And because no project ever goes smoothly at Casa River…. when they reached the end, something went wrong and piles of rocks had to be removed and replaced.
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And right after I filmed that utterly riveting video (that WordPress decided to cut and only load half, for which you should be grateful)? They disturbed a mouse nest and were attacked by one royally pissed off mother rodent. But finally… late that afternoon, it was declared finished.
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Okay, so it looks a little pregnant in the middle due to a slight bump out.
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But at that point I don’t think their aching backs cared.
Before:
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And though I do miss the curved corner, after:
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Before:
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After:
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Before:
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After:
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To be honest, he dug this one down too far as well… and I still wish it was taller on the high end of the grass. I’m not complaining just to complain…. but I’m the one who has to pull all the grass and weeds that blow in there from the mower because it’s too low.
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But it looks a lot better than it did…. and in 10-15 years when Maine’s notorious frost heaving and shifting earth crumbles this one? We’ll probably hire someone to rebuild it again because we’ll be too old and decrepit. Maybe then I can have a high wall.
Some years, if we’re not traveling… we spend Christmas Day with friends. They tend to have less emotional baggage than family, and are generally a lot more fun. Of course last year, Covid ruined everything about the holidays and we neither traveled nor made merry with friends. Boo to global pandemics! They’re such a buzz kill.
Our friends, being fun loving (as well as gift greedy) have decided to celebrate 2020’s lost holiday in July. (It will be a barbecue/pool party at our friend’s newly purchased house/horse farm/how the Hell is a 50 something single woman going to take care of this huge spread by herself.)
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We’ve been invited and encouraged to get into the Christmas in July spirit…. so naturally I will be wearing this:
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Because nothing says Ho! Ho! Ho! like Santa in a mankini.
I will also be bringing this:
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A Covid themed piñata, so we can all take our frustrations over the past year out on something other than our spouses.
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Yes. To all of that. And I won’t be filling it with candy, no. In honor of the shit show that was 2020 I will fill it with these:
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What are those you ask? Only the perfect gift to give your friends in case certain items become hard to find again.
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Portable toilet paper! Am I a genius or what?
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And to further get into the Christmas spirit? I’ve purchased this 2020 totally went down the drain themed tree.
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I did not however purchase the accompanying ornaments.
And while they only used to show up at dusk, they’re arriving earlier in the day now.
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Which can make for awkward encounters.
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Skunks don’t have good eyesight, and we’re finding out their hearing isn’t quite top shelf either. That being said, it’s very easy to sneak up on one….. and startling a skunk? I don’t recommend it.
This is one of our stone walls. It’s the smallest and has been falling in on itself for years.
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Mainly because when my husband built it 19 years ago, he didn’t listen to me and dug it level to the higher edge of lawn.
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You can’t tell but there’s over a two foot difference in height there.
Anyway… on July 2nd, the start of the holiday weekend, I came home from the grocery store and found this.
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Because the husband decided July 4th was the perfect time to redo the corner of the wall where stones were starting to slip into the ditch. He enlisted a friend, dug a trench and figured this jerry rigged engineering marvel would work.
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A slab of untreated wood, a line of black stakes and yes, God help me… roofing shingles to hold back the dirt. Not what I would call aesthetically pleasing.
There was a discussion. Followed by a heated debate. Which turned into the beginning of an argument. I offered multiple solutions and they did not go over well. Naturally the husband wanted to do as little lifting as possible because, you know… rocks = heavy. But if you’re going to rebuild a wall? You can’t just do one section, and after some (not so) gentle persuading, he finally saw it my way. Since the slipping stones were his main concern I conceded defeat on that point and we eliminated the corner.
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Filling it in with dirt which we will then seed or sod.
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And then the real work began.
If you’ve never built a rock wall? (And I mean a real New England cement free rock wall, with rocks of all different shapes and sizes and weights… not the nice flat ones you buy at a landscapers) Trust me, it’s work!
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Which is undoubtedly why my husband only wanted to do a corner.
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Silly man, he really should have known better.
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Day one? It went something like this:
Move rocks, install barrier, argue with wife, remove barrier, curse wife under your breath, fill hole with dirt, move rocks, curse wife again, start rebuilding entire wall when all you wanted to do was one corner, move rocks, curse wife under breath one more time because you can and she’s too far away to hear you.
When your human puts an air conditioner in your favorite bird watching window….
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You have to jump up there and perch to make your displeasure known.
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You howl, you mewl, you bat at the offending object… but when your pesky human doesn’t remove the noisy vibrating box?
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You give up and settle in to watch the birds.
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And while up wasn’t a problem, down proves to be a bit more troublesome. Your human is no help whatsoever, laughing at your maneuvers for at least 5 minutes before she thought to film you….
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And for this infraction…. I’m sure there will be appropriate and commensurate revenge.
River's world..... 