Attack of the yard

This weekend J has freelance work all weekend, so I'm taking that as a hint to attack the yard. Unfortunately it can't just be ignored, so there's nothing else for it.
Last weekend all our neighbors appear to have spent their time on their yards making them look nice while we were up at the lake relaxing...so our yard looks...well...pathetic in comparison. It is putting it mildly when I say that there is much to do.
I must mow and trim the backyard and pull the weeds in the car park... and our front yard is weedy. It is landscaped into teirs with virginia creeper all over it, but until the vines leaf up it looks like railway ties and weeds :). So Saturday will be weeding and raking a LOT.
Add to that two hedges in the front on the edge of the yard that need to be trimmed back (they've sprouted weird shoots and look very silly), and an old dead small tree in the back that needs to be attacked (with a chain saw-muahah!)...and well, I have my work cut out for me. We have 2 new neighbors on either side of us, who are very nice, but the old neighbors used to trim the hedges...the new ones don't, so I suppose we do now (I'm too chicken to ask them why they aren't doing it). I have to go and buy a hedge trimmer on the weekend and get to it. Our yard isn't exactly high maintenance, but we do...well, the bare minimum shall we say - and so there is always a lot to do in the spring. If we're not careful we'll be the "bad" neighbors and "what will this neighborhood come to?" and all that. Many of our neighbors are semi-retired with much puttering time...so we have a lot to do to even look like we are trying to keep up with the Joneses. There's some other things to do outside the house as well this year - some painting on the windows and tree pruning in the fall...and I want to do some painting inside too. I'm tired just thinking about it.

I've discovered that owning a house means using (and unfortunately buying) a lot of boring tools...but I figure if we don't at least make an effort on the yard people will come over with torches and pitchforks and demand justice. Once we have the tools, I don't mind using them, as long as there is time. J isn't a work in the yard kind of guy, and I enjoy it, except for the weeding part, so it works out in the end...it's just daunting to make a list of things to do on the weekend and see it's that long :)
Well...nothing else for it. Off to work and then - YARD ATTACK!