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Another day, another layer of stone.
It’s back breaking work and though I kept offering to help… I got the look and strolled myself back inside the house.
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Every time I thought he was almost finished, I’d check back to find he’d removed what he previously laid and reworked the section.
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And when he knelt inside the border like that?
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It looked like one very expensive sandbox.
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I’m happy to report it was a dull and uneventful day of stone installation.
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Probably because I stayed in the house. Oh, I was out there bright and early ready to work, but my help was neither needed nor desired.. so I left him to it.
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The border looks great, though it really is a lot smaller than I wanted.
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The perennial bed I had envisioned will have to be dramatically downsized.
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But something is better than nothing and he certainly is doing a good job.
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Because we are in desperate need at Casa River.
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Our once beautiful lush green lawn is now brown and crunchy.
Time after time we see thunderstorms roll on by with only a few drops falling on our property.
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So few the baby woodchucks were trying to lap them up off the deck boards last night.
Half our state is experiencing drought conditions and I’m filling our bird bath three times a day. If things don’t change I might have to start providing the ground dwellers with a pool as well.
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How dry and crunchy is our lawn? Even the septic system access is brown and dry.
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If it weren’t for the weeds there would be no green at all.
😫
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We feed birds.
We feed grosbeaks and orioles. Finches and chickadees. Nuthatches and woodpeckers. Cardinals and mourning doves.
We feed a wide variety of birds.
This however, was a first.
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One lone seagull.
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Who dropped in to nosh on the deer grain.
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Proof positive you never know who’ll show up at Casa River.
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Like a Roman emperor, our fox has gotten so comfortable here he prefers to take his meals lying down.
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Why stand and burn all those pesky calories.
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If the humans are going to lay out a nightly buffet, I guess he figures he might as well enjoy it in comfort.
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🤣
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Our woodchucks are nothing if not chill.
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After a nice nosh on carrot slices?
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Babies be sleepy.
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And apparently warm sunny rocks are just as good as a hammock.
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The woodchucks are still hiding in their tunnel…
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And it’s proving to be quite an effective escape hatch.
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Lord Dudley Mountcatten is undeterred.
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And extremely hopeful.
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Patience, thy name is cat.
🤣
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It’s daylily time.
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When we bought this house there were no gardens to speak of and very little in the way of plantings but there were two bunches of oranges daylilies .
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I can’t honestly say that’s where I would have planted them, but they thrive so who am I to complain?
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Orange seems to be the hardiest and most prolific color in my part of the world.
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And honestly they’re the easiest no fuss, no care flower there is.
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I’ve planted a few others over the years….
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But it really is a shame they’re true to their name. Each bloom only lasts a day.
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Work is slowly progressing on my soon to be fabulous backyard perennial garden border.
Whether my marriage will survive it is another matter entirely.
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I’m not sure why my husband has chosen to take every single little thing I say about this endeavor as a slight, an insult or God forbid…. a question of his manly ability, but he has.
I go out and try to help, but somehow everything I do just ends up pissing him off. He’s sucking the joy out of the process with his attitude and moodiness, but I will not let him ruin it.
I will not.
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If you remember, I advised we buy at least two pallets of stone back at the start. I knew we would need at least two full pallets, but no. My husband knew better and we bought one.
So when he reached the end of pallet number one and wasn’t anywhere near finished?
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He was less than pleased to admit we needed the second pallet I had wanted since the beginning and grumbled that I was gloating.
Me?
No. That would never happen.
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Because when your local nursery has a buy one get one free geranium sale…
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You bogo the hell out of that and fill your car.
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And your kitchen counter.
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And drop geraniums everywhere there isn’t one.
Empty corner?
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Not anymore.
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