All residential property owners, including your landlady, should seriously start xeriscaping. It conserves water, reduces maintenance, & respects the native flora. It would take the burden off your shoulders, which shouldn't be borne solely by you. That your husband expects you to...
Sorry, you haven't f-locked this post. I have a lot to say about your situation that would piss him off if he read this.
The yard needs some serious landscaping. We were talking about it back in spring--what we'd do if we had money. Even if we're renting. We'd like to put some actual edging around the garden area to keep the grass out and put down new mulch around all the bushes and through the gardens (there are no flowers, just the bushes and weeds). We'd also remove the mostly dead bush
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In Alabama we did summer yard work around twilight before the midday heat exhaustion hours. Low-noise stuff in the morning, noisy equipment in the evening, or whatever the neighbors were comfortable hearing. Of course, back when America was still a frontier, families relied upon having lots of children to help out on the farm. I love weeding more than anything; the feel and sound of an unwelcome plant being ripped from the bosom of the earth gratifies the eeevil villian inside me.
Is there any way to make friends with your landlady, or explain to her how close to the edge you live time-wise and money-wise?
Thanks on the weight thing. It feels good. I'm kind of stuck right now since I haven't really been watching what I eat. I stuffed my face with potato chips last night. :(
I think I just needed to indulge a little, counting every calorie was getting tedious.
Anyway, I think most people around here do the work in the evening. It's usually too wet in the morning even if it's not raining. Everything gets all dewy and it takes awhile for the sun to get up high enough to dry stuff. Like it rained last night but hasn't all morning and everything is still soaking wet outside and it's noon. There's too much cloud cover for the sun to dry the grass. My weed wacker does not like wet grass.
Oh, I feel for you if yard work is something you don't enjoy. I find gardening really good for my mental health, but that's just me. :) I wish I were down at my parents' house this weekend, because I would run down to Washougal and give you some of my fruit and veggies! And help you with your yard work. :) I think it's highly unfair that your husband won't help at all, because it goes so much faster when it's "all hands on deck".
OK, I hope you aren't offended by me suggesting this, but have you looked into rent/utility assistance programs? My parents volunteer as case workers for St. Vincent de Paul Society, which offers that kind of thing. Even if it's just one month, maybe it can help you bridge the gap until your husband's raise kicks in. The Vancouver Conference covers Clark County. (And the St. Vincent store - like Goodwill - might have some cheap garden tools too.)
Obviously we need to figure out some sort of swap thing where you organize my office and I do your yard work. :D
Oh God, food is *so* expensive. And eating healthy is even more expensive. I can't imagine how hard it must be to feed the kids and yourselves and still keep a balance. :( But really, congrats on losing 30 lbs - that's fantastic! Maybe if you did a trade off of yard work for full-fat foods, you could get some savings all around? Like half an hour weeding gets you the regular sour cream one night.
I think I've actually lost (or, at least, not gained) any weight over the last week because of the yard work despite eating a bunch of crap (like extra helpings and potato chips and stuff). Now if I had been actually watching what I ate I probably would have lost a ton and be below 230 right now. But I figured I deserved a break after all the work I've had to do. I'm so bad, lol.
All this talk of food is making me hungry. It's way past lunch time here and I'm procrastinating getting up to fix myself something. Still need to get dinner in the slow cooker, too. Got up to go to the store earlier to find Jack asleep on the floor in the other room. Oh well.
I live in a rural area, and the folks around us, many of whom grew up on farms in the area, are all pretty good around a garden. I grew up in the 'burbs with a mother who was a demon gardener, but who did it all herself, so I never had to do any of it, just admire the results. I'm clueless. I could should go and read up on the subject, and get to it, but life seems to get too busy for that. So my yard is a study in benign neglect. It isn't hideous per se, but it generally looks a little scruffy, and a mite weedy. Our landscaping is not very intentional looking, since mostly we have been (barely) maintaining the minimalist landscaping that was there when we moved in, and keeping up with the four acres of grass our kids use at play
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My mom was the gardener in the family. She seemed to enjoy sitting in the hot son and digging in the dirt, planting stuff, making sure it all stayed watered in the hot months and didn't die in the winter
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I hate this crap. When I own my house I'm just dumping mulch over it all. I hate flowers and bushes and all that crap. And her choice of bushes is retarded. There is no order or sense to them. They are all different varieties and just thrown everywhere. It looks stupid and one is completely dead (it was when we moved in).
For future reference: you don't even want mulch, you want groundcover. Mulch has to be replaced as it disintegrates. I put in 5 periwinkles (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vinca_minor) in our front bed in 2004 and now none of my front garden needs mulch ever. And the periwinkles survive apparently everything. I don't even water the front garden anymore.
That's a thought, too. At my dad's house in Chicago the area in our gangway was rocked over but eventually some kind of ground cover (I don't remember if they flowered but they were some kind of ivy I guess) took root in the rocks. It eventually covered everything and kept the weeds away (which eventually worked through the weed guard under the rocks). I thought it looked pretty. My dad hated it and sprayed it with weed killer. The next year the weeds grew in. Blah.
I've seen some pretty yards with ground cover vines around here. It'll be a long time before I own a house, though, lol.
BTW, where exactly are you in relation to Seattle, and is that price for a house common to the Seattle area or something specific your area in particular? Is the housing market around there really depressed?
We're like 3-4 hours south of Seattle. It's much cheaper to live down here. Not that I've looked much into it but I remember years ago looking at housing prices in Seattle and they were comparable to what it costs to live in my dad's area of Chicago (Midway area
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There's a minor chance I might be looking for a residence around the Seattle area. Depends on first of all, whether I actually get past the interview round I did Friday (haven't heard yet, nerves are jumping), and past the next (final) interview round to an offer, depends on the offer ... depends on what we decide about things if I get to the point of an offer.
That would be awesome. We could meet half way and have lunch, lol. If I had a car that is because my husband sure wouldn't drive me to a lunch date, lol.
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Sorry, you haven't f-locked this post. I have a lot to say about your situation that would piss him off if he read this.
A LOT. You deserve better.
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Is there any way to make friends with your landlady, or explain to her how close to the edge you live time-wise and money-wise?
BTW congrats on losing 30lbs! That's inspiring.
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I think I just needed to indulge a little, counting every calorie was getting tedious.
Anyway, I think most people around here do the work in the evening. It's usually too wet in the morning even if it's not raining. Everything gets all dewy and it takes awhile for the sun to get up high enough to dry stuff. Like it rained last night but hasn't all morning and everything is still soaking wet outside and it's noon. There's too much cloud cover for the sun to dry the grass. My weed wacker does not like wet grass.
Reply
OK, I hope you aren't offended by me suggesting this, but have you looked into rent/utility assistance programs? My parents volunteer as case workers for St. Vincent de Paul Society, which offers that kind of thing. Even if it's just one month, maybe it can help you bridge the gap until your husband's raise kicks in. The Vancouver Conference covers Clark County. (And the St. Vincent store - like Goodwill - might have some cheap garden tools too.)
Also, WA State has a short questionnaire that can help you figure out if you qualify for free or low-cost insurance and other programs. Could be something in there ( ... )
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Oh God, food is *so* expensive. And eating healthy is even more expensive. I can't imagine how hard it must be to feed the kids and yourselves and still keep a balance. :( But really, congrats on losing 30 lbs - that's fantastic! Maybe if you did a trade off of yard work for full-fat foods, you could get some savings all around? Like half an hour weeding gets you the regular sour cream one night.
Reply
I think I've actually lost (or, at least, not gained) any weight over the last week because of the yard work despite eating a bunch of crap (like extra helpings and potato chips and stuff). Now if I had been actually watching what I ate I probably would have lost a ton and be below 230 right now. But I figured I deserved a break after all the work I've had to do. I'm so bad, lol.
All this talk of food is making me hungry. It's way past lunch time here and I'm procrastinating getting up to fix myself something. Still need to get dinner in the slow cooker, too. Got up to go to the store earlier to find Jack asleep on the floor in the other room. Oh well.
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For future reference: you don't even want mulch, you want groundcover. Mulch has to be replaced as it disintegrates. I put in 5 periwinkles (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vinca_minor) in our front bed in 2004 and now none of my front garden needs mulch ever. And the periwinkles survive apparently everything. I don't even water the front garden anymore.
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I've seen some pretty yards with ground cover vines around here. It'll be a long time before I own a house, though, lol.
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There's a minor chance I might be looking for a residence around the Seattle area. Depends on first of all, whether I actually get past the interview round I did Friday (haven't heard yet, nerves are jumping), and past the next (final) interview round to an offer, depends on the offer ... depends on what we decide about things if I get to the point of an offer.
Reply
That would be awesome. We could meet half way and have lunch, lol. If I had a car that is because my husband sure wouldn't drive me to a lunch date, lol.
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