Welcome to the Jungle

Living in Okinawa has it's ups and downs, good and bad, fun and frustrating times. One of the things we've had to do is yard work THEIR WAY. For the 12 years before moving here, we never did yard work. We either lived in an apartment or had no yard. Our yard in Okinawa is by far not large. I wouldn't even say it's small. It is tiny. But since it's tropical here, everything grows fast all the time throughout the year. We get no breaks. But I'm not complaining because I'd rather not shovel snow, been there, done that.

The Okinawans have one rule that we have to adhere by...Bag up everything; leaves, grass, branches, weeds and trees, you name it. Well we are lucky to have a yard and have trees. Most Okinawans do not have either. With all the rain we've had lately everything has grown twice as fast. The trees were getting too thick and messy (yes this can happen. They like their trees small and pruned perfectly). We never pruned anything and just let it all go crazy. Besides, it brought us shade and privacy.

This weekend I went out to cut the grass. Charlie didn't like the fact that I was doing yard work without him so he HAD to help (like I made him do it). He started cutting back the trees. Once he got started there was no stopping. Maya and Kiera saw us working and started to help without even being asked (they know that if they help on a big chore they get paid). We ended up bagging 9 trash bags of trees.

Then today I did another 6 more.

We stopped before we got to the horrendous bamboo tree. That stuff is hard to cut and it's ginormous. Do you see the 5 story apartments going up behind us? Yeah, no zoning here. Two years of noise.


I don't have any before shots because I didn't realize the job ahead of us. But here is a good after shot:

And another:

I did learn one thing today. We use to rake the rock garden to get all the leaves out or just pull them out by hand. Then we have to pick up all the rocks out of the grass. But if you sweep the rock garden with a broom the rocks stay put and the leaves can easily be picked up. Only took me 3 years and 8 months to learn.

My pretty hibiscus plant that gives me new blooms everyday: