Free English Class! Topic: Outdoor Chores 🐕🍂🤽🏻‍♀️ (Lesson Only)

Well hello and welcome to this English lesson about outdoor

chores. Around the house you do chores. You do things like the

dishes and you vacuum. But we also have outdoor chores. We

have things that you do outside of your house. Maybe outside of

your apartment. But this lesson will mostly be about things you

do outside of your house in the yard. Uh and also this English

lesson will very much be North American. Um because I only

know the kinds of outdoor chores that I do. So you may

live a country where you don't do some of these things. Um but

you might live in a country where you do many of these. Um

and even if you live in an apartment and don't live in a

in a house I think it's important to learn these

English words and phrases. So once again welcome to this

English lesson about outdoor chores. Rake the leaves. So as

I mentioned this is very much a North American lesson and I do

realize there are other countries where you need to

rake the leaves. This is the slide because this is how I

thought of this lesson. The leaves are just starting to

fall here in Canada and eventually people in the city

will start to rake the leaves. They'll rake their leaves in

their yard. If you don't rake the leaves they pile up and

they kind of kill the lawn underneath the next spring. So

you do have to remove the leaves. Because we have a lot

of maple trees in particular here in Canada. There are a lot

of leaves on the ground in the fall or in the autumn. You can

use both words by the way. Uh I don't rake the leaves because

ours just kind of blow away because we live on a farm but

we do sometimes rake a few if they don't blow away. But

definitely you need to rake the leaves. A very common activity

I think in the Northern Hemisphere in some countries if

you're far enough north. Um but I'm not sure about other parts

of the world. But this will definitely be happening. Um and

Bonus question. Uh what kind of rake is this person using? If

you watch the lesson on garden. Um garden tools. You'll have

you'll have to guess. Mow the lawn. So for some reason we mow

the lawn. We mow a lot of lawn on our farm. People who live in

the city sometimes are very proud of their lawns. They do

everything they can to grow a beautiful lawn. And one of the

things you need to do when you have a beautiful lawn is you

need to mow it. You want to keep it a certain length so

that it looks nice. You want it to be enjoyable play games on

the lawn like you can play a little bit of soccer. But if

you let the grass grow really tall doesn't work as well. Uh

and there's other things you can do as well. You can sit

outside on the lawn. But if you don't mow the lawn it starts to

not be as enjoyable. So I do appreciate a well mowed lawn.

Um and you would use a lawn mower to mow the lawn. I'll

give you the answer for this one. This person is using a

push mower to mow their lawn. Uh this is something I don't

enjoy doing but it's something we do a lot and it's when you

weed. Uh when you grow any kind of plant. Maybe you have a

flower bed. Maybe you have a vegetable garden. You'll have

celery and carrots and beans. All of the things you want. We

have zinnias and lisianthus and different types of flowers that

we want. But there's also something called weeds. Other

plants that just grow where you don't want them. And you have

to pull them out. And we call this weeding or you can just

say weed. I need to weed a garden or I need to do some

weeding. I again I do not enjoy weeding. Oh that's not entirely

true. I don't mind weeding when the weeds are little. I do not

enjoy weeding when they're really really big. Um it's

definitely hard to weed when the weeds get really big. And

you might need to water. This person has well I'll let you

guess what this is. Um they'll they'll have this I'll just say

it. They'll have a watering can. You could also just use a

hose. You could use a sprinkler. But you might need

to water the garden. Or water the flowers. We sometimes say

water the flower bed. But usually we water the lawn.

Water the garden. Uh or water the flowers. Those would be the

three things. You are most likely to water if you have

plants outside. Um because plant need water to grow. By

the way they need good fertile soil. They need sunlight. They

need air and they need water. And then plants will grow

beautifully. Um we usually use a sprinkler when we water. Or

we use something called dripline because we we water a

lot of flowers. So this is common in northern countries.

I'm not sure if you go far enough south. You probably do

this as well. But this is something very common here in

Canada. You need to shovel snow. Um we sometime say shovel

the driveway or shovel the walkway will be specific about

what you're shoveling and it's understood that you're talking

about snow I see Brent's here if Brent said he had to go

outside and shovel the driveway my understanding is that he is

shoveling snow he's going outside to shovel snow some

people have snowblowers so that's a machine I have a

snowblower that goes on my tractor that makes it really

easy to get rid of snow but most people in the city would

go outside with a shovel and they would shovel snow in order

to make it safe and easy to walk in the winter. And then

this is one that's a bit controversial because salt

isn't the nicest thing to put on the ground. But in Canada we

sometimes put salt in areas where there might be ice. So on

our little sidewalk or front entrance way. Um we shovel the

snow and then we usually put a little bit of salt down if we

have guests coming over. Salt will melt the ice. So when you

remove snow from a hard surface sometimes the ice will still

form and it's very slippery. And if you put down some salt

you will be able to melt the ice and then it's much safer.

So you might if it's winter need to salt the walkway or

salt the sidewalk. Or some people even salt the whole

driveway. Although that's a bit of a that's a lot of salt going

into the environment. I don't recommend that. Um we do salt

our roads too though in the winter here. Fall clean up. So

this is the the second thing that made me think of this

lesson. Um in the fall because winter is coming here we do

fall clean up. So before the snowflies before the first

snowfall we like to clean up the yard as best as possible.

We put all the bikes into the barn. If you lived in the city

you would put all your bikes in your garage. Um because our

bikes sometimes are just laying around outside. We clean our

e-stroffs. In Canada we call these eve straws. In the US I

think they call them gutters. Uh I don't know. Maybe Brent

can let us know. Um but we definitely clean up if any

sticks have fallen off of trees. Um if there's anything

maybe some stuff has blown into the lawn. But we definitely go

outside and clean up the yard as best as we can before it

snows. Then there's three things that I don't know a lot

about. But I know they're outdoor chores. And that's skim

the pool. Vacuum the pool and close the pool. So if you have

a pool. I don't have a pool. But if you have a pool leaves

and other things fall in the pool and you need to skim the

pool. So this is a skimmer. A pool skimmer. It's like a

screen on the end of a stick and you can use it to scoop out

things that are floating in your pool. You need to vacuum

the pool as well. By the way my brother-in-law and

sister-in-law have a pool. We go there to swim. It's much

easier to go and swim at someone else's house instead of

having your own pool. Uh when you vacuum the pool you remove

stuff that has sunk into the bottom. So there might be some

dirt or other things that have you know they they sunk to the

bottom of the pool and you use the vacuum to suck them out. So

the vacuum pulls the stuff off the bottom. And if you live in

a climate like I do. If you live in a northern climate

people are currently closing their pools. You need to close

the pool in the fall. Because it becomes too cold to swim and

you Can't leave the pool the way it is for the winter. Most

people will drain their pool down a bit. And then they will

put a tarp on top or a cover on top. And they'll sometimes we

say you need to winterize your pool. That's another name for

it. Um but you need to close the pool because obviously you

can't swim when it's cold. You can't swim when it's frozen

solid. Uh and you don't want water in the plumbing and

fittings of the pool. So people drain it lower down so that it

is good for Wash the car. I don't do this. I I am not

someone who I wait for it to raid. Um and then my vans get

washed. But some people love to wash their car or wash the car.

Um and I understand this. If I had really nice vehicles I

think that I would probably wash them every once in a

while. When you go outside to wash the car most people I know

will do this in their driveway. They will hook up a car hose.

They will get a pale with some water and soap and maybe a

sponge. And then they will wash their car. Usually they'll make

the car wet first. They'll have a nozzle on the end of the

garden hose and they'll make the car wet. And then they'll

use the sponge and soapy water to scrub the car a bit. But not

too hard. You don't want to damage the paint job. Uh and

then you will rinse the car off with the garden hose as well.

Some people will go to a car wash. Um but I do know I still

have friends who will wash their car every Saturday. When

I was a kid we wash the car every Saturday. My dad liked

having the car all nice and clean. So we would wash the

car. Clean the windows. We do this once a year. We usually do

it before winter because when you know you're going to be in

the house for a few months it's nice to have really clean

windows. So this is both an indoor chore and an outdoor

chore because you have to clean both sides of the window. But

we will use something called Windex. It's a special window

cleaner. And we will go outside and we will clean the windows.

And then we will come inside and clean the windows. Um and

again we usually do this around this time of year because we

know the weather is going to get cold and we are going to be

stuck inside. Plant. It's a pretty general verb plant. You

might plant flowers. You might plant a vegetable garden. You

might plant a tree. When you are outside when you have a

yard it's nice to have things growing. So you might go

outside in the spring and you might plant some bedding

plants. Bedding plants are flowers that come in a little

tray and you put them into your flower bed. So instead of

starting from seed you can buy little plants. We call them

bedding plants. Um you might plant a vegetable garden. You

might put seeds in the ground in order to grow some

vegetables. Or you might want some more shade. So you buy a

tree in a pot and you plant the tree. Uh everyone should plant

at least one tree in their life I think. I've planted a couple

hundred probably. I think we planted 100 trees just last

fall. Yeah we plant a lot of trees. We like trees. Oh and

then you might be able to harvest or pick things. So if

you have a vegetable garden you might go outside and harvest

some of the vegetables that you grew. You might go and pick

some. So you might go and pick some tomatoes. I'm I was trying

to think though if I was to go out to like harvest is the

general term for gathering a crop. If I was to go get onions

or garlic or potatoes or carrots I would probably go dig

up some onions or dig up some potatoes because they're in the

ground. Um harvest I would probably I would probably use

pick more often. I'm going to go pick some strawberries. I'm

going to pick some apples. I'm going to pick some raspberries.

Uh yeah definitely. And then flowers. You can go pick

flowers but you can also go cut flowers because you use

pruners. To get them. So even if you're in an apartment you

might do this chore. You might go outside to sweep the balcony

or sweep the patio or sweep the deck. Um we behind our house

have a patio. So a patio is usually at ground level and

it's usually made with bricks or flat paving stones. Um and

so we usually sweep the patio every once in a while. Uh you

might sweep the deck. A deck is usually a raised area outside

made out of wood. Um we we don't have a deck so I can't

show you a deck in any of my videos. Maybe I should do a

video someday because my sister has a deck. I could show you a

deck. Uh and then a balcony obviously is a small area

outside of your apartment. Or outside of the top floor of a

house. So you're above the ground. And sometimes you need

to sweep. You need to keep it clean. So you go outside and

you sweep. You could also say sweep up by the way. I need to

sweep up some stuff on the balcony. Hang up the clothes.

So we also say hang up the laundry. After you do the

laundry it needs to dry. You can put it in a dryer but we

don't have a dryer. We usually hang up our clothes. We have

lots of space outside and sunlight and wind is free. It

doesn't cost anything. So, we will hang up the clothes or

hang up the laundry outside and we will let it dry. We use

clothes pins to hold things on the line. We also we actually

do this more. We actually have drying racks as well and we

will hang up the on drying racks and then put those

outside. Uh especially when we know the weather might change.

That way we can bring the drying rack of clothes inside.

Um so that's actually our most common way of drying clothes.

But you might have a clothes line. This person is even in

the city with a clothes line. And they might decide it's a

good day to do laundry and hang up clothes outside to dry. It's

a great way to dry clothes for sure. Walk the dog. Most people

don't walk their cat. I don't think that's very common but if

you have a dog it's a really good idea to walk the dog. To

take the dog for a walk. That would be another way to say it.

Dogs have a lot of energy. If your dog is in your house all

day or in your apartment all day. Especially when you go to

work. It's always nice in the morning to walk the dog and to

walk the dog again when you get home. Or at least let the dog

out. So the dog can play in the yard if you have a yard. Um but

definitely it's always nice to walk the dog. When you walk

your dog your dog is just happier. Dogs love it when you

take them for a walk. Oh and by the way when you walk the dog

the dog will have a collar. And then the thing you hook up to

it and hold is called a leash. So this person the dog has a

collar around their neck. And the person you can see from the

person to the dog that is the leash that the lady is using to

walk her You might need to paint something. Uh I don't do

this a lot but I actually need to do this soon because my

mailbox is starting to rust a little bit. So I need to paint

my mailbox. You might need to paint the fence. You might need

to paint a bird house. You might need to paint. I'm trying

to think of other things you might paint. But sometimes a

fresh coat of paint makes something just look better. Uh

and that's a phrase we often use in English. I need to give

the mailbox a fresh coat of paint. Um it's starting to rust

a little bit on the corner. So I should do that before the

snow flies at some point. It was one of the jobs I was

supposed to do this summer. But I have to build a hammock frame

before I can paint the mailbox. We'll see how that goes. Um so

to paint something. To trim the hedge or to trim the hedges or

to trim a hedge. Um if you have a hedge trimmer that's what

this machine is. You might have a hedge that needs trimming. A

hedge is a row of similar bushes that grow usually along

the side or edge of a yard or maybe even around the edges of

a yard. Um sometimes people will build a fence but

sometimes people will just grow a hedge. And hedges need to be

trimmed every once in a while or they just get too big. So

you might need to go outside and trim the hedge so it looks

nice and tidy. You might need to prune some things. So this

person has pruners in their hand. Maybe you have some rose

bushes that need pruning. Maybe have apple trees which need to

be pruned once a year I think. Maybe you grow grapes and you

need to prune some of the grapevines. Um but either way

sometimes you need to go outside and you need to prune

some things so that they don't get overgrown. Trim the lawn.

So this is called so if you watch the video I did on garden

tools. I call this a weed eater. Some people call it a

whipper snipper. Some people call it a trimmer. Uh some

people call it a weed wacker. And I think there's even

another name for it. But this is a tool used to kind of mow

the lawn. You're not really mowing it. You're trimming it.

But it's where the lawn mower can't go. So the lawn mower

can't go close to the edge sometimes. Or maybe you want to

trim it to be sure along the edges and so you will trim the

lawn using a trimmer, weed eater, weed wacker, weed eater,

there's too many names for it. I don't do this. I'm starting a

lot of these by saying I don't do this. I don't fertilize my

lawn but people in the city will often fertilize their lawn

because they want their lawn to look amazing. And so perhaps in

the spring or fall they will fertilize their lawn. They will

get a spreader. They will fill it with fertilizer and they

will go out and they will fertilize the lawn. Fertilizer

has nitrogen and potassium and phosphate in it and it helps

things to grow well. I think lawns probably especially like

nitrogen but I not 100% sure but that would be my guess.

When I grow wheat it likes a lot of nitrogen so I'm assuming

lawns like the same. But if you love your lawn and you want it

to look beautiful you will most likely fertilize it every once

in a while. I to repair something. So this person has

decided to repair their fence. We also use the word fix. Uh

there's a couple of things I need to fix outside before

winter comes. The stairs outside on our barn needs a few

screws in it. I need to fix that. I need to fix a bird

house down the hill. Um but things outside sometimes start

to fall apart. Or sometimes they break and then you need to

fix them. So this person has decided to repair the fence. We

could equally say this person has decided to fix the Fill the

bird feeder. So we do have a bird feeder. We do fill it

sometimes but it's kind of sporadic. Um when something is

sporadic it means you don't do it every day. But this person

has decided it's time to fill the bird feeder. Um birds like

to come especially in the winter and get some food from a

bird feeder. Um it's considered nice in Canada to have a bird

feeder because I think it's hard for some birds to find

food in the winter. Wild birds. So you might have a bird feeder

hanging from a tree or outside on a post and then you need to

go and fill it every once in a while. And then lastly the the

way I say it and the way Americans say it I say take out

the garbage. Jen and I take out the garbage once a week. Um

Brent would probably say Brent from Speak English with this

guy would probably say take out the trash. Which means to take

out whatever you've thrown in your garbage. Now I must say in

Canada we we have very little garbage each week. We have a

lot more recycling and a lot more compost So in Canada we

put out our compost which is anything from the kitchen that

can decay. So like eggshells leftover food when you you know

when you peel potatoes the potato peels the parts of

vegetables and fruits you don't eat. They go in the compost and

we actually send those to the road and they take them to a

composting facility. We also recycle our paper. We recycle

our plastic. Um and so our garbage? Over the years like if

I think about the last 25 years the amount of garbage we

generate each week has gone down. There's very little

actual garbage going to the road. It's mostly recycling,

plastic, paper and other things.