The Triumphant Return
Well folks, it’s been a long absence from blogging, but it has been quite the busy Fall. After all the rain this past Summer, left quite a lot of “around the house” projects either unfinished or undone. So now that we’ve had a good stretch of cooler, dry weather, the weekends have been filled with lots of back-breaking work.
We started by trimming a few trees, which turned into a major pruning of all of our oak trees, we have 15 or 20 on the property. The cutting, pruning and trimming was the easy part…you just break out the chainsaw, have your willing neighbor climb up the tree and do the cutting, while you direct him from the ground and sidestep any falling branches. But the bigger job comes with finding a way to get rid of what you cut.
After 2 weekends of cutting up trees, we had a backyard full of branches, leaves and brush. We thought we’d call up someone to simply haul it away, but not for $800, so being the cheap, do-it-yourselfers we are, we decided to save ourselves some cash (at the expense of my back) and rent a 6″ brush chipper from the local Cash Savers Equipment rental center. Sounds easy enough, but 2 backbreaking days of dragging, sawing, cutting and shoving logs, branches and various tree parts into the deafeningly loud chipper hopper took quite a toll on my back and body in general, just in time for the next project (of course, I had to wait until I could actually move my body before starting something new).
Next on the docket, the front yard. No, not merely cutting the grass and cleaning up the yard, that would be WAY too simple and physically non-intensive, nope, we’re talking ripping out every existing plant and replacing the entire landscape. Yep, because we like to get in over our heads and create more work than necessary.
The easy part was paying our handyman to rip out and haul away the existing plants, the hard part was ridding the planting areas of roots, construction debris and carefully maneuvering around cable lines, sprinkler lines, gas lines, wires and other essential utilities that are barely buried beneath the thin layer of cheap-ass, weed infested, builder installed top soil. While the soil in our Rocklin home was hard clay and mucky when wet, Texas soil is like trying to dig in to 3 feet of solid friggin’ reinforced concrete. No wonder one of the top equipment rentals is an air hammer. It’s all rocks and solid things that look like rocks and it’s a wonder that anything even grows.
So after digging, trenching, pounding, a gazillion F-bombs, scrapes, bruises, blisters, a little blood, a few fire ant bites, 100 frog sightings and 1 snake, I managed to successfully replant the entire front yard. It was a project we’ve wanted to do since moving in, but the Summer is too hot to plant and the Fall is somewhat unpredictable, but this year, the conditions were right..fortunately (I think). Either way, it’s done. HooHah!
Next up is restaining the deck and fences…does the work ever cease? Apparently not, but the lovely conditions we’ve had here (70’s and 80’s) sure makes it nice to be outdoors.
So now that I’ve thoroughly bored you with my rundown of household projects, along the way, we managed to snap some photos of the kids, the dogs and some other stuff, so you might want to head over to the photo blog and see what you missed.
Until next time, folks.
Still Here…
Hey folks, just a quick note to let you know that we’re still here. Our blog has been under attack from spammers, so I’m working on resolving that issue.
We should be back in business here shortly, so please stand by.
California Dreamin’
As I sit here in my office, watching the remnants of Tropical Storm Erin (and await the potential arrival of Hurricane Dean) flood parts of my city (5 inches of rain in 2 hours), create a multitude of traffic accidents, and high water rescues I am somehow strangely reminded that it’s time to get back to the business of this blog, stand up straight, pay attention and show some appreciation of my handful of readers out there who express some level of interest in our life here in Texas.
As many of you know, I’ve recently returned from a visit to California, a really pleasant visit with my folks, 2 concerts and a chance to see some of my favorite cousins, aunts, uncles, and relatives. To those who were there, it was a great pleasure to see everyone in a casual atmosphere, it was quite reminiscent of our Sundays at Mom and Pop’s and that is something I terribly miss. As trite and repetitive as those visits had often become, they now have become some of my fondest memories and some of my most missed times.
Mom & Dad really went all out, had Kris and I running all over town picking up dessert tray, goodies, cheesecakes, cookies, regular cakes and nearly every dessert imaginable. Dad made his world famous sangria punch (always a hit), and Mom busted her hump (for weeks prior) in the yard and in the house, ensuring everyone had plenty to eat, plenty to drink and a comfortable place to sit. A big shout out to the weather for being so cooperative too.
To those who drove distances to be at my Mom and Dad’s dessert party, I truly appreciate your efforts to be there. Patty and Mike, I know it wasn’t an easy commute from Modesto and it was truly great to see you. Lynne, as my closest cousin, it’s always wonderful to see you, to Tina and Jim, I know you all had lost your dog earlier that day, Lord knows I understand how difficult that is and to Uncle Vito, Aunt Annie, Aunt Millie, Uncle Barnie, Pat & Bob and all the others…God bless you, you all look terrific and it was such a tremendous pleasure visiting with you all. My only regret was the absence of Aunt Lorraine (who was down with a cold) and of course, the absence of Uncle Rocci.
All in all had a great time in California, spending some time with Mom & Dad and hanging out with my buddy and nephew (often referred to as my little brother), Kris, though he doesn’t talk much, we had a great time seeing Rush twice. For those who don’t know, Rush is our favorite band and we’ve made a tradition, over the past 15 years, of seeing the band multiple times each time they tour. The guys are getting older now (mid-50’s) and probably won’t be doing this much longer so we jump at every opportunity. This was a great time, we had the chance to dwindle our cash reserves by eating nothing remotely healthy and sipping sour $8 amphitheater beer, see a band we are fanatical about and spend a whole bunch of time together cheering, singing completely out of tune and making general fools of ourselves (along with 10,000 other middle-aged dorks). It doesn’t get a whole lot better than that, and I always appreciate the chance to be together (with Kris, not the other goofs).
So thank you to my Mom, Dad and Rusty for putting up with me for a week, feeding me, housing me and accepting my ceaseless advice on healthy eating and water consumption. I hope it wasn’t too annoying.
In any event, folks, Summer’s almost gone the kids are heading back to school and I hope you all have enjoyed and appreciated your children, relatives and family this Summer. Now, it’s time to reload, pretend to be a mature adult, act responsible and do it all over again. Can’t wait ’till next Summer.
“Summer’s going fast, nights growing colder
Children growing up, old friends growing older
Freeze this moment a little bit longer
Make each impression a little bit stronger…”