We're landscaped!

When we had the 30+ year old cedar  trim replaced with HardiPlank a few months ago, I had most of the 30+ year old shrubs removed.  I had been wanting to do that for years.  They were so huge and needed pruning several times a year to keep them in check, ideally.  Well, we just aren't into yard work much...so, pruning once a year was much more our speed.  Having people there to work on installing new windows and new trim was all the excuse I needed to get rid of those giant bushes.

As soon as the old shrubs were removed I called a local landscaping service to get the process started.  R.L., who owns the business, is extremely busy and it's sometimes hard to get a call back from him.  Luckily, I was chatting with my friend Judy on Facebook and she mentioned that her son Jeff was going to work for R.L.  I mentioned my lack of success at getting in touch with R.L. to do my landscaping job.  She said that area (public relations) was something that Jeff hoped to be able to improve for R.L.  Less than a week after he started with R.L., Jeff came out here to discuss what I had in mind.

Wayne and I had decided that a sprinkler system for the flowerbeds and the foundation was going to be in the plan.  I told Jeff I wanted it to be easy; I like color; I don't like to work.  Within another week we had a plan, but that was at the end of May and I was going to be gone for much of June, so we decided to wait until the end of June to get started.

By the time the end of June rolled around, we started getting lots of rain.  I have no idea how much, but I think it was in the neighborhood of 7 or 8 inches over a couple of weeks.  But now it's complete!  They installed the sprinkler system around the whole house.  We only landscaped about 3/4 of the area around the house.  The remainder is more  large shrubs, but they're okay for now...not as hard to prune as the others were.

Unfortunately, I was away from the house when R.L. came to install the control panel, so I didn't get a lesson in usage.  It looks like it's set to run, but I don't know how to check the programming.  It's probably set to run early in the morning...before I get up.  I also need to talk to Jeff and get instructions on what the water requirements are for the new plantings.

I have mowed since it was complete.  It's kind of tricky to get close to the stacked rock border without knocking things around.  I was thinking this morning that I probably need to get the weedeater to get the closest grass.  Hmmm...this is starting to sound like work.  Plus, now the rest of the yard need sprucing up.  I'll get over that, though, and wait until Wayne can let Rudy come over here to help.  Help?  One of things I like to say (that says a lot about my yardwork philosophy) is, "It's such a pretty day...I almost feel like hiring someone to come work in my yard."

I now have Knock out roses, dwarf Agapanthas, Japanese blueberry shrubs, a Vitex tree, 2 Redbud trees, Foxtail ferns, some kind of grass, Cleyera and Ixora.  I have no idea what those last two are.  Guess I'll have to look it up.

The crew also edged and trimmed some of the trees to really make it look nice.  I'm a happy camper!!!

At the back door: Agapanthas, Knock Out Roses, some kind of grass

Still at the back: some kind of grass, Agapanthas.  Under the kitchen windows: Knock Out Roses.  Way up there is the Cleyera and you can barely see the Vitex peeking around the side of the garage.

Looking toward the front door: Agapanthas, a Redbud tree, Knock Out Roses

Flanking the front windows: Japanese blueberry, Agapanthas, Ixora (in front of the windows)

You can see the pretty color of the Ixora and how nice the stacked rock border looks

Busy, busy, busy...

Although you can't really tell what I've done...(I don't have much to show for it)...I have been quite busy.

I've had decisions to make:

• I need a new car
• I need a new computer
• I need new living room furniture

So, I started with the car.  I had already looked at the GMC Terrain at a local dealership.  Well, let me back up.  I hadn't actually seen a Terrain in person.  But, I had looked on the internet and was interested.  It's a smaller SUV than the GMC Yukon I've been driving since about 2001.  I am ready to go a bit smaller.  The problem was the dealership didn't have one and didn't know when they would have one.  I told what bells and whistles I wanted on it and thought that I might like silver.  (Wayne's silver Toyota Tundra is really pretty...and everyone has a white car...I'd never be able to find mine!)  They had located a couple of them at other dealerships, but I didn't want them to get it down here before I at least saw one in person and drove it.  This was in June, just before the girlfriends trip to Concan.  All the way to Concan and back (about 6 total hours on I-10), I looked for Terrains.  Never saw one.  NEVER!  But, I did see lots of silver SUV's and I decided I really didn't want silver.  Terrains aren't available in many colors, so that was going to be a problem.  The white is "appliance white"...not a pearly white.  Anyway...long story short....the dealership finally got one in that I could look at (but not drive) and I decided that the cargo space in the Terrain was just too small.  It looked like it was about half the cargo space of the Yukon.  The seats were really nice, though...two-toned.  I liked the way it looked; didn't get to drive it though; cargo space seemed inadequate for me.  Scratch the Terrain.

A week or so later the dealership called to have me look at (and drive) a GMC Acadia (a car I had admired the looks of for quite a while), and a Buick Enclave, (another car I think looks good.)  I drove them both and liked both of them.  I think they are both crossover SUVs...the Enclave looks smaller, I think, but actually, according to the dimensions, is an iota larger than the Acadia.  I narrowed it down to the Enclave, decided on a color and finally picked the interior color I thought looked best.  Although, why I thought the interior color was important is a mystery to me, since I didn't remember that the interior of my Yukon was tan until I looked.  I thought it was gray.  The dealership has located a couple that meet my specifications and is working to get one transferred here.  The hold-up right now is that the vehicles have not yet arrived at the other dealerships.  Maybe next week. 

So, that's taken care of...soon, you might see me in a diamond white, the purty pearly white color, Enclave with tan and cocoa seats.  Fancy, schmancy!

That leaves the computer and furniture.  Oh...oh...one thing I forgot to mention was I finally got my landscaping done around the house...and it's beautiful!  I'll end this post and maybe get some pictures of the landscaping in the next post.

That doesn't really sound like I've been busy, does it?  Trust me...it's hard work for me to finally decide to spend money. 

Self-waterboarding

I needed to mow and I needed to do it this morning.  I cranked up the mower about 10:30 and got started cutting grass that hasn't been cut for quite a while...a couple of weeks, at least. It rained all last week and the grass responded predictably, happily growing several inches.

I set the blade at 4", thinking that I wouldn't wait two weeks to mow again.  That way it won't have grown so much and I can move the blade lower, to 3 1/2".  It took a little over an hour to finish, but it didn't take that long to decide I'm not mowing again anytime soon. Geez! It wasn't that it was that hot...well, it was...but, the humidity was what got me. The combination of the humidity and my sunglasses slipping down my nose made me think of waterboarding. As in feeling like you're drowning even though you're not. Self-waterboarding is pretty easy to accomplish here in this part of the country at this time of year. I don't recommend it though.