One of the responsibilities of being a homeowner is taking care of your yard. When we first moved into this neighborhood, our house had never been lived in. We were the first owners, and everything was brand new. The landscapers had just laid the sod and planted bushes along the side of the house.

For years, we had one of the best-looking yards on the street. I took a lot of pride in it, and it showed. I did all the work myself. I cut the grass at least once a week—more often if it needs it. Twice a year, I fertilized the lawn and applied pre-emergent to keep the weeds from sprouting in the spring.

Then my neighbor talked me into hiring a lawn service.

They came out once a quarter and sprayed the yard with something. To this day, I’m not entirely convinced they knew what it was. In fact, the guy doing the spraying didn’t seem to know exactly what was in the tank either.

Not long after they started treating my yard, I noticed a strange weed I’d never seen before. It started as a small patch. Every time I spotted it, I tried pulling it up. If a piece broke off, a milky white substance would ooze out.

I mentioned it to the lawn service, and they assured me they’d take care of it. They didn’t.

The small patch got bigger.

I mentioned it again and got the same promise and the same results.

The following year, that little patch had spread enough to take over nearly half the front yard. I started researching it and tried every spray I could find. Unfortunately, I was doing more spreading than killing. Before long, the weed had taken over the entire front yard.

The culprit turned out to be Spotted Spurge, and getting rid of it isn’t easy. After a lot of trial and error, I finally found something that seems to work. After several applications, I’m finally starting to see some positive results.

Of course, just when you think you’ve won one battle, another enemy appears.

My plan yesterday was simple: cut the front and back yards, trim around the house with the weed eater, and apply moss killer. Things were going according to plan until I headed toward the backyard and noticed something didn’t look right on the mower deck.

One of the brackets that holds the mower deck to the tractor had broken.

So off I went across town to the parts store.

By the time I got home, it had started raining. I waited for the rain to pass and then spent about an hour repairing the mower. By then, it was getting late, so I called it a day and put the mower away.

Today I finished cutting the backyard and sprayed the front yard with moss killer. Overall, the yard is looking much better, except for the bare spots left behind by the dying spurge.

I haven’t done much in the garage lately because I’ve been dealing with other things. I’ve got a couple of doctor appointments tomorrow, and I’m planning to go fishing on Thursday. Then on Friday, I’m taking my mower to my parents’ house so I can start cutting their grass. My dad’s mower has developed some sort of problem, so mine gets drafted into service.

It seems there’s always something that needs fixing, cutting, spraying, or repairing.

Life goes on.