Winterizing

A welcome surprise came on Friday, clearly the work of Mother Nature's elves (does she have such things?). Apparently, trees are falling like pick-up sticks around here because a friendly tree service was finally calling with a load of chips. It smelled like Christmas trees around here all afternoon.

Here's the pile before--probably about 10 yards of mulch:

Our newly bedazzled yard, tucked in for the winter officially now (hope it's not too late, the cold snap came early this year!):

We have about a yard of mulch remaining and hopefully a neighbor will want to use it in their yard. It's free and it's a miracle worker on weeds.