I don’t like to pull weeds, but this past weekend I felt a feeling while weeding. It was a feeling I had never before experienced while pulling weeds. It was….satisfaction. Yes, you read that right, and now those responsible for forcing me into years of weed pulling labor are undoubtedly smirking and wondering what took so long.

As a very young child, pulling weeds along side parents and siblings can sort of be fun. It can be made into a game of seek and destroy, or a race to see who can pull the most. Providing children with gloves that fit well and tools for the job make the act of pulling weeds slightly less unbearable. Schedules are also a great way of keeping the chore of pulling weeds less overwhelming. For example, setting a time once a day for 10 minutes of weeding is more manageable than once every two or three weeks for an entire Saturday.

When my parents finally purchased a weed eater, it was like getting a Christmas present that had been forgotten in the back of the closet for two months. My brothers and I even argued over who would get to use it. Oh the joy of chopping down the weeds that ran along the driveway and curb, the smell of cut weeds- death, the sound of the tool buzzing, the sting of a pebble colliding with your shin because you didn’t want to wear long pants…wait, that part wasn’t fun at all. The garden still had to be weeded by hand, though, as someone who shall not be named found out.

When we moved into our home in Nebraska, the garden area was huge, and completely full of weeds. Some were taller than me at 12 years old. Clearing it out was a huge family task, and I’m sure my parents did most of the work. I do remember it taking more than a couple of days, and how tired and sore we all were, but the payoff was worth it. The garden was beautiful.

So, back to my first statement: I don’t like to pull weeds…but I do like a yard free of them.