While the rest of the country is defrosting, we in Arizona have been experiencing record heat. And thanks to a mild winter, we also have record weeds.

Given that the neighbors house is for sale, it is also the time when realtors report high weeds to the city to be fined.

With all these things in mind we decided it was time to address the side yard. You see grass and weeds always grow through the rocks and no matter what e did, we couldn’t control it.

So we decided to resort to prison labor, without the jumpsuits and pink underwear of sheriff Joe. So every night we worked for an hour picking rocks out one by one, filling up bins and yanking out weeds. Neighbors stopped by while riding their bikes or walking their dogs to chat.

We worked for 5 days stopping to visit with folks we hadn’t seen before then came our weekend.

Bribing our son, we enlisted his help and moved the rest of the rocks. Then we worked to dig out the snarl of grass and weeds. It isn’t a big patch of land, about four foot wide and forty feet long. It took three hours to dig out 3 inches deep.

It took three hoes and two shovels.

Just as we finished up, two guys drove by. One leaned out the window and shouted, “hey man! I like your hoe!”

Since we didn’t react the first time, he yelled it the next half mile.

Then we laughed.

Nothing like a little gardening to bring the neighborhood together.