Bungle in the Jungle! (Apologies to Jethro Tull)
It was time the situation be addressed. I'd been plotting and planning my attack. I was mentally ready. And, unbeknownst to her, I had an accomplice...Lacey.
Our mission.........CLEAR CUT THE JUNGLE. (Cue scary music)
I sent my baby girl in by herself at first. She's a brave girl. I was close by and armed with a big shovel, a huge butcher knife and I was wearing hot pink Wellies...rubber boots. I was prepared to go into the bowels of the swamp.
The flora we were expecting...hell, it's been visible for a couple of months. It was the fauna that we were scared of considering that we had to put our "bad boy" dogs into the garage for the duration of our mission. We were going to have to face the wild animals on our own, hence my rubber boots. I would not have been the least bit surprised to see a snake or two slithering across the top of my boots. Thankfully, we're in Tennessee and not Louisiana so we were snake free, but there were several frogs and lots of spiders and tics and other buggy things. But the main culprit of the day were the huge piles of dog dooooooo. Yuck! The smell and that squishy sensation when you sank into an unseen pile...that only stirred up more smell...was not a good thing.
But we pressed onward. We got into a routine. I would pull the 10-12 foot talk bamboo-like stalks down then step on them at ground level breaking them. Then Lacey would pull them up and throw them over the fence. Many of the stalks required both of us pulling to free them from the ground. Then others had to be "chopped" with the shovel then yanked and thrown over the fence. It was a JOB, honey!
We left one double clump of the tree stalk things. We are going to let it become a real tree. I'm thinking these things will become what my mom called "tallow trees". The little back yard needs one tree and Linda Gayle said the dogs need some shade. So we'll see if a tree grows in Cordova!
The west end of the yard at the end of the patio was simply tall grass. I conquered that with the lawn mower but had to restart the damn thing about 10 times. Lawnmowers prefer grass to be in that 6 inch tall range. This grass was more like knee high range. But it doesn't matter anymore...it's 3 inches tall now like all grass should be! Of course, there is more bare area than grass covered area but at this point I'm just going for "not overgrown" and not dangerous looking.
Then it was time to tackle the Bubba Pool! Lacey shoveled out all the leaves while I held the pool up on it's side. We sprayed it out with the water hose then had to scrub it down with a scouring pad to get rid of all the mold and algae. The yard was turning into a mud pit! But the Bubba Pool is now clean and filled with clean water!
I swept down all the spider webs and dirt clobber thingys from the tiny little porch area. We swept and scraped mounds of dirt filled with dog hair off the patio then sprayed it all down with the jet spray water hose.
We moved the wrought iron table back onto the patio and put the iron baker's rack back into place. We rolled the grill to the end of the patio to leave as much room as possible for the dogs to have the little shaded porch area to themselves.
We finally let the dogs back out to their little world. Bubba immediately went to his pool and Lacey then Charlie joined him.
The yard is not pretty. It's not going to be with two big dogs living out there. I've not even done the weedeater thing yet because my neighbor has my weedeater and wouldn't give it back yesterday when we asked. We did get the lawnmower and I'm sure I'll get the weedeater eventually...I better get the weedeater back! But the yard is not scary any more and it can now be managed weekly by Lacey. She can use the mower and weedeater for less than 20 minutes and keep it at bay.
The back yard wasn't in my line of sight. I just didn't care and just had no idea that it could grow into the condition that it did. I've been "in a combat zone" with work for the last 3.5 years and didn't have the energy to worry about the backyard that I can't use because of the dogs. Now I have a regular job and actually have the energy to do something on the weekend other than rest and recuperate for the next week. The back yard is still the dog pen. It's now a more acceptable dog pen that Lacey can keep up herself.
If I'm still here next spring, maybe I'll sod the yard and put in a flower bed. If not...oh well...the back yard is what it is!
Now I'm going to take a nap!
Our mission.........CLEAR CUT THE JUNGLE. (Cue scary music)
I sent my baby girl in by herself at first. She's a brave girl. I was close by and armed with a big shovel, a huge butcher knife and I was wearing hot pink Wellies...rubber boots. I was prepared to go into the bowels of the swamp.
The flora we were expecting...hell, it's been visible for a couple of months. It was the fauna that we were scared of considering that we had to put our "bad boy" dogs into the garage for the duration of our mission. We were going to have to face the wild animals on our own, hence my rubber boots. I would not have been the least bit surprised to see a snake or two slithering across the top of my boots. Thankfully, we're in Tennessee and not Louisiana so we were snake free, but there were several frogs and lots of spiders and tics and other buggy things. But the main culprit of the day were the huge piles of dog dooooooo. Yuck! The smell and that squishy sensation when you sank into an unseen pile...that only stirred up more smell...was not a good thing.
But we pressed onward. We got into a routine. I would pull the 10-12 foot talk bamboo-like stalks down then step on them at ground level breaking them. Then Lacey would pull them up and throw them over the fence. Many of the stalks required both of us pulling to free them from the ground. Then others had to be "chopped" with the shovel then yanked and thrown over the fence. It was a JOB, honey!
We left one double clump of the tree stalk things. We are going to let it become a real tree. I'm thinking these things will become what my mom called "tallow trees". The little back yard needs one tree and Linda Gayle said the dogs need some shade. So we'll see if a tree grows in Cordova!
The west end of the yard at the end of the patio was simply tall grass. I conquered that with the lawn mower but had to restart the damn thing about 10 times. Lawnmowers prefer grass to be in that 6 inch tall range. This grass was more like knee high range. But it doesn't matter anymore...it's 3 inches tall now like all grass should be! Of course, there is more bare area than grass covered area but at this point I'm just going for "not overgrown" and not dangerous looking.
Then it was time to tackle the Bubba Pool! Lacey shoveled out all the leaves while I held the pool up on it's side. We sprayed it out with the water hose then had to scrub it down with a scouring pad to get rid of all the mold and algae. The yard was turning into a mud pit! But the Bubba Pool is now clean and filled with clean water!
I swept down all the spider webs and dirt clobber thingys from the tiny little porch area. We swept and scraped mounds of dirt filled with dog hair off the patio then sprayed it all down with the jet spray water hose.
We moved the wrought iron table back onto the patio and put the iron baker's rack back into place. We rolled the grill to the end of the patio to leave as much room as possible for the dogs to have the little shaded porch area to themselves.
We finally let the dogs back out to their little world. Bubba immediately went to his pool and Lacey then Charlie joined him.
The yard is not pretty. It's not going to be with two big dogs living out there. I've not even done the weedeater thing yet because my neighbor has my weedeater and wouldn't give it back yesterday when we asked. We did get the lawnmower and I'm sure I'll get the weedeater eventually...I better get the weedeater back! But the yard is not scary any more and it can now be managed weekly by Lacey. She can use the mower and weedeater for less than 20 minutes and keep it at bay.
The back yard wasn't in my line of sight. I just didn't care and just had no idea that it could grow into the condition that it did. I've been "in a combat zone" with work for the last 3.5 years and didn't have the energy to worry about the backyard that I can't use because of the dogs. Now I have a regular job and actually have the energy to do something on the weekend other than rest and recuperate for the next week. The back yard is still the dog pen. It's now a more acceptable dog pen that Lacey can keep up herself.
If I'm still here next spring, maybe I'll sod the yard and put in a flower bed. If not...oh well...the back yard is what it is!
Now I'm going to take a nap!