Yard Wish List

My parents are coming to visit in late June and as part of the visit, Dad has agreed to finish off the fence around my yard. I have received a request for pictures of what needs to be done, so here is the portion that requires a fence. The left side of the house: (click on pictures to make them bigger)


There's kind of a slope. That will probably make things difficult.

And the right side of the house:

This is the side that I would like some sort of gate to go on.

The whole house with yard:
The entire lot that I'm on is 75 feet by 140 feet. I have taken no measurements. I'm guessing the fence-needing part is 30ish feet.



This area here is right along where the fence would go in along the left side. I think some bushes were cut down here before I moved, leaving a bunch of stupid root things that keep sprouting ugly foliage. I'd really like to get this out of here, but I don't have the tools to do it. Maybe if I bought a hatchet I could hack it up.

And while we're at it, here is the wish list I have to fix up all of my backyard.


You can't tell, but this is part of the fence in the back yard. It's leaning pretty badly.


Here it is from the side. I think all the vine crap that grows on it is pulling it down. I'd love to get rid of the vine stuff, but 1) it's my neighbor's fence too and I don't know what he thinks about that, and 2) the vines might be what's holding it up. It would look nicer without it, but all I really want it to make sure it's supported and isn't going to come down anytime soon.

Then there are the tree stumps. Some of them seem dead, some of them still sprout new shoots... all of them are a little too tall to mow over. I would really love to just mow my back yard without worrying about these or having my blades hit them accidentally. I so want to get them at least short enough to mow over. Gone would be better, short is all I ask.


I think this will be the easiest to get rid of. It already seems like it's rotting.

You can't really tell what's going on here. But I have issues with the mowing. I hate tree stumps.

I HATE this one. It keeps trying to regrow its tree. By the end of the year I'll probably have a huge bush out back. I cut it down last fall, but it grows really fast and I'm sure that at some point I won't be able to stay on top of it. (Hi Remy's head!)

And then there is the horrible back corner of the yard. The fence needs a little bit of work and this is where all the trees and sticks around my house go to die. I'd like to get rid of them. I'd also like to not have to cut them up in little small pieces for the garbage. Some of the things in here have really sharp thorns. I hate this pile. I wish I could just burn it all or something.



I also hate the huge tree stump by this pile.



It's got some cable thing by it that is attached to the electric/telephone/cable line pole. Probably I'm not supposed to touch it. I really want it out of there.

And finally, last but not least, this damn clothes line pole. I only have one, so I can't even have a real clothes line! (Not that I want one.)

I hate this whole area of my yard. Blerg.

So, that's all the things I'd like to do outside. They probably won't all be tackled, but that is the dream.

Dad, please use this as a guide on what you need to bring with you. =)


End Blog.

I'll Probably Hate This Once it's Summer

I suppose the biggest headache about owning a home is the maintenance and upkeep. But you know what I learned today? I'd rather mow the lawn than vacuum. Or do laundry or clean in any manner. (Unless maybe it was my car...) A clean house or clothes do not give me nearly enough sense of accomplishment as short grass does. And fresh cut grass smells nicer than any cleaning supplies you can give me.

So, as you may have guessed, I bought a used lawnmower from my friend today. My grass really needed cutting. (I think the front yard may have been worse.)


I had a few different kind of flowers in my yard, mostly purple... so I kinda felt a little bad about cutting the lawn because the color was sort of pretty, since I have no other flowers growing at my house. (I had a dream last night that I went to Lowe's and bought a whole bunch of flowers and landscaped the front of my house.)


One of them looked like it was in the mint family, with its square stem... but I have no idea what kind of flowers they were. Minty ones.


And I also had weeds hanging out with them... So, I mowed them all down.


I got the lawnmower out of my car by Blackwell ingenuity. I had help getting it into my car and realized that it would be too heavy for me to lift out of there alone. So I stacked up some different sized moving boxes still laying around in my garage, and I sort of eased it down stepwise out of the back of the SUV. Come to think of it, it might not be Blackwell ingenuity, but rather the fact that I've been playing a lot of Lego Star Wars...


Either way, I got it out of the car and had no problem starting it up. I got to cutting the grass and stalled the engine several times on high, thick portions of grass. The good news is that I didn't dislocate my shoulder trying to pull the mower start cord thing. I got about... four passes through the back lawn (I started in back so it looked like I knew what I was doing by the time I made it to the front yard where people could see me) when I ran out of gas.

I was really smart and went out to pick up the mower without my gas can. So I couldn't fill it up before I came home so that I had some ready for the mower. I thought I'd start and see how far I got before I had to put gas in the thing. Turns out, not too long.


This is what the grass looked like when I went to get gas.

I got gas, came home, and finished the job. It took a while, I stalled it quite a few times, and I missed a couple spots that I had to go back over. Then I tackled the front yard and my neighbors with the loud bass in their pickup stood at their front door and watched me. Which kinda weirded me out a bit. But it was the old lady that lives over there and then the, like, 1 year old. Sometimes I wonder how many people live in that house. It's at least a three generation family.

Anyway, when I was done, I felt pretty good about it, regardless of the staring. Also, as probably anyone with a lawn feels after cutting the grass, my lawn is bigger than I thought. Here is Remy outside, making sure it was still her yard, and grumbling something about everything smelling different.


But it looked much better after I was done. And I was in good company, I heard four other people mowing their lawns today too. And there is a weed whacker going outside right now. However, there is one downfall to cutting the lawn.


I think these have just become my lawn shoes... and I have to go buy new sneakers. Which, I've had these for over two years so I probably need a new pair of sneakers, but I hadn't really planned on buying them. Until now.

So, there's my Sunday. Now I have to do something less rewarding - laundry.

Don't you dare post a comment about how I missed a spot, or you shall become fertilizer.


End Blog.