Yard Work

Earlier this summer I had an unexpected day off of work...someone drove their car into our electrical system and the whole campus was "lights out". Anyway, after driving 45 min to work I didn't feel like sticking around to see if they got the power back on so I went home.

To my surprise I found Matt home also. Apparently he decided to take Fridays off this summer (oh the joys of working for yourself). Well we decided that as long as both of us were home we might as well tackle some outdoor landscaping that we had been putting off.

Matt gets to do the "manly things", ie: use power tools and equipment (which is really ok in my book) and I take on most of the "gardening", ie: hacking away at our shrubs and trees.

 Before: notice how overgrown and overlapping everything is??

A huge thistle grew up right over one of the bushes I cut out last summer! That thing hurt like... 

And after! Yes, they look scrawny now, but they fill back in really fast

And this bush was my nemsis this year (yes, each year I have a lawn issue that I dub "my nemesis". Last year it was the pokey bush in front of the house...which ended up getting totally removed instead of just trimmed).

A little bit ago Hank spotted "something" run into this bush and has been desperately seeking it ever since (such a determined terrier). Well I had had enough of him crashing into the bush and after multiple conversations with Matt about what it was (he argues that it was probably just a little mouse...I hold firm that is was something like a raccoon or opposum) I decided to include it in the annual trim. I forgot to take just a single before pic, but you can kind of see how overgrown it was in 1st pic on the way right side.

And yes, it still looks this sad and pathetic, but after trimming and cleaning out all the loose needles underneath, Hank no longer goes sprinting to that spot in the yard and crashing into the bush and fence and that was my goal.

And this is most of the stuff I cut down.

A few years ago Matt built this awesome bonfire pit from blocks that were randomly laying around from the previous owners. Trust me when I say it's huge (as in at least 4 feet in diameter). And since this time the weather has either been waaay too hot or it's been raining, neither of which is good for starting a bonfire that will likely reach the top of our house again (yep one year we burned our neighbor's Christmas tree, with their permission, and the fire was as tall as our roof line. But it's ok, the neighbor is a fire fighter so it was all good).