This was a big decision and I hate taking down trees, but the Cyprus gum tree was falling a few pieces at a time (Kev’s tree guys called it the widow maker)…and the (6) 75-100′ pine trees were not as healthy as they looked. Originally I wanted to remove just the 2 in the yard, the branches have been falling more and more over the winters and summer storms and the squirrels starting to damage them, but Kev looked at all 6 of them and said that I should remove all of them, that they are too close together, they are damn near as high as they will grow and that storms will start dropping them. One of the main reason has been that the pine trees have been hard on the dogs over the years, the sap gets between the pads on there feet and then hardens making it painful and impossible to remove.

Here are a couple before pictures. the first one has the cyprus gum tree on the left and all 6 pine trees…2 on each side of the shed and 2 behind it.

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See my little 10’x10′ shed?

They needed to squeeze the bucket truck between the pine trees and the neighbors shed…there was an inch (no exaggeration) between the truck and the neighbors shed. (I was impressed, so was the neighbor). Fran had also hired Kev to shred the stump in his patio area, so we were both out there watching the entire thing unfold….

You can see in this picture that this tree was either sick or dying. Just about every branch they removed had rot in it.

Once the cyprus tree came down, they needed to bring the crane in to move the logs to the front yard. I asked them if they could be super conscious of the electric wires and the fios cables (since I was working)…

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Tomorrow, I plan on going down to Kev’s yard an getting the first load of firewood and doing some cleanup, I want to use some of the shredded stuff to fill in the pool hole and take some after pictures. So maybe more pictures tomorrow…

After I finished putting down the rubber mulch nuggets, I wanted to be sure that this was really the fix before I bought anymore to finish it up…so for a few weeks and a few rain storms later, I am convinced! I have mosquito relief!

Last weekend I decided to fill in the pool hole, so I placed an order on homedepot.com for 800 pounds of fill dirt, while I was on the website, I also ordered a landscaping border to keep the rubber mulch in. Of course when I picked up the order of dirt, they did NOT have the border in stock, so I needed to wait until it was shipped to the store (picked it up yesterday after my bike ride with Mike).

Today’s goal of putting the edging in place and adding more rubber mulch has been accomplished, as well as getting the (20) 40lb bags of dirt out of the truck! I think it looks great!!

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Sitting on the front porch feels like we are down the beach…so we have decorated it that way. The first thing that we added to start the trend was a slice of driftwood. When we moved the outdoor light to the outside of the porch, there was a big hole left in the siding, so instead of replacing the siding, we did this…

There have been some really nice evenings that we have got to enjoy out there, but there were still a couple things that needed to be done to really make it feel like the beach. I had done the first coat of paint when Scott finished things up…but a second coat was still needed…and I was NOT motivated to do it. And a firepit…we needed a firepit! So I bought a firetable.

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…that was the motivation to paint. I swear as soon as I locked that thought in BobbieAnn called and was finally able to schedule us in. Sisters Painting

Before…

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You’ll have to stop by to see the after…

I set out this morning with a small list…yard guard, replace the hose and spread rubber mulch…I knocked over the firewood rack, moved the trash and recycling cans, raked out all the monkey balls and moved a couple cinder blocks from under the deck before I could even start the mulching.

While I was putting away the rake and doing the cleanup, I thought, I should put Jen’s bike in the shed…I squeezed it in, but I seriously need to do a cleanup/reorganizing in there. While standing there in the shed doorway, I was thinking what ladder would be best to fix the window in the kitchen that has the spider hotel/restaurant.

The storm window opened from the top and a spider set up a web trap between the storm and the inside window. Even though watching this spider for a few years, it started to block the view from our animal sanctuary…but if I want to fix this, I need to also clean it…which meant opening it from inside the house, climbing up on the countertop (had to clear it off first) and getting the vacuum in there. After it was cleaned…inside and out, I recruited Jen to help me move the windows into place and get them locked in…her up on the countertop and me up on the ladder outside. Spider evicted!!!

I went ahead and cleaned the outside of the windows with a towel and a squeegee…

Next project…clean the other 5 windows

Every time I walk out the back door, within 5 minutes, I have just as many mosquito bites. There is a creek that runs through the back yard, but it’s not sitting water so I don’t believe that is the source so I have systematically set out on a seek and find…checked for anything that would hold water. I put a couple mosquito water disks in the gutters. (And I also tried an organic yard guard spray). This did not help, so I looked further and possibly found the issue.

Under the deck, it looks like there are canals every couple inches apart (I will take some pictures before I set off on today’s project). When it rains, the water from the deck drains and creates these gullys and I believe the water sits long enough to let the mosquito population increase.

Before:

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After much research, I have decided to put rubber mulch under there for better drainage. We stopped at Lowe’s yesterday and picked out the color (Brown) and today is the day that I start this project.

I hurt my back last week and I am not at 100%, so I may just do this in spurts because I don’t want to reinjure. But I want to start out by “Yard Guarding”, I also want to replace the back yard garden hose that runs under the deck and move the firewood rack. (There are only a few logs left…so I may just push it over to give myself working room).

But first, I need to go stretch and cover myself from head to toe in bug spray…

After: Kinda… I need to get a few more bags

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and we can’t forget my helpers

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All these years later (ok, it only feels like this ongoing project will never end…)

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This is the reason that we had electricity in half of the house. Some outlets worked, some did not.

The bad cable runs down 1 side of the circuit breaker box, so everything on 1 side worked and the other side didn’t. PECO loved this one.