This is my backyard. I call it The Deathtrap. Why? You may be asking, it looks like a nice size with a swingset?
Yes, but, as I'm sure you've spotted by now, it consists of packed dirt, dead weedy-type grass and broken debris left by dogs and children including many kitchen utensils. Every so often I go outside to pick up dog doo and gather the broken toys to make the terrain that much easier to navigate.
The overall trashiness, combined with the leaning swingset and the piles o' dog poop mortify me anytime someone comes over. I'm glad kids like to play outside but I'm always trying to block parents from looking outside, which is silly.
Everyone who comes to our house lives in Texas. They understand how the Texas sun turns everything it touches into powder. And when they see we have two children and two doggies, they should understand that any attempt at making our backyard a soft, grassy field for little feet, would shrivel up in our south facing yard with no shade.
So, the grass is dry and scratchy? That's nothing to worry about.
Yes, but the dry, scratchy grass is pitted with shallow holes the dogs have dug. Run, run, run, run, run, foot goes in hole, snap, ER visit.
The swingset leans to the right. It's due to gravity. Which isn't my fault, but it troubles me all the same.
There is a trampoline with no enclosure. The enclosure tore off it's supports and had to be removed.
All of this, of course, means that every child that comes to my home adores my backyard. They jump up and down, use my pie server to make the holes deeper, shake the swingset and gather the hunks of cider block and old plastic forks to the piles of dirt they've made to build spaceships and castles.
When moms say it's time to go home, they'll say they don't want to leave. Once our young visitors outgrow that, then I'll think about landscaping.
Amanda's beauty tip of the day: If your lips have dried to the point that they are cracked, you've moved beyond lip balm. Apply antibiotic ointment to help healing.
2 comments:
We've got no railing on the side of our stairs, which means that a kid could easily fall 5-6 feet off the stairs into their living room. No kid ever has though. Still, I feel self-concious about it everytime we have some little kids over.
I remember playing on my neighbor's rickety swingset. The whole thing would rock off the ground if you went fast enough! On day we all had to stay on it because there were a ton of gophers popping in and out of their holes. Ah, childhood!
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