Making it ours

I've never been a huge fan of yews, but they certain can't be beat when it comes to hardiness.  And in the 60's it was definitely the go-to foundation shrub!  We have them all around the back porch, and though they weren't overgrown, they blocked the view if you were sitting on the porch swing - and we quite often are!  We were going to pull them out, but this morning I made some attempts to dig them out with a shovel - it wasn't going to happen easily. I don't know why i thought it would!  then i read about it on a few forums and short of using the truck to pull them out of the ground, it was not going to happen easily.  However, I did read that yews can be pruned back really had and they'll green up on old wood, so I decided that'd be the compromise.  Just whack them down and then keep them shorter.  This is what they look like now!  They'll look like crap for a season, but I think they'll be just fine!  And the view is so much better!!

This is what it looked like before:

Also, in the spirit of making the place our own, Billy pulled out the flagpole in the front yard the other day!  we were taking a walk around and he just pulled it out with brute force!  yay!  really - we weren't going to put out those seasonal craft store flags, it just needed to go!  

In animal news, we had all the cats go awol on Wednesday night - we forgot to latch the screen door on the porch and the cats found a way to slide it and they took off!  when i woke up on Thursday morning, i saw the door open and knew what happened - it had happened once before, but only one cat decided to take off.  and he came right back when he saw me walk to the door.  This time, however, i ran around and was only able to find Olive and Borris - the two tuxedo cats who are about a generation away from being barn cats and could probably make it, even though they're declawed.  The one I couldn't find was Buckley - the fancy pants Himalayan!  Of course, it's the one who has had all the street smarts bred out of him in favor of pretty.  that's the one who was out there!  he didn't come home all day so i made flyers at work (i know!) and stopped at every house on our street.  i met some nice people!  still he didn't come home.  all day Friday he didn't come home.  ugh.  we felt awful!  we walked the property thinking he might just be hiding under a shrub in his usual scaredy cat fashion - nothing.  Then on Friday night he just walked up to the back door like nothing happened!  it had been raining a lot but he'd obviously found a hiding place and just stayed there because his feet were muddy, but he was dry - and you can tell when a long haired cat got wet then dried out - it's not pretty!  Whew! we were sooooo happy to see him!  Today our neighbor - an animal lover probably in her 70's - yelled over "did you find your cat?" and we said YES!  and she said YAY! and pumped her arms in the air - it was very sweet!  Oh, in other animal news, Janet, the wild turkey, was in the yard taking a dust bath in the dirt where our grass still hasn't grown over the new septic system - it was so cool!  

finally finished

I got a wool table mat kit at the Woolgathering last year and started it as a Christmas gift for my mom - because we were in the middle of getting the house we kind of bypassed Christmas but I showed my mom a picture of what I was making and told her it was in progress!  Lame, I know.  I did finally finish it up though - in time for Mother's Day!

She's big into this primitive kind of stuff - it's not really my bag, but I did have a good time working with the nice felted wool!  Boy, this picture really makes the unevenness of my stitches stand out - not cool!  I backed it with some calico.

And, I can't stop talking about the wild turkey we've seen in the back yard a couple times now!  Isn't that wacky?  apparently not so much, when I talk to other people who've seen tons of them, but I have never seen one in my life - much less on my own property!  It's a crappy shot because it's as zoomed in as my camera would go - it was really far out there!  I've decided to call her Janet.  maybe that's going too far.

If you've found anything crazier in your yard, I want to hear about it!

This morning I took a walk around the perimeter of the yard because I wanted to see what was growing.  I found 3 peony bushes that had sprung up all the sudden - they pretty well disappear over the winter, but they were a couple feet tall already and I hadn't seen them before!  yay!  i love peonies!  Then, at the veeerry back of the property, I saw some mosaic thing in the dirt kind of wedged between 2 tree trunks.  From what I could tell, it looked like a monkey made of glass mosaic!  i couldn't get it to budge.  When Billy woke up, i told him that I had something cool to show him after he got some coffee in him, but as soon as I said "mosaic monkey" he was like "let's go!"  After breakfast he gathered up some tools and the wheelbarrow and dug that monkey out!  It's huge - probably 2.5 ft. - and it IS a glass mosaic monkey, but better than that, he's a cowboy - or rather, a sheriff!  his hands are broken off, as is the brim of his hat, but you can see there's a badge and a fancy beltbuckle, and at his hips, you can see perfect impressions in the concrete of where his 6-shooters were!  Billy hosed him off and propped him against a tree.  He's the most amazing thing ever.  Now the question is, what's the story on this guy?  who made him?  why did he end up dumped out back?  i can imagine that a monkey sheriff lawn ornament isn't for everyone.  i'm betting someone hated him and eventually said "get that thing out of here"!  We love him immensely and he's staying right up close where we can marvel at him!

in the ground!

ok, i know everybody's sick of seeing pictures of twigs and grass, so i'll only bore you once more with this!  We got 2 more trees in the mail today - a tulip tree and a red maple that I ordered from the Arbor Day folks - these were bigger - like 3-4 ft tall - so we could plant them out where they'll live.  Unlike the bucket of twigs that I showed last time.  Billy planted those in the ground, near the house so we could baby them.

As you can see, they're barely even visible!  He also got the pink flowering dogwood planted near the house where we think i'll have the partial shade it enjoys.  It's so hard to know before the trees get their leaves - but there are several big maples around and I think they'll give a little shade.

Then he trekked out into the back 40 to put out the others.  There are a lot of big trees around the edges, but we want to take away some of the open grass field in the middle.  Somehow he's gone his whole life without planting a tree, so this was exciting for him!

This is the weeping willow.  It's pretty hard to photograph such things at dusk.  that was probably a bad idea.  I just wanted to get pictures on day one so that in 5 years we can marvel at how different they look!  This one is actually pretty tall already - probably 6 feet or a little more.  and it's a fast grower.  Yes, i know about the invasive roots - it's very far from anything!  it's ok!

This is the sunset maple.

This tiny little dude is a red maple with a tomato cage around it so it doesn't get mowed over!

This other tiny dude is the tulip tree - also with a protective anti-mow-over device on it!

So that's 5 trees planted today - and the 10 saplings that may be actual tree-sized trees on our deathbed! haha!  Still, it's cool to have them in the ground!

Trees and stuff!

For my birthday we joined the Arbor Day foundation and got the 10 free autumn color tree package.  We knew they'd be tiny, but we wanted some trees.  They just came in the mail on Monday.   When 10 trees can fit in your mailbox, you know they're tiny!  they're soaking in a bucket until we figure out a temporary spot for them - you're supposed to put them in a location for a year or two to nurse them up to size before putting them out where they'll permanently go.

Because I had a coupon and a gift card, we went to Lowe's and got these three trees this afternoon - something in a more reasonable size, but still cheap!  There's a pink flowering dogwood, a weeping willow, and a red sunset maple!

I've noticed a bunch of forsythias blooming as I drive around - I always love when they're all yellow!  Then, as we were pulling in today, I said "Hey!  We have forsythias!" - three of them!  yay!!  i had no idea what they were when they were just bare twigs!  I kind of hate it when these are trimmed down so much - i'll let them go!

And I know - everyone's grass is greening up - but it's so pretty!  it was like overnight it went from brown to green!  so exciting!!

ok, i'm ready!

This morning I finished making my new little garden plot - it's only 6'x10'.  It took me forever though because i had to dig out all the grass and that's my least favorite thing to do!  I put some of the dirt/grass clods around the shed, and wheelbarrowed a bunch to the back of the property.  For such a little space, it was a long process!  I'm ready to put in some tomatoes now!  and i mean now!

Across the street I noticed a bunch of green popping up, and I'm almost positive it's going to be a bunch of day lilies!!  ugh, how pretty!  there's also a big patch of daffodils in the ditch as well -- who knows how those got there, but it's lovely!

signs of life

Because it was warm enough to walk around outside in a sweatshirt today, I did!  I put on my red mucky boots (because it's still kind of muddy after the snow melted.)  

And I walked all around the yard - front and back!  I touched all the trees, stood under the pines, and counted the black walnut trees again (20!)  This is the view from the front of the house - I'm not sure I've ever shown this.  It's corn fields across the street and it better always be.  I suppose there's a possibility that someday the farmer will sell the land and then I don't know what horrors could happen - I don't want to think about it!

Along the driveway is a little bed with an annoyingly rust colored light post.  Handy, but not very pretty.  it can be painted one of these days.  In the bed, however, I found a few signs of life!  I kind of have my heart set on planting red geraniums here, but after I pulled out some grass and leaves, I see that it's already home to some daffodils, ajuga, and maybe some daisies (not sure on those, but that's the fun of seeing what comes up!)  There are some other mystery woody things that might be little bushes, or might be miserable woody weeds - have to wait and see on those too!

Here you can see the daffodils and ajuga (the purple ground cover stuff)

Then in the back of the house I found some irises coming up!

And here!  There are also a couple straggly looking roses next to these.

I know I'm not supposed to be creating unmanageable amount of landscaping because it'll just become the same pain in my keester that the beds were at the old house, but spring, and seeing little stuff coming up, certainly gets me wanting to!  I do have an oak leaf hydrangea back at the old house that's my favorite bush ever - I actually brought it from my first house!  i noticed that there are some little shoots coming up and I'm definitely digging them up to bring here - planting bushes isn't like making elaborate beds that have to be weeded!  it's ok!