Freecycling at Its Finest

After posting my rant about some of the Freecyclers I've had come by the last week, I couldn't wait to tell you about the great experience I had today.

The lady arrived without calling, but she had emailed me a time and again yesterday to say she'd be here, so I was dressed and ready. She arrived on time with 6 kids. (How can anyone ever be on time with 6 kids--I had problems with two!)  She told me her kids would be well-behaved which made me wonder. How many times have your normally well-behaved child decide to be a brat that moment? The kids, ranging from infant to about 14, were super. The oldest boy went to work immediately, digging up at least 4 trees and at least 6 trumpet vines from my hard clay soil. The lady had brought two shovels and a hand spade, so everyone had equipment to work all the time. The girl about 8-9 was working on my groundcover ivy and I helped the girl about 4. They were both interesting to talk to about plants, bugs and spiders. The second oldest child was a boy who mostly stayed in the shade with the infant.

She had brought 5 containers that I saw: big ones down to buckets the girls could move around without problems. Besides the items I had listed on freecycle, I had a few other things that I didn't have enough for more than 3 or 4 people. Because she was so well-prepared, she was able to get the additional 8' or so of thick monkey grass and a few yards of honeysuckle. She had even brought water for all the kids to drink.

In an hour and a half, she was able to get enough plants to fill the back of her van. She probably took home over $400 in plants at retail prices. She had a plan and knew exactly where she was going to put everything. Even the young boy thanked me several times for all the plants. I'm grateful my plants are going where they will be appreciated and that they are gone. We talked about her coming back another time to get more. I'm looking forward to having this lovely family back soon.

My yard still doesn't show much difference. The place where the monkey grass was is the only spot you miss anything. This evening I'm going to get to plant those seeds I've wanted to plant since February. At last!