The final 40

 This is the second article in a multi-part series. For information on the 50 yard challenge see the first blog post.

 Yard 11; Sep. 15, 2021; Grandma Virginia

Last week we started to get the plums off of Grandma Virginia's tree. Over the weekend she and her husband got really sick. Turns out it's Covid. Long story. Anyhow. We figured that we wouldn't be able to go over this week to finish the tree. She called and really wanted the tree done though. She said she would stay inside and let us work outside. I have to admit, I was really tired that day. I was cranky too. I didn't want to go pick plums. Technically I suppose this is the kids' challenge. I could have just sent them and stayed home. I really wanted to be part of this though. I think this challenge is awesome. So.... we went. This time the plums were on the top half of the tree. This tree hasn't been pruned in I don't know how long. Lots of little branches. Super hard to get at the plums. The kids climbed the tree. They could get a lot of the plums but not the ones on the outer top edge. I wasn't sure what to do. I was ready to call it quits when Annalisa had an awesome idea. She started shaking the tree and it started raining plums. Turns out that falling to the ground doesn't really harm the plums all that much. And it's significantly easier to pick up plums on the ground then it is to pick plums off the tree. Soon the job was done. Hallelujah! We got 3 big baskets worth and one small basket. Looks like we forgot to take pictures. Oops. Basically look at the first blog post pictures of the tree, the plums and Grandma and imagine Grandma V in her robe inside her house peering through the sliding glass door with a very happy look on her face :-) Yummy plums are sometimes the best medicine. Even for Covid :-)

Lessons learned. Look for better methods of doing hard things rather than giving up. Service makes people happy. Seeing people happy makes me happy :-)

UPDATE: Grandma recovered from Covid. Her husband did not. He died Sep. 26, 2021. 

Yard 12; September 22, 2021; Nana and Papa

These are my parents, Nana and Papa. They are in their 80's. A couple of years ago dad had back surgery. Ended up with an infection and nearly died, twice. Since then he has slowly regained the ability to walk. 

Papa has a tree in his front yard that we have pruned back so much I'm surprised it is still with us. Somehow it keeps growing. And the growth is right over the driveway. So for yard number 12 Annalisa and Matthew pruned back the tree and chopped it up so it would fit in the trailer to go to green waste. And of course we can't visit Nana and Papa without 1) playing a game of cards and 2) eating ice cream :-)

Yard 13; Nov. 6, 2021; Verla

I love that we are in the orange shirts for November and leaf raking. Although it has started to get colder here so you'll notice in the next yard we are in jackets. Verla is our neighbor. She has someone professionally mow her lawn so we weren't able to help her with that. When I saw the leaves in her yard I told the kids we should go out and rake the leaves. Verla doesn't come out much anymore. It's hard for her to get around. A lot of the time when we knock she doesn't answer so we don't have a picture with her.  I'll try and snag one the next time I see her out and about. Verla is in her late 80's maybe early 90's. She's a widow. For years she has kept an immaculate yard. I think it's hard for her to get older and not be able to do much yard work. I'm glad we are able to help when we can. Chewy is glad too. He usually doesn't get to come with us when we mow or rake. He was born Oct. 31st and he is definitely a Fall/Winter puppy. He loves rolling in the leaves and the snow. I hope it snows here this year!

Yard 14; Nov. 14, 2021; Roxanne and Chris

I'm neglecting my picture taking responsibility. I almost didn't get the before picture. I also forgot to get a picture with the owner. Turns out that they had already raked once this year. They had a bunch of bagged leaves in the back of their truck. And yet, look at how many leaves they still had! And there are still leaves on the trees! Hopefully we will get to go back. Roxanne has been dealing with chemotherapy and all of that for the past couple years. Just when she thought she was in a good place she fell while riding her bike and broke her leg in two places. She is not allowed to put any weight on the leg for the next 4 to 6 weeks. Not fun. Needless to say I think they were happy for a little help with their massive amounts of leaves. We also learned a really cool trick. Instead of bagging the leaves, Chris got out a tarp and we raked the leaves on the tarp. Then we put the leaves in the back of the truck with the 6 or 7 bags of leaves that were already there. We also managed to fill a few bags before we discovered the tarp trick. It was cold and got dark quick but we got it done (at least until the rest of the leaves fall!). Woohoo! 

Notice the truck in the background
FULL of leaves :-)

Before. 

After. Notice the trees still have leaves
 ready to come down!

Yards 15/16; May 2022; Aunt Charlotte and Uncle Blaine

2022! Time again to get mowing :-) This is Aunt Charlotte, my mom's sister, and her husband Blaine. They are over 75 so we figured they would count for the 50 Yard challenge. They have a beautiful lawn with lots of shade.  

Yards 17 and 18; June 2022; Mike H.

Mike is a neighbor we hadn't met before.  Actually we still haven't met him. Another neighbor suggested we might help with the lawn mowing. Mike was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer this past year. He is doing some pretty intense treatments in order to get better. This has left him unable to take care of his large lawn. So Annalisa and Matthew stepped up to the plate to mow his lawn. 

Yard 19; June 2022; Lecia

You'll remember Lecia from last year. We helped her weed under her really cool and enormous tree. Last year Lecia had Covid. She was pretty sick with it. Yesterday she called and told me that she had Covid again. Not as bad as last year but she gets tired really easily so Matthew and Annalisa were able to mow her lawn. She really wanted to pay us last time. We were able to convince her to let us serve her last time. This time she insisted on paying the kids $40 to mow the lawn. The kids really wanted this to count towards their 50 yard challenge though so we came up with an idea. We took the money Lecia gave them and gave it to charity (another BikeMS rider). Hopefully this will still count.

Yard 20 and 21; July 2022 The Wilsons

The Wilsons are our neighbors. I'm not sure exactly how old they are.  They are in their 80's at least. Having health problems. They are new customers for Matthew and Annalisa's lawn business. The Wilson's regular lawn guy just left on a mission for his church. He went to El Salvador. So the kids got the Wilsons as customers. We told them the first two lawn mows would be free. Maybe they will let us finish out the season with free lawn mows. We'll see. Like Lecia, they are having a tough time with the idea of letting us mow for free. 

Yard 22; August 11, 2022; The Rowleys

The Rowleys are our neighbors.  They have a gorgeous garden and a big lawn. Older couple. They are letting us mow their lawn a few times. 

Richard Rowley with Annalisa and Matthew in the background. This was a two mower lawn :-)

Yard 23; August 11, 2022; Joann Kettle

Finally remembered pictures! :-)

This is Joann. She lives next to the Rowleys. She is an older lady in our neighborhood. A widow. She loves to garden. Mowing the lawn is tough for her though. Glad the kids can help.

Yard 24; August 23, 2022; The Wilsons

Did the Wilsons yard again. I think they are more comfortable now with letting us mow for free. We will probably be able to finish the season mowing their lawn for free. Need to get a picture. Next time. I think this will help their family a lot. The couple needs round the clock care and that can get pricey. It needs to be mowed about every 10 days or so. Maybe more now that we've gotten so much rain.

Yard 25; August 19, 2022; Judy

Mowed Judy's yard. The kids have done some yard work service for Judy. She was the first person we approached about the 50 yard challenge. This is the first time they have mowed her lawn for the challenge. Judy is a widow and happy to be part of the challenge. We will get pictures next time.

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Halfway done!! Hoping to get the next 25 yards before Annalisa turns 18. They have a little over 3 months. Actually only about 9 weeks left in the lawn mowing season. They will need to hope for lots of leaves falling this Fall! 

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Yard 26; August 26, 2022 Mike H

Got the picture! That's Mike. Notice the cool car in the background and the cool car in the second picture. Mike has friends who work on cars. Even in the middle of chemotherapy he finds ways to enjoy life. He also gave us some tomatoes and a cucumber. He got them from some friends. Too much for him. He's not eating much lately. 

I love the color of this car!

Yard 27; August 27, 2022; Papa and Nana Hales

Papa recently did something to his back. He's in a lot of pain. He normally loves to mow the lawn. In fact that is one of the things he is still able to do so we didn't want to take that away from him. Saturday though he was unable to mow because of his back pain so Matthew and Annalisa got the opportunity to mow. Not sure if this should count because it was so much darn fun. :-) Papa has a riding lawn mower. We will get a picture next time. I'm really slacking with my picture taking! This lawn was so fun to mow that Matthew actually mowed the entire lawn himself (1/2 an acre). 

Yard 28; August 27, 2022; Joann Kettle

I am glad Matthew called Joann on Saturday.  Apparently her grandson was unable to mow the lawn and it was getting long. Glad Matthew and Annalisa were able to help out.

Yard 29; September 3, 2022; Verla Manning

We raked Verla's lawn last Fall (yard 13). This year I was talking with her and she mentioned that she would love to have her garden weeded. She is in no shape to be weeding and her son who is living with her is also not able to get down on his hands and knees. So we went this morning and did some weeding. I should go get the after picture. This is not exactly a before picture. It's about 20 minutes into it. Verla also has some roses to trim so we will be back :-)

In the end we had 3 -- 30 gallon bags of weeds!

Yard 30; September 3, 2022; Gary Wagstaff

This is our neighbor Gary. Turns out Gary is having heart troubles. He's 72. A widower. On medication for his heart that is making it hard for him to do much. We are glad he called. He was happy to hear about the 50 yard challenge :-) The kids were able to do some trimming for him. 

That is one large trimmer!
I was a little nervous about the kids using it. They did fine.

Before picture with Gary

BLUE SHIRT!! Woohoo! :-)

Getting a picture of the blue shirts. Annalisa is making a "blue" (sad) face.

Yard 31; September 5, 2022; The Rowleys

We got back to the Rowleys this past weekend. The kids had told me it was a large lawn. This time I went to take pictures. Yep. It's kind of huge. 2/3 acres in total. They have a large house and a large garden. Still, it's a good-sized yard. The Rowleys lent us their lawn mower so both Annalisa and Matthew could mow. It still took quite a while to mow and I don't think they even trimmed or edged! 

If you look closely you can see both Annalisa and Matthew.

Lynne Rowley. Lynne is spoiling us with zucchini bread and raspberries :-)

Yard 32; September 5, 2022; Joann Kettle

We got another opportunity to mow Joann's lawn. She was really grateful. She made the kids chocolate covered popcorn :-) Yum!  One exciting thing that happened this time was the smoke coming out of the lawn mower. I wish I had taken a picture. A few weeks ago the lawn mower stopped unexpectedly. The kids didn't know what was wrong. They thought maybe the lawn mower needed some oil. They poured a LOT of oil into the lawn mower. Then they realized that the real problem was that they had forgotten to turn the gas on.  Oops. They turned the gas on and it worked just fine.... kind of. Ever since then the lawn mower would start to smoke when it got really hot. This happened yesterday. The Kettles and the Rowleys are neighbors. The Rowleys let us use their lawn mower while I tried to figure out what was going on with our mower. Anyhow. We finally figured out that there was way too much oil. We drained some of the oil and voila! it now works great. Lesson learned. 

Yard 33: September 6, 2022; Wilsons

Yard 34: September 16, 2022; Wilsons

Just found out the Wilsons are moving. They are going to a care facility. Next week will be our last time mowing their lawn.

Yard 35: September 23, 2022; Wilsons

Today they paid the kids $30. The kids tried to refuse. The Wilsons really wanted to pay. I told the kids to ask them to pay it forward. They forgot. So we are going to take the $30 and pay it forward. We are going to give it to other BikeMS riders.

Yard 36: September 24, 2022; Stowers

These neighbors aren't elderly or permanently disabled or veterans (at least I don't think so) or a single mom. This is what happened. Their daughter got a concussion. And something was going on with their son as well. Their dad is a police officer. Mom had two other sons under the age of 5. They really need help with their lawn. We told them we would do it for free. They gave us $30. Once again the kids forgot to ask them to simply pay it forward. We will give that money to other BikeMS riders. Hope this one counts. Police Officer is kind of like a Veteran, eh? And the older kids (who I assume would normally be mowing) had temporary disabilities. 

Yard 37: October 8, 2022; Dennis

Ok. Dennis is our neighbor. The Stowers told us about him. They live directly next to him. Anyhow. When the Stowers gave us money for the lawn they insisted it would be to pay for us doing Dennis' lawn. Of course we didn't want money for either lawn! Dennis was super happy to have the help. Apparently he's had a lot of health problems. He's an older single man who lives alone. I had wondered about the house because the lawn really really needed to be mowed. I'm glad the Stowers knew him well enough that we could approach him. He tried to give the kids $60! They were successful in refusing the money this time. Phew! Practice makes perfect :-) I'm really proud of them. The lawn looks so much better. 

Walking the lawn prior to the mow.

Yard 38: October 10, 2022; Charlotte and Blaine

Getting towards the end of the season. Probably the last mow for Charlotte and Blaine. They said we can mow their lawn for free this time. That makes three free lawns for them (15, 16, 38). 

Yard 39: October 13, 2022; Marianne

Marianne lives in Springville. I wish she lived closer so we could mow her lawn a lot more. You will remember that we did her lawn towards the beginning of this (yard 8). She is a single mom with a disability (Multiple Sclerosis). She lets her lawn get really long. She doesn't mow it very often. I was seriously impressed that her lawn mower could actually handle it. Check out the pictures below.

Super long grass!

Before. That's some long grass!

After. That's a big difference.

Front yard

Back yard

Done! :-) 

Yard 40: October 14, 2022; Carol Johnson

Carol was one of our first lawns as well (yard 4). We asked if we could mow her lawn again and she was really grateful. It helped her out a lot.

Red shirts! Woohoo! 10 lawns to go. Can they do it before Annalisa turns 18? We'll see.

Yard 41/42: November 19, 2022; Gary Wagstaff

Ok. Gary called today. He had more hedges to trim. The kids spent over 2 hours working on the hedges. The hedges look great! The kids are building their arm muscles using Gary's hedge trimmer. See picture from yard 30. That trimmer is huge! (and apparently heavy :-). UPDATE: As mentioned above, the kids spent over 2 hours doing yard work for Gary so they want to count this as 2 yards. Is that ok?

Yards 43-49 (Annalisa): November 30, 2022; Widows

So I kept giving the kids ideas of people who needed leaves raked and it seemed to go on deaf ears. I decided to back off and just let them do their thing. I'm trying to be less of a helicopter parent. I knew it was getting awfully close to Annalisa's birthday but I figured if she wanted to do this she would have to do it. You can lead a child to water but you can't make her mow/shovel/rake. Then something happened. Tuesday it snowed. It hardly ever snows here. Annalisa was not so happy because it turns out she was still planning on finishing the challenge. She just was going to leave it to the very last minute. I told her that this could still work. Shoveling driveways counts towards the challenge. She had already planned to take the day off of school to catch up on homework so we decided to take a few hours in the morning and shovel some driveways.

First of all let me say that youth is a beautiful thing. By the end of the day I was so sore! Annalisa was not. That made me think about Yards 41/42 when they worked for Gary. They both came back sore and tired. That must have been a lot of work. Anyhow. The first driveway we did was Verla next door. We went down the street to get Tina but we weren't quick enough. Her drive was already shoveled. Next we did Carol. Then Mrs. Steele (my husband's third grade teacher), Karen, Leeanna,  Shirley/Pam and finally Roxanne. What I noticed afterwards was that most of these women (all but one) are widows and all but one hire out their lawn to a professional team of lawn mowers. So most of them hadn't been part of the challenge before. Only Verla and Roxanne had been part of the challenge. One thing we noticed about shoveling drives vs. mowing lawns is that people are more than happy to let you shovel their drive for free. Also, we never felt like we could just mow someone's lawn without permission. That wasn't the case with shoveling drives. There was only one house that expressed concern about scratching the driveway. That driveway was in fact fairly fancy (see pictures below).  For the most part it was pretty easy. We don't get a lot of snow so it wasn't terribly heavy snow. Just enough snow that it needed to be shoveled. So it worked out great for Annalisa. Matthew went to school so he still needs to get 8 more yards. He has plenty of time though. He's only 15. 

The fancy drive. Colored cement.

After the second to the last drive. Ready to rest. Can you spot Annalisa?

On the last drive our neighbor showed up with a snowblower and helped us finish the last little bit.

Spreading the love :-)

Yard 50 (Annalisa): December 2, 2022; Verla

A couple days after the last snow storm we had a bit more snow. It was billed as a super big storm. We were all ready. The school sent a notice that they would probably delay school. We figured we could just go around and shovel the widows' drives again. This time Matthew would be there and maybe we could get the challenge completely done by Annalisa's birthday. Turns out school was delayed but there wasn't a lot of snow. It was enough though that if it wasn't shoveled and you drove on it then it wouldn't melt so we decided to shovel Verla's driveway. It was super easy. Does that count? I don't know. We would have done more but I was still sore from two days ago and the kids needed to get ready and go to school. We are supposed to get snow tomorrow so maybe they'll have another chance to shovel tomorrow.  We'll see. I'm really proud of Annalisa for finishing the challenge. I'm sure she will help Matthew with his last 8 yards too. 

2023!! Woohoo! 8 more lawns to go. It's been three years but they are getting this done. 

Yard 43, 47 June 2023

Ok. Year three. Started off with Dennis. The kids mowed his lawn last October (Yard 37).  Here are some pictures. The grass is long but not thick so they could mulch a lot of it. That was good because he has a very large lawn.

During

during

Before

This is Dennis

Yard 44, 45, 48 June 2023

The Oaks. Remember Verla Manning? She was our next door neighbor for many many years. She had a lawn service so we weren't able to mow her lawn but we were able to rake leaves and shovel snow. Verla passed away last December. A young couple moved into her home. They are renting the basement to another young couple. Both couples were due to have babies in June. Their lawn was getting neglected so Matthew and Annalisa offered to mow their lawn during the month of June until they get their feet on the ground with these cute new babies. Here are a couple of pictures of how neglected the lawn had gotten. The owners came over with money. They didn't realize how much work the lawn would be. It's been a really wet year so the grass has been growing great. The grass has also been really wet. Never seems to dry. That has been a challenge. So the owners felt bad about how much work it was to mow. Matthew and Annalisa however deftly refused the tempting cash :-) They have a goal! They will finish this challenge!

Before

After

Yard 46 June 21, 2023 Don and Joanne Abel

Don and Joanne are our neighbors. They are in their 70's. Joanne has health issues. I can't remember the name of it. Chronic pain. They have a great yard and a huge garden. Beautiful garden. They went out of town this week and let Matthew and Annalisa mow their lawn. 

Yard 49 Aunt Marianne July 2023

Aunt Marianne is moving. We've been working super hard to help her. I'm amazed at how she is holding up with her MS. I don't have MS and I'm ready to drop. Anyhow. Annalisa and Matthew were able to help her mow her lawn.Crossing fingers that the house sells quickly. For more pictures of Marianne's massive lawn see lawn 39.

Nicely mowed lawn :-)

Yard 50!! Larry and Lana Evans July 2023

Larry and Lana Evans are our neighbors. They are over 70. They've had some major health challenges after a couple of bike accidents for Larry and Lana's cancer. She is just recovering from her second bout with cancer and chemotherapy. It was good to be able to do something for them to help them out. 

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Yay! Three years and 50 lawns later they have finished the challenge! Let us know if all of this counts or if we need to do more. Early on the kids weren't as skilled at turning away money from people who wouldn't let them mow for free. We were able to donate the money the kids were given (about $190) to the National Multiple Sclerosis Society. So technically they didn't receive any money personally for mowing those lawns. I also kind of dropped the ball with pictures for the last few lawns. Hopefully that is ok. Annalisa and Matthew have learned a lot about 1) how to turn down money, 2) how to mow lawns, 3) how to help others and 4) how to work together. It's been wonderful to see how much they've learned.  Thanks for letting them earn a "Black belt" in lawn mowing :-)