The first cut is the deepest (with apologies to Yusuf Cat Stevens)

Hello, friends!  I have been delinquent in posting here in recent weeks, but it's been a busy time for me in my work lately.

I just completed the first phase of yard work for the spring.  Much more to do, but the first time one mows their yard each year is almost like an archeological dig.  

I last mowed our yard in early November, I think.  Our house sits on a modestly busy residential street but it's a popular cut-through between two major road, so there is steady traffic flowing past our house at times each day as well as on weekends.

We seem to have a lot of people who come through and feel the need to dispose of their trash as they pass by.  This morning I found nestled in the heavy grass an empty soft drink bottle, candy wrappers, cigarette butts, a pull-tab from a box of something that I could not identify, a deflated balloon and a few more "treasures" that required disposal.

Let's talk about the yard itself.  It's a small yard, so small that when we moved here we had difficulty finding a lawn service that would bother to take care of the fertilization and weed killing programs.  Our former neighbor found someone for his equally small yard and suggested we contact that service, and both used the same one for a while, until they sold to an undependable operator.  I've tried my best to do it since then, but because the front lawn is exposed, it tends to be affected by airborne weed seeds and other items that mar the lawn with all kinds of unwanted plants.  The back yard looks pretty good, since it is fenced entirely and little lands there from the wind.

Currently we're fighting against something that sprouts with two inch call growths that are sort of cone shaped.  No matter, when we get a day that isn't so windy, I'll spray one of those kills-the-weeds-but-not-the-lawn product and that should at least get rid of the worst.

I'm going back out to spray some kills-everything spray I have, as we have spaces on either side of the house that are gravel covered but have some weeds that seem to pop up regularly.

But the title is true.  The first cut IS the deepest.  The routine turns around the yard are much less so!

Thank you, Mr. Stevens, for the use of your song title (great song, by the way!)!