Depression because the list of things you know that need to get done every year to get both yourself and the house ready for summer seems to grow longer and longer every year. Anger because you know you'll often times never get to some of the things on the list. This often times leads to drinking. Cheers, have one on me.
One of the things Arlene and I wanted to do this year was to re-do the front yard landscaping. What a pain in the crapper! There's something to be said about hiring a landscape company to come out and do all the work for you. Of course just like everything else, I pride myself into being able to screw things up on my own...I mean to do things on my own. That and the fact that I don't want to pay someone thousands of dollars to do something I can do for a hell of a lot less. They're all a bunch of thieves, trust me.
First we dealt with the bushes. I would describe these bushes as something you would see at an abandon house. Seriously they were in horrible shape. It only took my 9 yrs to come to this conclusion.
We yanked out about 90% of the bushes in the front of our house. With the aide of my trusty chain saw and the help of my neighbors Chevy TrailBlazer and my brother-in-laws Toyota Tacoma, we were able to persuade the bushes to release themselves from the death grip on which they had on the earth. They didn't come out quietly. I swear these bushes were possessed. My chainsaw had a heck of a time cutting through some of them. I think I even heard one of them screaming for help as I held it down with one foot and chopped it's trunk off.
Well everything came out eventually...I managed to keep the damage to a minimum. Broken landscape light a ruptured underground sprinkler hose and a huge splinter was all the casualties. Easily fixable, "honey where's the duct tape and the tweezers!?"
Next, get out the check book because everything that was taken out will need to be replaced with plants that costs 100 times more then the crap you ripped out. All the flowers, bushes, mulch and even a couple Japanese maple trees in which to replace the 1000 yr old bushes needed to be bought. I tell ya', I'm in the wrong business. The money people charge for these things are ridiculous. No wonder the guy who owns Farmer John's Nursery drives a freakin' 80k thousand dollar car.
Not only did we replace all the landscaping but I went even as far as re-doing all the outside lighting as well. Did I mention "pain in the azz"? That's another story in itself... Let's stay focused here.
Well it's about 90% done now. All in all as long as Arlene's happy I'm content. Time to work on the backyard now. I'll see you at the bar, that's where I left my "to do list".
Here's some pics...
Got kind of a rock theme going on.
This planter area had a nasty brick retaining wall that we took down last year and replaced them with boulders.
Spiral bushes with 3 Azaleas flanking the middle. These are nice because they flower in the spring.
Japanese Maple and 3 rhododendron's in the middle...it's hard to see in this pic because of the ivy in the background on the wall. These also flower in the spring.
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