Back Yard Help

Our back yard has been neglected for quite some time with lots of over growth. Lots! About a month ago I started working on it pruning like crazy. There's a huge rose bush that's as tall as our house which I pruned about half way and three other bushes I pruned, why does everything have to have thorns??? So I did what I could by myself for the last few weeks and just left piles of trimmings and weeds here and there. I wasn't even 1/8 of the way done. I needed help. Saturday I called my sister who's visiting for a few weeks and she and mom came to help me. Luckily mom brought the truck so we had something to haul the piles out with. It took us 9 straight hours with three trips to the dump and all available blue garage cans filled to the brim, even a little overflowing, and we are 3/4 of the way done. Our backs were aching and we were plum exhausted. There were trash trees everywhere which have all become too big to dig out. To think the weeds were out of control is normal, sure. But vines? We have vines of all sorts everywhere. Sweet pea vines, vines that I thought were ground cover but they're not, ivy vines, vines that looked like little grapes but they weren't, vines, and more vines. Around the whole perimeter of the back yard were rocks of all sizes and kinds, once used for decoration I'm sure but became quite the hindrance as we were trying to dig. There are 5 or 6 bushes/trees that need to be pulled out but I didn't have the energy or equipment to do that so it will happen at a later date. I don't even recognize the back yard anymore. This was something that I didn't think I could do. As I looked back on all the work that we did I cried a little. It was so hard and I haven't done that much hard, physical labor since I lived on the farm. I'm so thankful for mom and Christine's help, this honestly wasn't something I could do by myself. Lance told me I should have taken before and after pictures. But lets be honest, nobody wants to see how bad it really was. I mean, it was bad. We didn't even want to take the garbage out to the alley for fear of having to walk through the yard no less look at it. But it's much better and we have plans to spruce it up a bit next spring. By the way, whoever invented the rake is a genius, my personal hero!