Can you sense my excitement?My grandpa decided to pony up the money to pay someone to rip those suckers out. I can't remember the last time I was able to play on beach directly in front of our property... well, except for the drought years when there are miles and miles of beach past the muck. The willows had also grown so thick over the years that they had changed the course of a natural spring that had run down the property line to the North. Our lawn had flooded all summer and kept getting higher and higher up the property.
But what really got him I think, was the neighbors telling us that we couldn't use their beach. Uh, since when did the property lines change and the beach suddenly became private property? Sure, the only sand free of willows was in front of their cabin, but the law says the beach is public and your property line ends at the high water mark which basically means the edge of your lawn. And they seemed to have forgotten that my grandparents have owned the Bear Lake property for over 40 years. We weren't bitter or anything. But now we have our own sand in front of our own property to play on. We'll remember their hospitality when our beach is voted best beach in America. We can shoot big, can't we? Even though it will never compare to the real best beach in America, which I have been to, in Clearwater, Florida. Alas, I digress.We may have sand now, but we still have willows. A ginormous pile of willows. I should have stood in front of it because the pictures just don't do it justice. It's seriously bigger than our trailer! Step two of reclaiming our beach is to now convince my Grandpa to not get rid of them his way - one truck load at a time - but to shred the suckers into tiny pieces of sawdust.
The property line to the North. The guys who ripped everything out should have just finished up and gone over the property line to save us time. 
Those horrid, view-blocking willows were so thick, some poor animal got trapped in their and died! Gross. No wonder the muck down there stunk so bad. 
The "mother root" as I termed it. I figured we just might pull the plug on Bear Lake and see it drain if we managed to pull some of these monsters out. 
There is a ton of work to be done next year, but getting those willows cut down is a fantastic start. We were all so excited. Even my lazy brother, Jesse (just kidding Jesse) worked all day - it was Labor Day though - pulling out "mother root" after "mother root." I was impressed with the spots of root-free beach.... we're going to have a better beach than the neighbors!
Meanwhile... while the men were working on clearing the beach for the women and children, I sat lazily on the beach in my new swimming suit. Of course I was also wearing a sweatshirt because the sun had decided to hide behind some dark clouds all day. I told everyone I was going to sit there until I willed the sunshine out. 
Cole ate sand-covered snacks until he turned into a licorice-sticky, Goldfish mess.
The girls were upset that we wouldn't let them go over to the neighbors' beach because they were all over there. So they decided to make a pirate ship. I was pleasantly surprised with their creativity. They spent hours gathering sticks and then sticking them into the sand for their ship. Don't you love Pearl's expression in this picture? Her little hand on her hip and this funny smirk. That girl has spunk!
I can't wait until next summer!
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