After a Minnesota winter, our front yard was a mess.

[MineralMan]

The first snow came before I had raked all the leaves, and a winter's worth of peanut shells for the squirrels and fallen branches cluttered the yard. And now COVID-19. At age 74, I'm not in the mood. A neighbor hired a couple of women to clean up her yard. They had a pickup truck, a trailer and all the tools. So I asked, and got a number.

They came today, gave us a price, to which we agreed, so they set to work. Four hours later, the yard was clean and all the debris was in the trailer. They even raked up the backyard. No contact, except from several feet away. We gave them an envelope with the amount, in cash, plus a tip and a six pack of toilet paper. The boss woman said, "Oh, geez, we were down to our last roll," so I guessed right about that.

Anyhow, our yard is clean, a couple of hard workers got paid, and all without risking anyone's health.

Plus, I don't have to do that work. It's all good.

[Phoenix61]

1. I've been doing a lot of landscaping

projects that were on the “one day” list. Keeps me busy and I can only watch so much TV. Glad it worked out for you.

[MineralMan]

2. I've run out of steam for yard work.

[zackymilly]

3. I'm saving my big leaves in case I run out of toilet paper. n/t

[MineralMan]

9. Smart!

[Bengus81]

13. Yep...I wouldn't wait on a Sears catalog anymore

[MoonRiver]

4. I put out peanuts and other food for my squirrels and birds! Hubby who is 78 stopped all that

years ago. We have a lawn company now.

Making friends with a sweet little sparrow who likes to perch close to me when I'm on the patio.

[MineralMan]

5. Put some seeds in the palm of your hand and

sit very still with your hand outstretched. Don't look at the bird.Your sparrow friend will come sit on your hand. They're bold little birds.

[MoonRiver]

11. I was thinking about trying that! Will do it today.

Wish I could also take a pic but don't see how that would be possible.

[MineralMan]

12. Be patient and your friend will come.

I learned to attract birds to my hand when I was about 10 years old. We were at Yosemite and a naturalist there had all sorts of birds flying down to his hand. After the talk, I asked him how he did that, and he told me what to do. I tried it at home and found out that it worked pretty well, especially with finch-like birds and jays.

One of the things the naturalist told me was that humans have predator eyes, so not looking at the bird is important.

Good luck.

[MoonRiver]

14. I've semi-tamed some squirrels and rabbits in our yard, but not a bird, yet.

One event I will never forget was when I was feeding an adult rabbit, didn't know the sex, who lived in our front yard bushes. It was coming within a few inches of where I sat to give it food. A month or so later a baby rabbit emerged from the bushes. It had clearly been watching mom come close to me, because suddenly it hopped up to me and pushed its little nose against my leg, I guess to get a sniff and check me out! The whole thing was magical!

[MineralMan]

16. Small mammals are pretty easy to hand feed.

Birds are a little harder, but they'll come, too, if you're still and patient. Jays are the exception. Everywhere I've lived, I've been able to bring jays to my hand in just a couple of tries. If you have a deck, and there are jays around, sit quietly at a table on the deck and put a few peanuts in the shell on the table. If a jay doesn't come at first, just leave the peanuts there and go away.

The next time, do the same thing. In most cases, the jay that found your peanuts the first time will be back the next day to see if the giant brought out more peanuts. If you did, you'll probably get the jay to fly down to the table pretty quickly. Once you do that, you can remove all the peanuts the next time, except for one you hold in your fingers, with your hand resting on the table. The jay will come, grab it, and then immediately fly off. Once you get the jay taking a peanut from your hand, you can try putting it on your palm. After about the third or fourth day of this, Mr. or Ms. Jay will expect you to have peanuts, and will fly down to the table even before you take one out. Pretty soon, others will join in and the competitiveness of jays will make them pretty fearless. You'll have them landing on your head and not hesitating at all to fly to your hand if you hold it up in the air.

The same thing works for most seed-eating small birds, but it can take a little longer, although not too long. House finches, sparrows, chickadees and others will soon identify you as a food source and abandon their fear to get what you are offering. It's pretty amazing, really. The more birds there are around, the easier it is, too. Food is life for them.

The trick with birds is not to look at them until they lose their fear of you. Humans have predator eyes, and those eyes scare them.

[MoonRiver]

19. Thanks again MM!

One issue is my little Pomeranian, who goes outside with me. Although she is even scared of squirrels, and totally ignores them, she barks a lot and loudly at everything going on around our house. Two neighbors are having construction done, and there's a golf course in back, resulting in a lot of barking lol. I think my little birdie friend is somewhat worried about her. Even so s/he is coming closer to me. I'm going to start using your techniques!

[customerserviceguy]

6. Clearly

You're a roll model!

[MineralMan]

7. LOL!

[customerserviceguy]

8. Your posts are the ones I always read

Glad I could make you laugh. I reached out to a NY buddy of mine who is 72, and he was glad to hear from me too. I guess it's a day to make others' lives brighter, that's a beautiful opportunity that we should never forget that we have.

[MineralMan]

10. Thanks!

[Wounded Bear]

15. Cool story, bro...

[cwydro]

17. Lol! I love the TiP you gave them!

I’m using this time to clean and rearrange my yard, but not nearly as much to deal with as you have out there in MN. We essentially had autumn all winter here in NC.

Now out at the farm, I know I’ve got a shitload of stuff to do. Putting it off, but I better get to it before the heat gets here for real.

Thanks for the story. Wonder if those women would like to take a trip down south to help with some clearing of brush and downed trees!

[MineralMan]

18. Well, we had plenty of TP, so...

Right now is a good time to think about having work down around your property, if you can afford to do it. It helps people make some money, and can even help keep businesses going. If they're working outside, there's no risk to you, and you probably won't have to wait long to get the work done.

The two women who did our yard clean-up came the same day my wife called. She learned about them on a neighborhood website from someone who had hired them for a similar job and who posted their phone number.

Now, my wife has posted on that website with a review of their work. Micro businesses help individuals make a living. It's good to support them, I think.