Spring

     It rained yesterday probably because I fetilized my lawn Monday. Why didn't I check the weather forecast first? I am constanstantly looking at the forecast, why didn't I Monday? Because I got too excited about mowing and fertilizing the lawn! Anyway - hopefully it won't ALL be washed away. You're supposed to wait 24 hours before watering. It waited 20 hours on the back lawn and 15 hours on the front before it started raining. We'll see what happens.
     Spring is nothing if not unpredictable. It was a beautful day Monday and yesterday it rained all day. Not that I'm complaining - I'm not. I do really like the rain! And I really love spring!
     I lost my cell phone Monday evening. And now I'm sure it was taken. I've looked all over my house and yard and have called it approxtimatly 47 times and have not located it. This really bums me out.
    I had went out to lunch with a great friend yesterday. We got out kids a kids' meal at Wendy's and then we enjoyed Cafe Rio. It was so yummy! And fun too! We haven't been in a long time and it was just what I needed. Thanks so much "J".

Tis' the Season

     Yesterday, after I got all the kids off to school my friend and I had an "outing." OK, fine, I'll tell you. We went to the gym. I love going with her!
     When I got home, I mowed, watered and fertilized the lawn. 'Tis the Season for yard work. I really don't mind mowing the lawn. I actually kinda enjoy it - especially when it's not so hot. But once again, I have a fear of our edger. I had over come it slightly by the end of last summer, but this spring my fear is back in full force. So I didn't edge and it doesn't look as good as it could, but my fear doesn't care. It looks as good as it's going to until I edge.
     Then we went up the canyon for Bret's sister's birthday. Happy Birthday Gina!!! We had a great time with our family!
     It's a great time of year. The earth comes to life again after a long winter (even though we didn't have much of a winter.) The trees are budding, the flowers are blooming and my allergies are killing me! I think, I'm not sure, but I think spring is my favorite time of year.

Project Finished!

Yea! "We" got 1 summer project finished. OK, when I say "we" I really mean me, I mean Mister!

Before: Look how gross it looks. The dirt, weeds. It just looks dry, dusty blah!

After - Doesn't it look much fresher? Cleaner? Ok, so there is a little bit of grass that needs to come in a bit better, but really doesn't this look much better?

From the front - ignore the hose in the grass. And the best part? So much LESS weeding!

And 1 more big thank you to Mister! Ya did great!

What is it??

This is what my driveway and front yard looked like earlier this week.

I have no idea what this yellow stuff is called, but it's from our tree and because it's wet - from the torrential downpour we've had this week - it sticks to our shoes and is tracked all over my house!



Because we have had 5 days of torrential downpour, it's wet and heavy so I have to shovel it away - only for it to come back a couple of days later!



And where do you put it when you reach the end of the sidewalk? In the road of course. Then I felt guilty because of the HUGE quantity so I ended up shoveling it into our trash can.

What Are Best Friends For??

Bestie came over this afternoon to help me prune my rose bushes. Instead of helping me, she did it for me while trying to teach me the correct way. She also gave me some great ideas to rearrange my backyard stuff. Then she did it for me while I sipped DCMP that she brought for me. She spent about 2 1/2 hours in my back yard. Maybe I helped just a little, but I couldn't/ wouldn't have done it without her! Thanks Bestie, you really are the best!

This is Bestie in her backyard for her b-day last year.

Natural

I love this time of year. Everything is green, naturally - none of that artificial green that comes from watering from the hose. Nope, it's green because of the rain fall and the not scortching temperatures.

Even though the constant and drastic changes in temperatures causes much sickness that is contageous, I still like the fact that things are green with out any effort from me.

But still too unpredictable to plant my garden - unless I did this - then my husband might want to have my head examined!

Not that there's anything wrong with this. It yeilds yummy veggies and it yields them EARLY. But still, Mister nearly had a heart attack when a couple of years ago, I dug out part of our grass for a garden. If I went to the effort to do this, he'd surely sratch his head. Plus, I'm not sure how he'd feel in the middle of the night when the wind is blowing, helping me try to keep this plastic down. Last spring the wind caught part of this and lifted Bestie off the ground while she and 2 others were trying to save it. This year, it's anchored a bit better!

All to soon, I'll have to drag out the hose and manually water my grass and garden. But until then, I'll just enjoy having to mow the lawns without having to water them :)

Happy Spring!

Weeds Already??

I have weeds in my garden and I haven't even planted my garden yet!! And I have more dandelions in my lawn - not picture, you'll just have to take my word on it - than I did last year. Last year I had 2. This year I have at least 4 - but those suckers multiply like crazy - don't all weeds???

Yard

So I mowed our lawn today. I really don't mind mowing lawns (except my in-laws. I didn't mind mowing their lawn until I saw a snake skin. Then someone slipped and told me they had seen a snake in their yard. When I confronted Mister about it, he said he killed that water snake. I still think there is at least 1 snake still roaming around their yard. That did it for me. I cannot mow their lawn. 2 years ago, I got all siked up about mowing their lawn for Bret for Father's Day - he usually mows their lawn. I got all the way to my car and couldn't go. I just couldn't bear the thought of running into a snake. Ok now back to my original thought.) The lawn looks so good freshly mowed. It looks SO much better than it did when we first moved in. And I'm impressed with us - that we made such an improvement in our yard. But that stupid weed eater/edger I cannot bring myself to running. I'm afraid of it. Now, let me be clear. I only want to edge up against the swing set and around things that the lawn mower can't reach. So it's not that much, but I am so afraid of it. So sorry, Honey, I have failed you once again. I will really try to get beyond my fear and master the edging. I will try.

On another yard note: I have planted grape vines and I think the wild grass is crowding them out. I have pulled all of the grass around the vines on my side of the fence - so I can't do much more. Hopefully they'll pull through and flourish this year!

The garden is coming along. A BIG FAT HUGE THANKS to Mister for all his hard weeding!!! One of the reasons I started a garden was to teach my kids to work. And that is work in itself. This summer I could prove to be the meanest mom on the block - but my kids will learn how to weed.

I have a HUGE quilting project under way, so I can't spend as much time as I'd like in the yard. Which is a bummer because these temperatures are perfect for yard work. But all in good time I guess. If I have to sweat buckets this summer, so be it. I have to get my inside project done.

Hope all is well with you all.

Yard Work...

The people who lived in our house before us were retired so they spent quite a bit of time in their yard. They had many square feet of flower beds. I'm sure at one time their yard was quite beautiful. But due to medical reason, the yard was neglected and had minimal work done for about 5 years and then for 2 summers before we moved in the yard had hardly any work. One summer it was vacant and the flippers didn't water much. Anyway, we've done a lot of work. All along our back fence was irritating wild rose bushes. We (Hubs) has ripped them out. We've brought the lawn back to life and with the help of many donating starts and seeds our flower garden is looking OK. Well by the sidewalk that runs in front of our house, they had taken 2 quarter circles of grass out and had 2 very poky bushes. We took those out the first thing. Then I had some flowers there, but I always hated those 2 beds. So this year, I transplanted the flowers and we attempted to plant grass. So bad. It's a terrible location. So I finally got tired of it and bought a few pieces of sod and laid them down. OK, so these pictures aren't the best. But trust me, it looks tons better. Now I'm hoping to save the sod. It's really too hot to lay sod. But hopefully I can keep it wet enough to save it. That sod is heavy! It was more time consuming than I thought. But hopefully it will all be worth it!!

Before...

The green stuff you see growing here is

some grass but mostly weeds.
After...

Not quite the same color, yet.

I'll try and post some better pictures later.