What's a Little Yard Work?

You know those questionnaires or memes on the social media that ask if you'd rather have a cook or a housecleaner?  Well, I'd rather have a cook all.day.long.  Secondly and more realistically, I would like to have a landscaper.  I enjoy my gardening but there are things that I can't do.  Paired with the mowing and weed-whacking, it's one of those things that can easily get away from a person.

Like when you have pneumonia for over a month.  It took a good chunk of Saturday to pull weeds, trim bushes, and rake topsoil and beauty bark.  And then water everything.

And this situation isn't going to get any easier as we age.

Unbeknownst to me, Kevin was having this thought also.  His dad used to take care of most of the landscaping but he's doing less and less every day.  Kevin won't let me mow the yard. It's a thing for him and not a hill I'm willing to die on.  (Before you get your torches, this is the guy who I work equally on the racecar with.  This is the guy who has four women on his staff in a male-dominated industry.  He's not sexist, he just doesn't want his wife doing that kind of labor.  Yes, I am a pretty, pretty princess.  (NOPE) )

I was 23 years old when we bought this property and Kevin was 28.  Everyone told us we were crazy for moving so far out into the country.  We didn't care though.  We were ready to be away from everyone, a novel concept to most everyone.  We loved being in the country, away from all the noise.  What's a little yard work?

We were young and dumb.  We had all.the.energy. and all the want to.  Skip ahead thirty years and we're not young, as much as it pains me to say.  We don't have the energy. We really don't have the want to anymore. But things still need doing. Lawns need mowed, trees need trimmed, acres need weed-whacked.

The kids did the same thing we did a few years ago and this time we were the people that were all "What.are.you.doing?"   However, they crowd-sourced information about how to be prepared.  They barter and ask for help from their friends.  They're homesteading because they know in the long run, that will make it easier for them.  (big garden, water storage, chickens, sustainability)  They went about it more thoughtfully than we did.  But they're going to get old someday too.

Anyway...

Kevin hired a landscaper to help.  It's a relief not to have to think about it but I find myself having some guilt about it.  It just feels privileged. I mean, we are capable. Just less so than before.  And we have other priorities now. But I still feel badly even though it really is a relief.

Now we don't have to feel guilty when things get overgrown because they won't, we don't have to worry about Kevin's dad trying to do it while we're at work and can't stop him, Kevin doesn't have to do it after working long days in the heat, and the landscaper does 100% better job than any of us.

Now to work on that having a cook thing...