A few pictures

Pics as promised:

Ugly Russian olive trees coming up in the middle of the yard. Those are not going to be easy to pull out.

More stupid Russian olive trees, with a nicely mowed path for Ruby. Those really tall, really green trees in the background are poplars (sp?). They grow really tall and super fast. Then, they die and fall into our backyard. What we need is a good chainsaw. It's nice wood, and we've got a big one taking up space in the backyard.




It looks all lush and kinda pretty doesn't? Well, it's actually knee high weeds growing under an over grown Russian olive tree. Oh, did I mention those babies have 2 inch long thorns on the branches? They grow fast too. But, only part of them falls. And then it keeps on growing into a big thorny mess.

Hey look, there's another one, growing right into our fence. Notice how green and lush it is at the fence line? The ground is starting to sink over there too. Hmm...? And, it is directly in front of the house across the street. Oh well, too late to do anything about it now. I think we should plant some hardy shrubs over there and not worry about it too much.

On a more pleasant note... The apple tree. It cleaned up pretty nice underneath. I didn't get a before picture. The weeds were pretty tall. Definitely in need of a trim on one side.

That's it for now. One day, I'd like to post some pretty "after" pictures. That may take a while.

It’s Starting to Cool Off

It’s cooling off a little and my foot is doing a lot better. This weekend Randy and I finally got out into the yard and did some much needed work. Despite Randy’s terrible allergies, he seems to enjoy wackin’ the heck out of those tall weeds! (We really let the yard go this year.) My job is to follow behind with a rake, pile it all up, and dump it in the make shift composter/garbage cans, or use the grass clippings to fill any weird holes in the yard. It works pretty well.

With composting fresh in my mind, I finally noticed all the fallen apples under the apple tree. Duh? No wonder that tree does so well, even though we don’t do anything to it. And I mean nothing. Ok, we’ve cut a few limbs, just to get them out of the way. We don’t spray the tree, so the apples get kinda buggy. (I’m feeling pretty stupid/lazy right now.) I don’t even want to mention the other fruit trees here that Randy’s dad planted years ago, that we’ve ignored. We could have a freakin’ garden of Eden here if we did a little work. Oh yeah, and with some money. I always forget that one. (Yeah, right) The other thing that keeps me from beating myself up too much, is that more than a year ago, we were just sure that the state was going to boot us out of here.

Hey, now that things have settled down a bit, maybe, just maybe, we’ll get to some of the stuff we‘ve neglected. I’ll warn you though, we are both really good at making excuses. So, don’t get your hopes up too much.

I took some pictures today. I'll get them up tomorrow. It takes a while with dial up and I don't feel like doing it right now.

Nice and boring around here, at least for now.

It’s been pretty hot, but at least there’s nothing exciting to report. I’m sick of bitching about the neighbors anyway.


I haven’t ever mentioned it before, but I used to have a hobby. A long time ago I used to make things out of polymer clay (Fimo & Sculpey). When I broke my toe, and couldn’t really do much, I started thinking about it again. So, I drug my stuff out and started messing around with it. This is dangerous for me because it gets me thinking about selling my little creations. I’m pretty sure I have a fear of success, as well as a fear of failure. (I even ran in to those fears with this blog. I freaked the first time somebody left a comment.) I still haven’t figured out what I’m going to do with the stuff I’ve been making. Maybe you’ll see it in a future post? Or, heck, I might even start an Etsy thing. Who knows?


I’ve been wanting to get my creative fix by using junk around here. Not to sell necessarily, but more to clean things up around here without throwing a bunch of stuff in the landfill. That way I could kill 2 birds with one stone. Plus, we could end up with some cute/cheap/free stuff to use around here. The broken toe really put a damper on that idea. I’m still hopeful though. As my toe heals, and the weather gets cooler, maybe I‘ll be able to get outside and get some stuff put together, or torn apart. I just love tearing things apart! It’s the putting things together that gets me into trouble (eek!).

Shoes and a little news

I can finally wear shoes again! I can’t say I’m totally healed, but it’s much better. I still have to be careful.
Monday I got an official e-mail from the county about the mess behind us. I already knew he had been denied the kennel permit. The e-mail just went into detail why he was denied. And of course, our names and e-mail were mentioned in opposition. It looks like they had plenty against him without us saying anything, but the planner guy really wanted me to send something.

As suspected, we were the only people in the neighborhood who had anything to say. It was disheartening to say the least. It really makes me feel like going into isolation mode and not helping anyone around here the next time they need it. No more chit chatting on the side of the road. No more smiling and waving as they drive by. I know, it makes me as bad as them. I just don’t care any more. Randy tried to tell me, but I hoped he was exaggerating. Nope. They suck.

On the bright side, some of the meth-heads appear to be moving out. They don’t have much choice now that code enforcement has finally gotten involved. I’m sure we’re not done with this whole thing yet. So, stay tuned.