Buh-Bye

It was a glorious weekend here, and we spent it in a pretty miserable way.

On the bamboo.

But first, lookit my garlic!

This is an awesome showing, I just hope we can bring it to completion and keep a rotating stock like we used to.

The Hubs made a drying line for me, so while he was getting started on the bamboo Saturday morning, I was spraying the legs for the rolly bin. Throughout the day, I was able to get them all done and dried. They are currently curing and today are ready to go back into service. I expect we can get a few more years out of the legs.

As the Hubs cut the stump down to ground level, I went around and tied up all the stalks. Including the ones in the side yard, lest someone get upset that my yard looks unkempt.

When we quit for the day, we felt ready for the next phase:

We expected Mr. Diaz to show up and give his opinion. He didn’t.

I mixed up some stump killer and sprayed it all over the area. I just finished washing out the sprayer when I got a text:

“Do you want us to come over tomorrow with the excavator?”

My neighbors own an excavator! How spectacular is that??? I just wish I hadn’t wasted the poison on the stump.

Sunday morning they rolled in with this little beast:

Let me tell you, this guy is a freaking surgeon with this thing. In no time at all we had a pile of roots! He was pushing and shaking and digging up those roots like they were butter. It was a thing of joy to watch.

After they finished, they invited us over to their work yard so we could see their operation. They have chickens, an Air B&B, all kinds of equipment and supplies on their properties. She gave us some eggs and sent us on our way.

When we got home, I cut and tied the rest of the stalks.

Rob dug some fence post holes for us:

From the front, it looks pretty manageable.

After I was done cleaning up the stalks, I just didn’t have any more in me to tackle this pile. Besides, all my yard waste bins are full.

Over the next few days, next weekend, whatever, I will get this processed:

I want to save all the dirt I can, and get rid of as much root system as possible. We are going to have to get some dirt to backfill and level out this area.

Still no Mr. Diaz, but he did say today after work he’d stop in. I hope it’s not too dark for him to look at the fence. I think he’ll be pleased it’s prepped for him, and not pleased he has to do it!

I am really looking forward to the gravel circle being put in and we can have a space for raised beds. I plan to get some of the pots off my patio and consolidate them. When I get back from VA in March, it will probably be too late to put in tomatoes, but I’ll do it anyway and hope for miracles!

Overall I am really happy we got rid of a lot of the bamboo. I am ever hopeful we will be able to control it going forward. I doubt it will ever go away as the neighbor will never take his part out. It will be an ongoing battle, but we’re gonna try.

I’ll take a few days to recover, I’m pretty beat up after all this, but I think I can get the pile processed before next weekend. And if I can’t, I’ll just keep chipping away at it til it’s gone.

We talked about what to plant over in the corner, but I think we won’t do anything for a while so we can mow over any insistent bamboo sprouts until they get discouraged enough to die.

BullShit

In going through my email this afternoon, I came across one from the HOA. Apparently I was not paying attention to the date, and I left some bamboo for the neighbor in between our yards. And the little narc did its inspection yesterday.

And now I’m in violation of a rule.

I have mixed feelings on this. My plan for the fence violation was to say, “Suck it.” But to be hit with a lawn maintenance violation threw me. On the one hand, I want to say SUCK IT! On the other, I am a rules girl at heart and I’m in violation.

Upshot: it looks like I’m in the clear with the fence.

I’m really ticked off, too. There is a house in this ‘hood, on the main road, that has a broken window (for at least 2 years now), their front window is completely gone. They have a broken truck with 4 flats in the driveway, they never mow, and the place literally looks like a crack house. (Rumor in the ‘hood is it actually IS a crack house.)

Yet I’m in violation. If you squint, you can see the crime of which I am being accused:

Of all the ridiculous things to call out. I mean really, they had to search for this.

Unless…

Maybe I am in violation all the time for digging gardens, overly tall fences, and generally thumbing my nose at this HOA. They may be so thrilled they actually caught me on something.

The funny thing is, I didn’t get a time limit. I don’t know if there will be a re-inspection in a week. If I don’t do anything until the day before the next inspection will they care? They did make sure to point out my neighbors can SUE me for this egregious behavior.

The more I think about it, the less pissed off I am. Now I think it’s funny.

And I’m little embarrassed I live here.

Bamboo 2

Sunday we tackled the Bamboo again. It kinda seems like this is all we do around here right now.

This is the start to the day:

The Hubs got started while I frittered around doing other tasks. At one point I headed over to see if there was any progress and I was struck by this:

From across the yard, it looks nearly reasonable. But up close, wow! Is this a tall monster!

After a while, the old fence made itself known:

I could not really wrap my head around how it was going to look. It finally became clear that there are actually 2 parts to this old fence. The one on the right is a direct line, but the part on the left is headed in a perpendicular line away from the yard. The other side comes to a point back there somewhere. Three properties merge at the bamboo.

This is where we ended the day:

We left it all in the yard. I was pretty sure I was going to be paralyzed this morning.

Turns out, I was wrong. I was able to crawl out of bed with minimal effort! I do have a black eye from when a nice flexible stalk bent and snapped me right in the face.

Have I mentioned how much I hate this bamboo?

This morning when the Hubs went to work I forced myself to go outside. I heard the neighbors chatting, so I went over to talk to them. They agreed (with a little coercion) to feed Mayhem and Havoc while we are in VA in March. That’s a load off my mind. Christy came over to meet the kittens, and they were actually sweet to her! She realized we live in the same model of house and was telling me about her bridge to nowhere! She said she was going to drag her husband over and tell him this is what she wants to do in her kitchen!

Back outside, she said she was going to make a bamboo screen for her garden, but bamboo is so expensive. I offered to pick through my pile and give her the green stalks. She was over the moon. As was I, because now I don’t have to cut and tie it all for the yard waste truck.

After she left, I went back to cutting and tying piles of bamboo for the trash. I managed to do both the piles, and then cut down the rest of the standing stalks.

I do have to cut and tie all this up, but it’ll have to be tomorrow or next week. I have nothing left to give today. Hopefully Christy takes her stalks in a timely manner. If they are still there next Monday, I will have to cut and tie them for the trash.

Next weekend we will be cutting the stump level with the ground, which is NOT level at all! The plan is to basically Agent Orange the fresh cut stump and pray. We talked about having Mr. Diaz put the rest of the fence at an angle in front of the stump and hope it takes 20 years before the bamboo grows enough to push the fence over.

I don’t really care what the plan is, just as long as the fence gets finished.

Peas!

I had four peas in my salad tonight!

There’s a couple more coming, so I’m pretty happy with the turnout. I think maybe I can put ‘peas’ on my can-do list!

In the mail the other day, I received a check. Remember I told you about the lost property website? It’s real! I got a check!

Take that, naysayers!

Yesterday I made Key Lime Pie for the Hubs for Valentine’s Day. Or as he calls it, “VD.” I overcooked them, but they are still so much better than what we get at restaurants. I put them in little crusts and tossed one in the freezer. I want to know if I can successfully freeze them, because quite honestly, a whole pie is just too much.

I’ll defrost the frozen one is a couple weeks, maybe for Easter, and see how it tastes. Then I can just make a bunch of little pies and toss them in the freezer for an at-will treat.

Before work on Tuesday, I took apart the legs to the rolly bin.

After 2 years outside, they were looking a little rough. We’re planning to paint them and see if we can keep them protected and get more years out of them. I sanded all the pieces with some steel wool and was happy with the results. It was a little too chilly to paint them, and I figured the Hubs would want to operate on them before they get painted anyway. This weekend he can sand them how he wants and I’ll start spraying them. If the weather holds, they’ll be back in operation in a week or so.

For now, the rolly bin is just getting rolled around the yard every few days.

So far this week, I was at the store Tuesday afternoon, and this morning. Tuesday was really long. I was working with one of the most negative people on the planet. She was picking at me all afternoon, of all things, because I don’t swoon when someone mentions Taylor Swift.

Seriously? Of all my faults, that one offends you the most? It all started when she said, “Don’t you just love Taylor Swift?”

I replied, “No. I don’t even know her.” Which apparently is code for: “I wish she were dead.” She went on and on about what a jerk I am because I don’t agree with her.

All. Afternoon. Long

For the love of all things unholy, it made for a very long shift.

Today I got to work with Dianne. She’s a little elf who can move mountains. And she likes to eat out so we compare notes on places we’ve tried. Like me, she agrees Pensacola is NOT the foodie paradise people say it is!

Jingle!

I nearly forgot! Havoc has a new trick.

When we let them chase the laser pointer, we ALWAYS try to get the kittens to reach up and make the bells on the front door jingle. Neither one of them will EVER do it. They can be losing their minds chasing that damned dot over furniture, into walls, down the hall, but the moment it goes up the door to the bells, they stop dead.

Night before last I was in the kitchen and I heard the bells tinkle. I figured the Hubs was in the hall. I looked around the corner and Havoc was sitting by the door.

Weird.

A couple minutes later, they tinkled again. I looked and she’s looking at me like, “Lookit me do!”

I’ll be damned. She rang the bells!

I told her she was a good girl and went back to the kitchen.

Now every night when it’s dark, she’s in the hall ringing the bells! The Hubs made a BIG deal about it last night so she was out there for like an hour making them ring! She’s out there right now as pleased as can be with herself!

Not to be outdone, Mayhem has been changing his rules for the pop out game he loves to play. You’ll be walking toward the office and he’ll come from nowhere and grab your legs. He always announces himself, it’s pretty funny and we praise him for it.

The other day, I got to see Mayhem in action. He let out a strangled “MEOW” and leapt up to grab the Hubs. For some reason, it’s always a little startling because he seems to know when you’re least expecting it.

Lately, he’s been practicing new moves. He runs into the living room, launches himself off the side of the couch and gets some height. This morning, I was headed to the office and he did exactly that. He announced himself, bounced off the couch, and the next thing I know, his paws are on my face, and then he was gone.

I’m not very tall, but that cat got some height on that jump!

I love/hate that he is so smart. You can sometimes see him doing geometry before he jumps on top of a bookcase. He seems to weigh his options and then does what he’s not supposed to do anyway. He’ll take a swat on the ass with glee because he got to do exactly what he wanted. You can see it in his face, like he knows it’s the cost of getting his way.

Havoc is completely opposite, she melts at a stern look. And every night, she settles on the bed and stays there while the Hubs reads me to sleep. It’s like she HAS to know what happens next in the story.

Garden

Around here, we’re pretending winter is over. I’m not exactly ready for this, but I don’t control the weather.

While my peeps are being threatened and hammered with yet another storm, we are planning and executing garden bins.

But first, Mayhem is still chilly:

This is kind of new. He contorts himself on my laptop so he can rest his cheek on the power supply, which is really toasty. I guess comfort doesn’t really matter if you are cold.

It’s been rainy and dreary since Friday. Sunday we went out between raindrops and got some stuff done. First on the list was protect the cat nip we planted last week.

I thought I was the bees knees when I came up with covers to protect it while it was freshly planted. I’m here to tell you, whatever it is eating the catnip is apparently not fooled by my attempts to thwart him.

One night, he flipped the cover off and danced in the pot. He didn’t actually kill all of it, but the damage was heavy. So I put a brick on the cover. That’ll teach him.

Two nights later he had reached under the brick and tore out a bunch of leaves and stems.

Bastard!

The Hubs took over the fight and fashioned this:

He even sewed the top together so that little cat nip thief could not jump into the cage.

Now we just wait and hope it survives. If it does, we need to be more vigilant about cutting and drying it so we have a good stash for the kittens.

Dominique gave me a dying Nun’s Orchid last week. I replanted it and am currently trying not to kill it the rest of the way. After a little over a week, it still looks sad.

I’m not sure I’ll know when it’s no longer sad. Maybe some new leaves? I gave it some compost and coffee grounds, kill or cure, right?

The Hubs planted some garlic in the bin:

We should see it sprouting in about a week.

This is where we are so far:

The catnip, the pots have garlic, the 2 bins in the back are potatoes (no showing yet), the long bin on the left has last years potted dirt and compost – it’s resting til the fall. The pot behind it is mint. And the pots against the fence are the peas – which have progressed past flowers to actual peas. Maybe this week I’ll have one or two for my salad!

Not exactly gonna sustain us when the world ends, but it’s a start. Still planning tomatoes, some herbs, and peppers.

The Kraken goes to settlement on her cute house Wednesday. It’s been a bumpy road for her, but they stuck with it and now it’s paying off.

We just made plans and reservations to go see the place and help her out with some items on her wish list. We leave in early March. I’m ridiculously excited for her! I’m still trying to convince her she needs a vibrant front door. She’s not really a vibrant kid, so it’s an uphill sell.

I’m looking forward to seeing the place and helping her make decisions about how to best use the space. I’m hoping she’ll let me take some pics so you can see a little of it. I’m especially excited to get my hands on help her with her front porch.

The thrift store has not been all joy lately, so I am looking forward to a couple weeks off to have a chance to miss it a little.

I have not been posting any knitting lately, so here’s what I have been working on. I finished a prayer shawl for the church group:

The yarn was supposed to be a blanket for my house, but I was not in love with the patterns I tried, and the color is not bright enough to make a statement. It’s better serving as a comfort to someone.

I recently learned my LYS is now a drop off point for Project Linus blankets! This brings me great joy! So I am going to someday finish this:

And maybe if I am really well behaved, when I drop it off I can treat myself to something yummy at the shop!

My yarn choices have been pretty blah lately, huh?!

Lastly, I started a scrapghan to use up a pile of leftovers:

It doesn’t look like it yet, but it’s a diagonal knit. Still deciding the size, and that will determine who ends up with it when I finally finish.

I’ve pretty much lost interest in knitting wearable items at this point. I might bring what I have sitting in containers up to the Kraken and she can either give them away or sell them at her craft show in April. I still want to make a blanket for myself for the summer months. Just need to really feel around and find the right yarn. Although looking at the scrapghan and the couch together, maybe I should go that route…

Bamboo

I worked on the bamboo last week. I raked up 3 yard waste bins of bamboo leaves that have been left to rot for years. I tied up a healthy bundle of loose sticks as well.

You’re looking a length of fence here. It’s stuck in the midst of this monster. Or so I thought last week.

Since taking this picture, the Hubs and I spent a couple hours cutting more. We discovered this length of fence is part of the original fence. It has been shoved out of the way by the bamboo. The way it’s getting shoved makes me wonder if this bamboo is even mine. I thought it all originated in my yard and has made its way to the neighbors yard. But now I wonder if it’s the neighbors bamboo that has pushed its way into my yard.

Either way, it’s leaving.

We have filled 3 more yard waste bins. And cut a lot.

But it still doesn’t look like we’re making a dent.

However, this tells me we must be getting on top of this:

That’s 8 piles of cut up bamboo. We have to haul it to the road tomorrow night so it can be taken away. And then I can start new piles.

Saturday Mr. Diaz stopped over to talk about our planting circle.

This is loosely what I am thinking:

My original idea was a 20’x20′ square with raised beds. But now we want a circle, and it looks like it’ll be more pretty. So he measured it all out and is getting back to me with a price. I hope it’s not too much, because I’m pinning all my hopes on this style of gardening.

While he was here, the Hubs said Mr. Diaz was pointedly not looking at the bamboo or the pile we’d made. I was actually hoping for some machismo to take over and he would say he’d come back and finish the job.

No joy.

I guess it’s up to us.

We are going to press him to finish the part of the fence he couldn’t reach. If we can finish getting the rest of the bamboo out before the circle work begins.

Today my new friend asked me to save her a start. I guess I’ll try, but I really hate to inflict this pain on someone I like. I did a little research on how to get a bit to her, and I’m not sure I have what it would take. I think maybe I’ll dig out a root ball, put it in a pot and say, “Here, just make sure it doesn’t come back to my house!”

Yesterday we put some fence art in play:

I have a couple flowers and some lady bugs to put up there as well. Apparently, fence art is a pretty big thing here, so I’m embracing it.

We planted some peas a few weeks before the big chill. We expected them to expire, but today there are flowers!

I’m thinking I’m gonna get a handful of peas this year! Now we know we should plant them in late October and see how long we can get them to produce.

Finally, I’ll leave you with a too cute Havoc:

Correction

Last night the Hubs read the linen closet post.

He reminded me I didn’t explain all the upgrades we (he) did.

So I’m gonna share the rest.

I think I forgot to post a pic of the less-than-ideal footprint of this closet:

They did it like this to add space to the hallway, but it makes for a weird closet. Although if you look up the word closet in the dictionary, it probably says, “space to make homeowner think they can store stuff, but really just odd places within a home the builder didn’t know how else to use.”

Anyway

After the painting, and before the shelves, the Hubs wired up some joy in the linen closet for me. Originally we were going to use a string of Christmas lights, but he decided the rope lights would work better.

That’s a nice digger on the trim, huh? I can’t even imagine how that might have happened. If I were more conscientious, I would have sanded all the flaws out before painting the trim. On the other hand, it’s trim, it’s lucky it got painted at all!

It took a while to find lights that were warm and not daylight colored. Then the Hubs had to tap into an outlet on the outside of the closet to add an outlet to the inside. In order not to have a traditional switch, he found one of these:

When the door opens, it’s on, when closed it’s off. Nothing to do on my part, which is great if I have an armload of linens.

There was some back and forth about tearing up the walls and wire fishing, but in the end we decided to surface mount all of the wire so if we leave we can take it out and no one will ever know (except you) that there was once light in this closet!

It was a lot easier, and I didn’t have to do a lot of drywall fixes.

Win-win

As you can see, there’s still a lot of space I have not yet filled. I always like when that happens. But it never lasts.

Mayhem is pretty obsessed with this closet. He always has been because the door is rarely open (mostly because it blocks access to the office). This is next level interest. It’s like he can hear me getting ready to open it because he comes from noplace and scoots in. I should just leave the door cracked for a few hours so he can get it out of his system.

Today I saw an article about unclaimed funds. So I went to the website and searched for some. I did get a hit on a utility refund from when we lived in Richmond, that’s nice. I’m pretty good about cleaning up after myself, but you just never know when you’re gonna get a surprise.

I searched the Kraken and found a few things, then I searched some other names. I found some stuff from my stepmother, my sister, and some friends. I sent notes off to them hoping they won’t think it’s a scam so they can claim what technically belongs to them. Afterall, if you have stuff out there and don’t claim it, eventually the Fed will absorb it.

I hope you find treasure!