Tag Archives: backyard

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In which His Lordship finally walks on the driveway.

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Though we have not yet driven on our beautiful new driveway, we are walking on it.

Or rather, we humans are walking on it. Lord Dudley Mountcatten remains skeptical.

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Taking him out for a walk has meant strolling around the house on the grass and then watching him plant himself on the kitchen landing.

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Where he sits and stares.

Until yesterday…

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When he finally decided to investigate.

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Momma chuck was watching from the barn porch…

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As his Royal highness took to the tar.

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Not yet a fan of the new black expanse, His Lordship returned to the backyard and his favorite woodchuck burrow.

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This is a tunnel that runs under our bedroom bay window and I wish I was quicker with the camera because a baby chuck stuck his head out, spotted Dudley and let out a true whistle pig screech.

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As far as kitty entertainment goes, squealing woodchuck beats new driveway any old day.

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Random nonsense.

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Because nonsense is everywhere I look.

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I have no desire to cuddle fake bread, but if that was real? Pass the butter baby!

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Fox and chucks are still munching happily together. Guess this is what happens when you lay out an ample backyard buffet.

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I’ve been getting hundreds of junk emails lately. Somehow, someone got my address and has been flooding me with spam. ‘Stuck poop’ is an interesting enough subject line but the fact that the word ‘solder’ is in the sender’s address?

Priceless.

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This is what’s left of the pretty yellow deer proof flower I planted out back. The deer may not like it, but clearly the woodchucks did .

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Ditto that for coneflower leaves.

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I had to dig up the phlox, lupine and mallow due to voracious woodchuck appetites….

So now they’re all crowding my deck table in pots.

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The neighbor I was cat sitting for returned from vacation and brought me a thank you gift from the Wisconsin Dells.

A bag of local beer! She knows I like sours and brought me a variety to try. Some of them are wonderfully bizarre. The lime green can? A pastry sour with peach, basil, graham cracker and vanilla.

Cheers!

🍺

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Busted!

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A few weeks ago I bought a lovely dragon wing begonia for the Barn Mahal/man cave porch.

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Thankfully the woodchucks don’t care for begonias and have left it unscathed.

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Until yesterday when I sat down to read and noticed the evidence.

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Muddy footprints.

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All over the table.

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They don’t like begonias and didn’t nibble, but clearly it wasn’t for lack of trying….

🥴

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Peonies be popping.

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If there’s anyone who puts on a better show in a garden than a peony, I haven’t yet met them.

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For a pure burst of color they’re hard to beat.

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I have a few small plants in the front of the house, but it’s this old backyard beauty that was here when we moved in 20 years ago that makes the biggest statement.

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Peonies can be fussy and hard to establish.

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But if you manage it, they’re carefree beauty that will be enjoyed for decades.

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Getting on board.

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Now that the driveway renewal project is complete it’s time to turn our attention to other areas of Casa River that need help…. starting with our back deck.

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Granted it doesn’t look bad from far away.

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And the husband did replace the old wooden railings with these snazzy new metal ones 3 years ago…

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But on closer inspection you can see it’s time for a change.

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This viewing hole was not planned… just the result of dry rotted wood.

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And seeing that it was a direct result of staining this old deck that blew my knee out in 2020? I’m done with old wood.

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If you look closely you can tell this deck is actually composed of two different sized boards. On the left, the original wide planking. On the right, the already weathered, thinner cedar deck boards my husband hauled home from a yard sale because – wait for it – they were free.

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The size difference has driven me crazy for years, but since we’re if it ain’t broke don’t fix it New Englanders … it’s only now that our feet are in danger of breaking through that the whole deck will be replaced.

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With oh crap this stuff is expensive TimberTech composite boards. At $96 per I’m not looking forward to the bill, but if I don’t want to break the leg of my already damaged knee… it has to be done.

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