Random Weekend Projects

We've hit that Mid-August time where you need to start canning and continue yard maintenance. Oh so suburban :)

First we had to get rid of our "items that didn't sell at the Garage Sale" we had back in June. We took pictures of groupings for tax purposes then one truck load over to Goodwill and we have started to claim back our garage. By afternoon we started cutting back the overgrowth on the side of the house and the back lot.

This is a bad shot, but you get the general idea.  That pile to the left = vines and weeds I didn't want in that bed.

I am going to find another flowering vine for that empty trellis and transplant some more hostas to the rock bed through out.  

There are something like over 300 types of hosta... but I am looking for something like this:

On to the back of the yard, Here is the before:

 And here is the great trim... I am sad that I am loosing my privacy fence of trees and bushes but there were so many maple, elm, and buckthorne fighting each other, we chose a few maples to stay and cut the buckthorne away from the fence (there is a good 2 1/2 feet behind these now). It is much cleaner and will grow fuller (but not til next year, sadface) rather than its scraggly sticky mess it was before.

 

The mascot of the day (ok she is the mascot everyday).  

While I was taking these pictures, I looked up and saw the biggest camouflaged spider I have ever seen... It's body was a bit larger than a quarter.  I quickly grabbed my 50 foot wasp spray, goggles, chained molly up by the apples and started spraying that little sucker. He fell to the floor which then I proceeded to spray with Round-Up while simultaneously tossing a brick on him.  All the while screaming like a little girl.  It was comical. I sprayed the areas I had doused with the wasp spray with the hose even though it isn't really toxic for dogs, I just wanted to be sure.  After close examination, there were two other equally terrible-sized/looking spiders under the deck... next weekend's project: power wash the deck.

Fair warning, I did get a blurry terrible picture of it below if you want to see it, otherwise scroll on past.



You have been warned...

BLAH I got the willies just trying to upload that LOL

Ok, on to happier times, we started one pickle recipe called "Refrigerator pickles" and will start another recipe from my Mother In Law this week!  We also made Tomatillo salsa, which turned out really delish!

Celebrate/burn some of those darn sticks until we were chased out by the mosquitoes.

To-Do list for the rest of the yard:
- cut bits of existing hostas, transplant to the areas between the buckthorne.
- create an arch from old cuttings for climbing rose bush to grow on
- trim back lilac bushes for easier mowing.
- fix up side beds and cutting garden beds aka weed beds.
- Fix back garage door (screen door pulling from the wall)
- Add flagstone from lower patio up to back garage door
- Add a flagstone patio around fire-pit  We may hold off on these two if we decide we want to replace the lower patio bricks
- Misc deck repairs on sections the previous owners did not use treated wood (grrr)
- Repaint deck... again (have repainted this deck twice already since 2010, not happy) we'll talk about that in a future post!




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