The Chore Swap - 3 weeks DOWN! One more to go!

 

On the 3rd week of The Chore Swap and after days and days and days and days of rain, the weeds were in their full glory as you can see... It took me about one 1/2 hour to pick these.  Done for now.  I will do one more round of weed picking before the 18th.

 

The Palm fronds had blown all about due to the lovely weather and it was time to collect them from all over the yard, put them in a pile and put as much of this debris as I could into this week's trash pick-up.  I have at least one trash pick-ups worth, and by that time, I will certainly have more to pick up as South Florida's stormy season is just beginning to kick up.  And then I thought, oh, by the time I can make another pile this big? The Chore Swap will be over! and Mike will be in charge.  But I do have a feeling that we will be doing yardwork and all of our chores more family-style when this is all over but those changes are for another post down the road.

 

 

Somewhere in the last three weeks these beanstalks began to grow, three of them.  I have been asking around and no one seems to know what they are.  One day, it was a beautiful plant and the next day there was a bean stalk growing out from the middle of it.  I am waiting for it to flower or do something. We have only lived in South Florida for a year and so much of the vegetation is new to me.  Plus, I am not a gardening type.  I am not sure if it's going to grow taller or if I should be cutting that.  I see a research trip to a nursery in my future.

Yardwork in South Florida is exhausting anytime of day, this much I have learned.  The biggest and hardest job of mowing and edging the lawn, only need to be done once a week and only take a total of about 1 1/2 hours (I can't seem to get it done in one hour but I'm still trying).  My noodles, I mean... my arms feel like noodles when I'm done.  I thought my arms would strengthen over time but not so much.  I have a few tricks I've discovered for yardwork survival in South Florida:

1. Start early. This is easier said than done because it totally interferes with my coffee time but it is key to not overheating and actually finishing in a timely manner.
2. Sunscreen and bug spray.  These things are a must.
3. Long pants and a light but long shirt. To protect you from the bugs and the sun and the whipping of random twigs and yard shrapnel. 
4. BEWARE of lizards, and spiders, and dead frogs, and ant piles.  When you dig through plant debri or reach under a plant to grab those weeds, yes, that was a lizard that just crawled over your hand, or a spider.  And no that is not a rock, that is a dead frog or dried poop.  yes, beware!
4. REFRESHMENTS!!!  This is the most important of all.  I have found that if I plan for a nice refreshment afterward, it's like placing a light at the end of the very hot, humid tunnel.  Here are a few of my favorites...besides beer...because I just can't have beer all the time...or can I?



Lemon-Cucumber-Coconut Water

A dip in the pool!!!

Homemade popsicles...or any icy treat will do

 



How are we doing?

How am I doing?  I am doing fine.  I mow the front and back lawn and edge them in one day.  I do the weeding once a week now instead of looking for the little buggers everyday.  My kids made me wonder why in the world we all hate weeds so much that we have to snatch them up and kill them.  "Everything is here for a reason.", they say.  "No one weeds in real nature. They just get to live free with all of the other plants.", they say.  I have no response to these statements.  Why do we not just let weeds be? I have no idea, whatsoever.  When you start philosophizing about weeds?  That's when you know you've been out in the heat for far too long.  I like my plants, shrubs, and hedges a little on the wild, more natural side, so edging and trimming is really only a once a month job.  I vacuum the patio furniture once a week, pick up poo daily, and I vacuum indoors once a week.  And the rest of the week, I'm free.  The 1 1/2 hour of hard yardwork is hard and exhausting but it's also a nice workout and then it's done and I can move on with my week, scattering the other little chores here and there.  So, I'm doing all of Mike's chores and I'm doing fine. 

How is Mike Doing? Mike...well...let's just say he has modified my chores to fit his standards and his schedule.  I stopped keeping track because he stopped trying to keep up doing exactly what I do and when I do it.  This whole experiment began because Mike was not really keeping up with his outdoor work and I said something or asked the wrong question or might have said something like, "you only have to do yardwork once a week...I mean...c'mon...is it really THAT hard?" OOOPS... There was my mistake.  He then made the statement that I didn't understand how hard his yardwork was and how hard it is to keep up with it and that all of my indoor work COMBINED was not as hard as his once a week outdoor work.  OOPS...there was his mistake and the experiment was born.  I have now walked in his shoes for 3 weeks and can honestly say that his chores are harder than I thought but not as hard as all of my chores combined. I will be defining "difficult" in another post. And given the fact that he is not doing ALL of my chores or not doing them EXACTLY the same amount of times or per the same standard, I would think he would agree but he won't commit to that or say much of anything about it yet.  He just whistles as he works.  He wants to hold back on his full evaluation until the end of the experiment, so, I cannot speak for him.  I only know what I observe and what I observe is that he has chosen to modify my chore list.  So... there went the control factor of the experiment but oh, well.  Maybe my standards are too high? Maybe I've been doing too much cleaning all this time?  That's possible. I'm contemplating all of this. For the last week, much as I have done from the beginning, I will just focus on what I'm doing and what I'm getting out of the experiment and let him have his own experience.  My house will certainly survive and so will we...I think. I look forward to Mike's final evaluation (as I'm sure you all do) and his possible epiphany.  Oh, you never know...he could totally have an epiphany.  Anything is possible.