A busy and frustrating couple of weeks

Last week I didn’t post any updates as I went out of town to by beautiful granddaughter’s graduation.  I am so proud of her.  She has really grown into a beautiful young lady, inside and out.  It also gave me a chance to spend some time with my oldest son, John in North Bend.  It was absolutely stunning there.  Green and beautiful.

John’s house in North Bend

Another view of John’s house. Every thing was so green and luscious

Not sure what this is, but it looked like a wild golden raspberry. If anyone knows, please tell me. John didn’t know.

The reason for my frustration was more mower problems.  You would think with all the dead mowers we have, that we would have the parts to fix ours, but I guess that is not the case.  Which tells me that when given the chance we (I) will be clearing some of those off the property.  Maybe I can catch Lynn sleeping and and twitch my nose and, poof, they will all disappear!!  Anyway, he is keeping Troy busy trying to keep the main two running.  They think they have it figured out!!

In the meantime, the yard got way too tall for my comfort level, so I took my trusty little weed whacker and chopped a bunch of the weeds down.  Unfortunately, it got hot outside, and my knee has been giving me a lot of trouble, so I wasn’t able to get everything I wanted done.  My thought was to cut the whole back yard down with the whacker, (did that).  Then go over it with the lawn self-propelled mower, but I didn’t get that far.  I am really going to pay for this weekend.  My knee was just beginning to be a little less sore, and my physical therapy isn’t until the end of the month.  But I’m afraid I just moved myself two steps backwards.

I have this obsession with having a beautiful yard.  I grew up in Detroit pretty much without a yard, so that is something I have always wanted.  Then when I moved out here 27 years ago and we started building the dream home, my heart wasn’t in really planting and growing things, because I knew that we would be moving into our dream home.  Now that I am in the dream home, I don’t appear to have anymore patience for waiting on it to all come together.  I am just this much closer to a beautiful yard.  And I want it done NOW.  Throwing a little tantrum here.  🙂

Side yard taken probably June 5

Halfway there.

Side of the house

With that being said, I did take a little time yesterday morning to go to the “Love of Junk” sale outside of Walla Walla.  It was great, I could have stayed there all day, but Lynn didn’t much care for it.  Said it was mostly girl stuff.  Oh!  Well next year I will leave him at home, and I will get to spend the whole day.

I did find me a treasure, that will be going in my sewing room.  My thoughts were to have a “daybed” with pillows and such all over it.  Found this brass bed frame and it just fit the bill.

My brass daybed treasure.

Another thing I did on Friday evening was to go to the “Relay for Life” event.  The past two years I have stayed over night and got a lot of walking in.  This time my knee wouldn’t let me, and I spent a sleepless night paying for what I did walk.  But it was so worth it.  As I walked laps I said prayers for all those that have been lost to this dreaded disease.  Most recently, Ray Ferrer (artist) that passed away last month.  He was such an inspiration, and he really fought hard, and my heart cried for him and his beautiful family.  I prayed for my wonderful Aunt that is still fighting the battle, along with my good friend Mary.

To round off the weekend, I was able to plant some Zenia’s, and that just made me feel good inside.

Got some Zenia’s for the front porch

Some Zenia’s in front of the rosebush

So tell me how your weekend went.  I honestly think we should work 2 days and get 5 days off.  With the same pay, of course.

Have a wonderful week and I will talk to you next weekend.

Annie, the weed whacking diva 🙂

Blew the engine up

Happy Monday,

Well this is an official vacation day.  Had lots of plans today.  I always have lots of plans to get lots of stuff done.  Spent the last two days pulling weeds and hoped to whip my yard into shape.  Slow start with a quick finish.  Remember in a previous post when I showed you a picture of my weed whacker aka “big wheel trimmer”.  Well, that is what I blew up today.   Before you say anything, Lynn put oil in it yesterday.  So I escaped the “I told you to check the oil” speech.  It leaks oil, but I was hoping to get one more year out of it.  I was using it along the parameter of the front pasture when it started making a funny noise and before I could shut it down, the side exploded.  Well, it didn’t suffer, it went quick.  So I took that as a omen to go in side and sit down with a glass of ice tea.  Any excuse is better than none, right?

Now for the update on the house.  The carpenters just left and they put the upper redwood deck on.  I’m sure the railing will follow later this week.

Upper deck, redwood over water proof floor

View off the upper deck

Redwood upper deck

I also told you I would show you the furnace in the utility room.  There is still room for a freezer, so we’re good.

Furnace in the utility room

How about an updated picture of the finished utility/mud porch?  I really like this.  That is what the railing will look like on the upper deck.  I’m a southern girl, I gotta have a porch.

Porch off the utility room

Another angle

This is going to be a short post, because I have to get something done, so I can say I had a productive day.

Annie, hater of all things mechanical.  ugh!! 🙂

 

 

Cleaning up the Appraiser is coming

The appraiser called and will be coming out Monday afternoon to do the appraisal on the house.  This is the dream house that we have been building for almost 20 years.  Needs to appraise it for the bank loan.  He will assess what the value should be when it is finished.  That takes a little imagination and being able to see the potential.  The contractors have been working on the inside and starting to frame in some of the closets and the plumbers and electricians have been working their magic, but it is still really rough.

Unfortunately, the grounds around the house are riddled with weeds and that takes a lot away from the appearance of the home.  I am hoping the appraiser can see the potential.  I have been out there weed eating and pulling up puncture vine which has spread all over.  Our riding mower needs a starter and is hard to start.  The parts have been ordered and I hope they come in today.  In the meantime I have been using the weed-eater.  That little gem was something I bought for Lynn for Father’s day about 15 years ago.  He used it once, but I use it every summer.  It is leaking oil but I manage to start it and use it anyway.  Some day it will need to go in for a spa day and be rejuvenated.  But for right now I hope it hangs in there.  It can rest in December.

Handy dandy weed whacker. Momma’s toy.

Thought I would get out of the sun for a bit and work on the blog, but will be heading out there again in a little bit.  I sure hope all the weed pulling and hauling and moving  shows up when I weigh in on the scale this week.  Being lighter would just be a bonus.

Okay, as much as I am loving this house, the one thing I’m really looking for is a nice lush green lawn and flowers.  It isn’t in the construction budget, but I am hoping that when I sell the house we are in, that I can get it professionally landscaped with a sprinkling system and the maintenance would be much simpler.

I grew us on the streets of Detroit where the sidewalks and alleys were my play ground.  I thought we were rich when my mother was finally able to purchase a house that had a postage-sized yard.  Loved mowing the yard (push mower) and planting flowers.  Then a blight came to the area and we lost all the elms to the “Dutch Elm” disease, then the riots and unrest came and we had to move.  I have longed for a nice green lush yard ever since.  Some day it will happen.

During my weed-eating this morning, I was accompanied by my sweet collie Kinzie.  She is my rock.  She makes me live in the moment.  When I get anxious or down, she lifts me up.  Unconditional love that is what she gives me.

My lovely Kenzie

More photos of the clean-up and inside of the house, later.

Annie, Master Weed Whacker