loving your neighbor(hood)
My next-door neighbors and I really aren't all that close. We don't have much in common past the property lines that separate us.
Yesterday, I mentioned I spoke to one of them. It's the first time since last August when he was rather upset about some stray cats. The pussycat problem has been solved. He mentioned he saw one the other day, a red one. I've never seen a red pussycat in my life and wonder, with as close as we live to the foothills and the lack of stray pussycats if he's not seeing a small red fox. We have coons in the 'hood. Last year, my neighbor had to have a family of them removed from his chimney. I've heard coyotes. We have mule deer in my neighborhood all the time. They come down and munch on the garden occasionally. So why not a fox?
Anyway, I had to laugh because one of the things I discovered during the flood was that one of my basement windows is broken. When we spoke last August, he said something about it because he thought the cats were living in the basement and coming and going through the window. They may have been, for all I know. But the very day he mentioned it and told me he'd seen cats go in and out, I fixed the window. I get to fix it again because i measured the pane of glass wrong and it's just a hair short. I fixed that temporarily with glazing compound but it needs to be fixed properly. It's on the list.
I told him I'd fixed it, but he had to go see for himself. I also told him my insurance company spent $35,000 to re-do my basement after the flood and there are no pussycats in the basement. Maybe that was why he looked. Who knows? It just made me laugh.
Yesterday I made several trips to the hardware store. I made another one again today and one day this week, June and I will trek to the garden center for some plants. For the first time in about three years, I had a few dollars to spend on my yard and I decided to show my neighborhood some love by cleaning up the "eyesore" that my south flower beds had become.
As you know, I'm a big fan of power tools. One of the best things I did was to buy the trimmer wtih the many attachments. I used the cultivator attachment where I couldn't get the tiller into, and what started out life yesterday as an overgrown patch of weeds and grass with a much-neglected rose bush and lilac bush has turned into a nice, landscaped bed.
It was cheap, too. I spent $36 on the decorative bark I used to mulch the ground with. I tilled up the ground, raked out the weeds, left the yarrow plant, trimmed up the rose bush and cleaned off the cement border with a broom. The bark has been spread and now my flower bed is just that: a flower bed. We'll buy some nice plants to add a few splashes of color to it and it'll look really nice.
I started really cleaning up around the outside and front of the house this week. I sprayed off the garage door and killed all the weeds in the driveway cracks. I cleaned up under the pine tree and that looks nice, too. It's nice to have just enough to get this project done and thankfully the bark was on sale so that I could afford it. Nine bags was just enough!
I have some flower beds out back that need some attention, too. I bought some red bark for those and as June has some time off, we'll get to getting those back in shape, too. I'm thinking that by the end of summer, the yard will look a lot better than it has in years.
I also did my part to love my neighbors by putting down dandelion killer and fertilizer. I screwed up and put the spreader on the wrong setting so I over-fertilized. Hopefully, the lawn will be OK. If not, I have grass seed. Sometimes you eat the bear. Sometimes the bear eats you.
I guess the point is that one way we love our neighbors is by adding to the collective beauty of our surroundings. I hope I did my part to make Lark Circle a better place to live.
Yesterday, I mentioned I spoke to one of them. It's the first time since last August when he was rather upset about some stray cats. The pussycat problem has been solved. He mentioned he saw one the other day, a red one. I've never seen a red pussycat in my life and wonder, with as close as we live to the foothills and the lack of stray pussycats if he's not seeing a small red fox. We have coons in the 'hood. Last year, my neighbor had to have a family of them removed from his chimney. I've heard coyotes. We have mule deer in my neighborhood all the time. They come down and munch on the garden occasionally. So why not a fox?
Anyway, I had to laugh because one of the things I discovered during the flood was that one of my basement windows is broken. When we spoke last August, he said something about it because he thought the cats were living in the basement and coming and going through the window. They may have been, for all I know. But the very day he mentioned it and told me he'd seen cats go in and out, I fixed the window. I get to fix it again because i measured the pane of glass wrong and it's just a hair short. I fixed that temporarily with glazing compound but it needs to be fixed properly. It's on the list.
I told him I'd fixed it, but he had to go see for himself. I also told him my insurance company spent $35,000 to re-do my basement after the flood and there are no pussycats in the basement. Maybe that was why he looked. Who knows? It just made me laugh.
Yesterday I made several trips to the hardware store. I made another one again today and one day this week, June and I will trek to the garden center for some plants. For the first time in about three years, I had a few dollars to spend on my yard and I decided to show my neighborhood some love by cleaning up the "eyesore" that my south flower beds had become.
As you know, I'm a big fan of power tools. One of the best things I did was to buy the trimmer wtih the many attachments. I used the cultivator attachment where I couldn't get the tiller into, and what started out life yesterday as an overgrown patch of weeds and grass with a much-neglected rose bush and lilac bush has turned into a nice, landscaped bed.
It was cheap, too. I spent $36 on the decorative bark I used to mulch the ground with. I tilled up the ground, raked out the weeds, left the yarrow plant, trimmed up the rose bush and cleaned off the cement border with a broom. The bark has been spread and now my flower bed is just that: a flower bed. We'll buy some nice plants to add a few splashes of color to it and it'll look really nice.
I started really cleaning up around the outside and front of the house this week. I sprayed off the garage door and killed all the weeds in the driveway cracks. I cleaned up under the pine tree and that looks nice, too. It's nice to have just enough to get this project done and thankfully the bark was on sale so that I could afford it. Nine bags was just enough!
I have some flower beds out back that need some attention, too. I bought some red bark for those and as June has some time off, we'll get to getting those back in shape, too. I'm thinking that by the end of summer, the yard will look a lot better than it has in years.
I also did my part to love my neighbors by putting down dandelion killer and fertilizer. I screwed up and put the spreader on the wrong setting so I over-fertilized. Hopefully, the lawn will be OK. If not, I have grass seed. Sometimes you eat the bear. Sometimes the bear eats you.
I guess the point is that one way we love our neighbors is by adding to the collective beauty of our surroundings. I hope I did my part to make Lark Circle a better place to live.
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