Welp, that's it. It's official. That garden lot is now turned back over to its owner, the city.

We closed it out this weekend. It was hard work and sadness and a little relief. Today, it will be tilled under and laid to rest for 6 months.

In my typical fashion, I went out early on Saturday, as the sun was rising, to do some work by myself.

(And when I stopped by Dan's, it was so cold, all the regulars were sitting in the darkened Blimpies that is attached, drinking their coffee, talking about the homecoming game to come. Too bad all their talking couldn't help our team win!)

I came away with two big pictures about life...

1. Again, weeds are sin, and in the end, everyone has to give account for the weeds, the ones you did and did not pull. For me, it came in the form of the weeds we didn't pull around our fences. And even though we were so good to take out or hide all the other weeds, these weeds at the fencing now have to be dealt with.

2. Man will work the land and toil it and fight it and curse it. Our society really gets the jip of not being able to fully experience this curse with all the grocery stores and availability of food around our society. Though, I know you could say, working endlessly to pay for food at these places is curse enough, true, but there is something to be said for actually growing your own food for your whole family. Our forefathers/mothers were amazing for having done this and lived. We did not live on our garden alone, it was a perk, but not our sole food.

The first big picture I realized when I started to pull out the 140' of fencing we had buried 6" deep. We never weeded along the fencing, it was a pointless task, or so we thought. If you did it, you'd have to make sure both sides were pulled and go out some distance and there were neighbors or lack of neighbors to contend with plus there was the perk of actually using the tall weeds around the fencing to actually block the view into our garden to deter thieves.

Along all of our fence were grasses and weeds that were 3 to 4 feet tall, intertwined around the fencing. The fencing was also in continuous 50' pieces, wrapped corners and itself, tied to fence posts every 8' with wire or hemp. By 5' in I was already bloody and should've worn thick leather work gloves, I realized that I really should've cleared this with my chiropractor, and that I should've enlisted some help.

But I love a challenge and manual labor, so I continued.

By 25' into it, I hit my first major snag. A root... from a weed... 1.5 inches thick... grown/fused around the buried fencing in such a way that it was like a staple that held the fencing to the ground, reaching down the depths of two feet or more. Sooner or later, everyone has to give account, everyone. I dug around it, too deep. I cut at it, too thick. I dug some more. I pulled the fencing. I got out the hoe and hacked at it, cursing it with each swing. I dug some more. I hacked some more. I picked at it with my fingers, pulling it at the splinters. I cursed some more. Finally, after about thirty minutes, the root was free. My hands were more bloody, my back ached a whole lot more, and I could smell myself.

When reading about the ten commandments to the kids last week, I was able to see more clearly how this is a daunting task, being perfect. The task is impossible, sin abounds. We sin so often. We know all our past hurts and offenses more than anyone else. The separation between us and God is intense and even 1 sin, separates us from His perfection. No matter how much we try to clean up ourselves, do the right thing, be a good person, even if we say we are a Christian, it all comes down to, someone needs to die for our sins, will it be us, or will it be Christ?

The Pharisees and Sadducees watched Jesus Christ like a hawk. Why?<