<h3>By Lee Scott</h3>
When we moved here to our pine forest home, we had not planned on hiring the J&amp;L Landscaping Company.

However, after a couple of windy days when the pine needles showered down on our lawn, we started to consider it.

Then we lived through a few strong thunderstorms and that sealed the deal.  We found an exclusive company willing to take care of one property: ours.  This company is extremely reliable. Normally, they show up early on Monday mornings and proceed to blow the pine needles into piles, mow the lawn, trim the bushes and weed the garden. They even clear all the leaves off the porch and walkways.

The company has been known to take several truckloads of old dead tree limbs to the convenience center after a particularly bad storm. There have been those times when they have not shown up on a rainy Monday morning, but ultimately they return on the next nice day.  And occasionally, if a heavy storm has come through mid-week, they show up.  They always seem to get the job done and work for little money.

After finding J&amp;L Landscaping, we discovered that we needed the LSS home cleaning service, the JDS boat maintenance company, the JL laundry service and of course the Scott construction company, which has completed numerous jobs including room painting and varnishing floors around the house.

If you have not guessed yet, all of these phantom companies are run by one or two people: me and my spouse.

We do hire other contractors.

We have had electricians, plumbers and HVAC companies do work around our home. But when we know we can do the job, we just do it.  Of course, it is also one of the problems living with someone who just cannot relax.

There must be something in our DNA that makes us both somewhat hyper-active. Or it could be just the way we were brought up to rely on ourselves to get things done.

We joke about feeling guilty sitting on the couch.

“Shouldn’t we be doing something?” we ask ourselves.

Even a fortune cookie that said “Take the day off” was ignored as we got out our rakes.

Ultimately, we will shut down all the companies and start hiring others. But in the meantime, thanks to Matthew, J&amp;L Landscaping is up and running and working full time.