We bought our house during the summer, when the tree's were chock full of green leaves and providing beautiful shade to our house. Seven lush leafy green trees full of wonderful shade.
Then fall came, and those 7 lush leaf-filled trees lost all of their leaves.
Which in reality isn't a big deal, that is the price you pay when you have mature trees.
Unless two of those trees are sweet gum trees...or as Hannah likes to call them "gum ball trees"
The aforementioned sweet gum trees are on the boulevard in front of our house. You know, that piece of property that doesn't realllllly belong to you but you are responsible for it's upkeep? Which includes sweet gum gum balls.
Anyway, we hate the sweet gum trees. If the leaves weren't enough work for us, the falling gum balls cause some problems. Let's just say that you don't want to be outside when Tom is cutting the grass. Those suckers shoot out of the bottom of the mower like a baseball shoots out of those automatic pitching machines. So in addition to raking the leaves, we rake the sweet gum balls too.
But this really isn't about the sweet gum trees. But you knew that from the title right?
I am here to tell you that our boulevard that has the hated sweet gum trees is MAGIC.
What ever we put on it disappears.
A year after we moved in, we bought a new-used stove from my sister who got a NEW-new stove. The old stove that was in the house when we bought it was golden rod yellow. Everything still worked on it, the light under the clock, the clock, timer, and it was self-cleaning. Nothing physically wrong with it other than it was golden rod yellow and 30 years old. Since we didn't know WHAT to do with this old stove, we took a chance and stuck it out on the boulevard with a big old FREE sign on it.
Oh yes, we did.
You know what? That stove was gone within a few hours. Over the past 7 years we have put a variety of items out on the boulevard....
Our old kitchen table and chairs, with the peeling Formica and the wobbly chairs...GONE
Hannah's wicker dressing table that was falling apart...GONE
An old entertainment center Tom's Mom gave us but we didn't need/want....GONE
The Boy's power wheel that no longer worked because the battery was dead...GONE
An old trundle bed...GONE
2 computer desks...GONE
An old sewing machine and cabinet (NO Mom it wasn't Grandma's)....GONE
The real kicker was this weekend.
On our way to see Dad at the hospital we stopped at a garage sale. The sign out front said "AWESOME SALE" and indeed it was. We scored 2 beige recliners that looked BRAND NEW....$100 for the pair. SOLD. We have been wanting to replace the old sectional in our family room but we didn't want to buy NEW furniture because we have three kids. We are currently looking for a smallish sofa to put down there as well.
Later that night (9pm) we decided to put the recliners down in the family room and move the sectional out.
You see where I am going with this right?
The sectional was 3 pieces... a long couch with a hide-a-bed, a curved piece, and the third section was 2 recliners with a table in between. We bought it used 8.5 years ago and it served it's purpose for us. It took three of us (Tom, Kasey and I) to move that beast of a sectional outside to.....yep you guessed it....THE BOULEVARD!
We giggled thinking who would be nuts enough to take it. The recliners hardly worked and were near a complete failure, the hide-a-bed section sagged in the middle, and the fabric was worn. We decided that if it was still there in the AM, we would post it on craigslist.
Sunday morning, we were eating breakfast and I asked Hannah to go check if the sectional was still there. She ran over to the front window and asked
"Where did you guys put it?"
Yep, you guessed it.....it was GONE!
The magic of the boulevard isn't only for household items.
Nope, whenever we are done bagging the 68 refuse bags of leaves and gum balls, we put them on the boulevard too. Sooner or later they are magically gone too. But I suspect the City of Springfield has something to do with that one.
Our magical boulevard is legend in our family....Tom's Dad jokes all the time how he is going to start putting his junk out there. I say....bring it on!
*side note...I know it sounds like we abuse our possessions and when we are done with them we toss them. Can I just say that we HARDLY EVER purchase anything NEW NEW. Most items we purchase "previously loved" because we have THREE CHILDREN. So when they are ready to be put on the boulevard it is usually after many many years of service and they are well past their useful age. It just CRACKS US UP that others would find a use for it. To those that are driving by our house on a regular basis just to see what the Dales have put outside now? THANK YOU for taking our junk!
