Category Archives: Work

Greeley Bike to Work Day 2010

Free Plants = Hard Work

A couple of weeks ago we were commenting about our neighbor’s yard and how it was such a shame for all of those plants to be so neglected. You see, she has a non-traditional yard with lots of plants and flowers instead of just grass, but unfortunately she has let the house go into foreclosure and no longer lives there.

The house in question with the ‘mow-it-down’ landscaper’s truck

Then Britton and I were working in the backyard and Britton let out a gasp as he walked through the gate to the front yard and saw someone MOWING down all the beautiful irises, poppies, mums, alliums, roses, lavender and so much more. So we dropped everything we were working on and ran over to the landscaper. “Please! Don’t mow these down, or if you are going to, just let us take some plants out first!”

So he said he would hold off on mowing the front side area while we collected the plants. We got as much as we could in one trip. He saw we were still trying to get more plants when he was ready to do that side, so he said he would just leave it for a while and come back in a few days. A few days later he still hadn’t returned which was good for us, but we noticed a sign on her house that said “City Violation: Noxious Weeds -Whole Yard”. We were just amazed. No wonder people think we are crazy having chickens if having roses and irises instead of grass constitutes “noxious weeds”.

Some of the plants we saved from being mowed down

So, anyway, this transplanting from one yard to the other became quite a project. We were thinking of doing something new with the front area anyhow. We mostly spend our time in the backyard with the chickens, greenhouse and vegetable and flower gardens, but we took the hint and decided this was the push we needed to start working on it. (How can you say no to free plants!?) Here you can see some of what it took, just to take out the old stuff! (Plus you know it’s summer when the ice cream truck drives by! 🙂 )

This is the before and after. We are still hoping to fill it in with more wild flowers and other plants so there is less dirt seen but we think it looks pretty good to start!

Front area before with one of the plants and Schnoodle

Front facing the other direction after a ton of work (with Schnoodle and Kitty too!)

What do you think of this post?

WOW (0)
Awesome (0)
Interesting (0)
Useful (0)
Bummer (0)
Whoa (0)

Fruit Cocktail Tree and Tree Removal

You Can’t Do Everything Yourself

Leave a reply

I’ve been running into some trouble here and there. Nothing major, just normal things that tend to break every now and again. I am of the mindset that I can do anything and I have proven this to myself thru the years. I can install sprinklers, I can finish basements (framing, plumbing, electrical), I can work on cars.

Lately I’ve come to realize that I just don’t have the time.

In order to fix something you have to have the tools, the knowledge and the time to do it. The clutch went out on my Honda before we left for vacation. I’ve never done a clutch before so I figured I’d give it a shot. Saturday morning (one of the only days I get off) I woke up early and got started. I was taking parts off and making pretty good progress. Then I came to a point where I couldn’t reach a bolt. It was a bolt that held the engine onto the transmission.

I tried several different approaches to get to it. I even took the whole other side of the engine bay out, the tire, the hub and the axle. Still just couldn’t get a good angle on it. There just wasn’t enough room. What I needed was an impact wrench. Well I decided that spending Saturday morning on my back under my car wrestling with a stupid bolt that I needed to spend at least $100 for the right tool to get it out with…just wasn’t worth it. I put it back together and drove it to the shop. Went to Puerto Rico and when I came back it was done. Well…that was easy.

We got a call from one of our renters and the toilet is leaking a bit around the base. ugh…WeIl I put the toilet on and because the tile had moved the toilet up about 1/2″ it has always been in the back of my mind. I put a new wax seal on and it appeared to be working fine.

Well here comes one of those decisions. Should I do it myself and save money? Again I would find myself spending Saturday morning struggling with bolts, trying to figure out how to cut cast iron and run a new collar to fit with the toilet. Since I wasn’t entirely sure how this would work out I called to get a quote. $300 to put all new piping under the floor and seal up the toilet to the floor. Hmmmm. Sounds like a deal to me.

I guess I pick and choose my battles depending on what the task is. I have a lot of work ahead of me this spring. I need to finish up the landscaping in the back yard at another place. I need to finish my framing job at another. I just have too much on my plate without adding to it. The landscaping I am 100% about the work that needs to be done. The framing is the same, I know exactly what I need to do. The plumbing at this older house I would spend a lot of time just researching and trying to find out what needs to be done. Let alone finding the 1 bolt I need a special tool for.

I would rather put in some extra time at my job doing something I am good at, then under a house frustrated. Plus we have to clean our house, go shopping, tend to our other small business, run misc errands all on my day off. Sometimes you just can’t do everything yourself.