Strawberry Rhubarb Patch

I've been trying to decide what to do out front.  The nasty planter that was already there has been on my hit list for quite some time.  I just wasn't sure what to put in it's place- if anything.  I only knew that I wanted the flag and flag pole to stay.  Jared's been refusing to even think about it for as long as I've been talking about how it has to go.  Finally, I decided the boys and I could rip it in a jiffy and then the hard part would be done and he'd have motivation to jump in and do the fun part to make it into something new.  Well, it turned out Jared was right.  Shhhh, for heaven's sake, don't tell him I said that!  But it was a REALLY hard job.  And we didn't get it all done in a day as I'd hoped.  It took weeks.  We hacked and pulled and dug and hacked and pulled and dug some more.  Those "bushes" were more like their own little forest.  It had turned into a twisty turny conglomeration of a dozen or more different plant types.  What a mess!!
When it was finally all out, we had to decide what to do with the space.  Magically, one evening Jared suggested a strawberry rhubarb patch!!  I loved it! You know how when you can't decide what to do and hee haw around about something and then when the right idea comes- you just know that's what you're going to do?  So that was it!  We decided to work on it that very Saturday.  We enlisted the help of the children.

Jared: "How would you guys like unlimited strawberries to eat whenever they wanted all summer long?"
Children: (emphatically): "YEEESSSSSS!!!"
Jared: "Who like strawberry rhubarb pie?"
Children: (equally emphatically): "MEEEEE!"
Jared: "Ok who wants to help plant it?"
Children: "We do!"

We started that Saturday by going shopping for supplies together- we needed construction materials and plants.  We loaded the trailer up with the supplies and headed for home.  It was a warm Saturday, but not too hot.  I reminded the children how much hotter it would get and that it was best to get the job done when it wasn't excruciatingly hot yet.  They were troopers.  We worked and worked.  There was digging and digging and more digging to do.  The kids were in charge of filling the wheelbarrow with all the old soil (which was filled with a ridiculous number of rocks) and then together moving the wheelbarrow over to the trailer.  When the trailer was full, we took it to the back field to dump on the shooting range burm.  We were surprised how many trailer loads of rocks and sandy soil we took out.  It was like 5 or 6 trailer loads.  A lot of wheelbarrows.  Then came the faster part.  We put down the new boards and filled them in with better soil and plants.  We didn't get all the plants in that day.  I was shocked how much we did get done!  The kids were such big helpers and worked so hard.  I actually don't think Jared and I could've done it without them.  We are finally starting to see the "fruits of our labors" in teaching them the value of work.  And now they'll get to enjoy the "fruits of their labors" in eating strawberries all summer long.