . . I mean, tool to trim both front and back yards and the battery didn’t die before I was done. It normally takes me about 25 to 30 minutes to cut my lawn, front and back. And usually I can’t wait to get back to doing pretty much anything else.

I even got out my leaf blower afterwards to blow away the grass that blew onto the cement walk and the driveway just so that it looked neat and showed off my trim work.

The only thing that I am concerned about is how long my new found infatuation will last.  This baby is new but how will I feel about using it when it’s another week old or in three months?

By the end of the summer will I be wishing the battery isn’t charged so I don’t have to get out there and trim? Will I be looking longingly over at my basketball hoop and accidentally cut the tops off my wife’s flowers?  I don’t know.

But I do know that my wife, Lily is happy right now and I’m liking the look of my lawn.

Here’s the thing: Sometimes a fresh look at something can give us new inspiration or cause us to find new meaning. Whether it’s a familiar Bible passage, or an old problem, or whether it is God Himself, take a fresh approach and you might be surprised to find something you really like.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What have you found a new enjoyment or appreciation for? Leave your question below.