Damn you Hot Dog!

Last year I got this idea to test the back retaining wall to see what would grow with very little work. All of the vegetables died within a couple weeks, but the strawberry plants did very well. I didn't have to do anything but put them in the ground and water for the first few days.

Actually, putting them in the ground was kind of hard. I have to dig a lot and the ground was really solid. It took about an hour because I had to dig up the first layer of grass and weeds and then dig a hole.

A year later and the strawberry's are still alive! My new dream is to have a large berry patch in the back yard with raspberry's, strawberry's and other Berry's I need to research before I plant them.

I double checked on them today and they were still good. However, the berry's were all half eaten. I think I can blame my yard bunny, Hot Dog, and his bunny friends. I am still hopeful because I will probably never remember to pick them and I will have so many that some will survive.

Get-er-done

Yes, another sob story about my yard. I almost found a short term solution by using my neighbor's law mower. He has a shed and I only have to get it down one step. That worked great once, but then he asked me to put lotion on his back because it was burnt. The man is about 70. I can't get that image out of my head.

So, the natural garden production has just become top priority! Step one is removing all the grass. I thought, 'sweet, I will just dig it up!' Then I realized how lazy I am and only got a couple feet. After talking with my dad, he told me to put carpet down and it will kill the grass. Let me tell you, it looks all sorts of classy. I love the Super Man blue. It adds a bit of color.

Where did all the carpet come from? It has been sitting in my garage since I bought the place. The entire house had this overly gross, stained carpet that I had to pull out the first couple days. So, not only did I get to handle this disgusting carpet once, I got to do it again. And I get to handle it again after it has been sitting outside for a few weeks. Great.

Side note: I called my dad to wish him a happy Father's Day and he said he will try to be a better father by spraying poison on my yard. I am going to let him do it in the front because I think I would get hate mail from my neighbors if I put carpet down in the front. Oh, and he asked if I was going to vacuum it.

A good idea

Easter at my dad's made me realize that I can have a very low work yard. My new plan is to pull up most of my yard and put wood chips down with some fancy plants. I am sure it is more complex than that, but that is a bridge I will cross later.

Trees!

I love that I have two big trees to shade my house during the summer, but the branches can harm my roof. My mom and Mike came over and started to remove a bunch of branches from the roof. I nearly peed my pants about 10 times when Mike was cutting down branches. A large branch would be cut and slowly fall, nearly hitting the windows. The pee Gods made the branches not hit and break a window. That would have cost me a couple hundred dollars.

Oh the yard work

I hate yard work. I would do anything to avoid doing yard work. However, I kind of have to do some yard work. The stupid city of Minneapolis makes me clean my yard.

This leaves me with the task of raking. I rake and rake and fill bag after bag. Then when I am done, I have a bunch of bags I have to remove. Last year, I raked and kept the bags in my backyard. I guess I thought they would just go away if I wished hard enough. Well, I did that an my mom came over and started taking them away.

You're so vain

This happened a couple months ago, but the memory still sticks with me. Back in the Spring, I bought a new vanity. I got it from Ikea and really didn't pay much attention to the size of it. The bathroom really needed a new vanity. The last one had needles hidden on top.

The old vanity held up for a long time. When the second half of the mirror broke, I knew we needed to install the new vanity. My dad came over and we measured. Since the old vanity had lights, we needed to installed new lights. Thankfully my dad is an electrician and could handle a simple lighting system after 30 plus years of experience. We measured and started cutting holes.

I was not in a good mood. I was tired and we had to go to Home Depot to get new lights. After finding the perfect lights, they told us they didn't have them in stock. I was mad. Why would they have them on display, but not in stock.

"Forget it dad, lets just go to Menards." The sales man was standing next to me.
"Are you mad?"
"No, I am just louder than normal because it is fun."
"So, who are you helping by being mad."
"I am helping us get the right lights."
"How is that going?"
"It is going fantastic. So good that you should shut up."
"So getting mad at me is going to make things better?"
"Yeah, so shut up."
"Well as long as you are feeling better."
...."You know I hate when you are right." I stopped and we went to another store to get the right lights. I hate it when he can talk me down from being an ass.

So, we found the right lights and installed them. Only after putting major holes in the wall did we discover the vanity was far to wide to fit in the old vanity place. About 4 inches would have been in the shower and that is not a good thing.

After yelling and laughing because my dad looked like a mole, we figured out the best solution. Seriously though, my dad looked like a mole. We put the vanity on the adjacent wall and a mirror where the old vanity was. It was fantastic because now I can see the back of my head and according to Meg, "I have high expectations for the back of your head."