Yardwork, Part 2!

Well, we finally got the weeds cleared away in the back corner (yay!) and hired someone to come in a rototill the corner.  I was going to, but it sounded really dangerous and I'm not really great with big, heavy tools- or any tools.  So here is what it ended up looking like:

Hey, that looks great!  Only one downside to this...a renegade rock somehow ended up smashing into our sliding glass door.  It made me really grateful that our door is double paned and for safety glass!  Here's what it looked like:

Awesome.  It's in the process of being fixed :)

Yardwork!

Last year about this time, we did some major yardwork to take out all the random trees/bushes/climbing plants/random plants and got tons and tons of stuff taken out.  And then life got busy and we put the yard fell lower and lower on the list of things that we needed to do.  I got some seeds in the mail about a week ago and decided it would be the perfect time to clear away the back corner of the yard for the vegetable garden we have been dreaming of since we moved in.  This turned out to be easier said than done!

Here is what our back corner looked like when I started:

The tall weeds with the yellow flowers were about as tall as I am.  After digging all day, this is what it looked like:

Looks better...but it was a much bigger project than I anticipated!

Here are the (free!) seeds that came in the mail that inspired this crazy project:

Tax Season!

We're getting our taxes done in two weeks....we are really hoping for a refund big enough to cover stucco and windows!  That's really one of the last things our house needs, I know Michael would love a new kitchen, but I really love cooking in a 1950's style kitchen. 

Merry Christmas!

Our very first Christmas in the new house was a huge success!  We had my family over for a good Italian dinner - chicken parm!  The dogs loved having Grandma and Grandpa over, as usual!

Myself, Toby and my mother.

Our living room was just the right size to have everyone over comfortably!  We also set up the Wii for my brother and his girlfriend in the family room, sadly no one played the board games I set out- maybe next year!



Michael and I

We really loved being able to host Christmas Eve, when we lived in Temecula it was much to far away from family!  We just wish Michael's family could have been with us to celebrate!

This cracked me up, Toby sniffed out his present!  Of course Santa brought him tennis balls, what else would a terrier want?


Happy Halloween!

This was our first big holiday in our home, and it was a great success!  Halloween is one of my favorite holidays, who doesn't love candy and kids in insanely cute costumes?  The fact that it's my birthday is just an added plus!
 When we were in Temecula, I think the most trick or treaters we ever got was two in one evening.  And in hindsight, it may have just been the same kid circling our neighborhood more than once!  We were hoping that Halloween was going to be more festive in our new neighborhood- and it exceeded our expectations!

Mickey Mouse

Every year we try to carve a few cute pumpkins, this year we didn't have a lot of time so I quickly carved out a Mickey Mouse.  Not nearly as cute as my Puss 'n Boots from last year, but he was recognizable!  We had a lot of kids in Disney outfits, so I think it was a good choice

Ready for the kids!

I really didn't know how much candy to buy, I ended up getting two huge bags.  I was really thankful later for all that candy, because we went through almost all of it! 

This isn't the greatest picture of our stoop, it looked really cute in person.  Our neighborhood was pretty decked out for Halloween, one of our neighbors across the street even made some really cute signs pointing trick or treaters to his front door.  A house near ours advertised that they were not handing out candy, which I think is really just asking kids to egg your house.

Thank goodness for baby gates!

For the most part, our dogs did a great job on Halloween.  Toby was exhausted from wagging his tail at all the kids in costume!

No.

We did get a surprise trick or treater who taught us not to leave the door open!

Really. No!

Is it wrong that I was surprised that a cat wandered into our house?

We had a wonderful first Halloween in this house, and are looking forward to many, many more! 

Stumped

Our yard has been such a project, and we are getting so much closer to having a wonderful clean slate!  After Michael took a chainsaw to our out of control trees in the backyard, he had someone come over to grind down some of the larger stumps.  I can't even explain how giant our yard is with all the random trees out!  I really think we could fit a pool over by the garage.

A few before shots:

It was so wonderful to tear this down!

This is right before we moved in, the structure being torn down is a Japanese Tea Room.  Doesn't everyone have one of those in their yard?  All that's left of this is the cement slab.

This picture was taken after we had chopped away lots and lots (and lots) of plants and hauled them away.

And this is how the yard looks now:

No more ugly palm!



I really think there is room for a pool!



Can you even tell there used to be giant stump here?

Really, this pictures don't do the yard justice- it looks so much better without all the random plants cluttering it up!  And I'm realizing just how huge the yard is, what are we going to do with all this space?

Back to Work!

We used Labor Day weekend to get some great work done in the backyard.  Did you know you can rent some pretty dangerous tools at the Home Depot?  Michael rented a wonderful chainsaw to help us clear away some of the larger plants.

Michael was a pro at using the chainsaw and clearing away all the overgrown trees and bushes in the backyard.

Michael was able to quickly turn all those plants into small stumps!  Notice that there are no pictures of me with the chainsaw, I think we all know it would not end well if I tried to use it.

Back when we first moved in, we couldn't get the cable turned on because of the giant tree and random plants in front of the telephone pole- they are now all gone!

The three overgrown ficus trees are also gone!  Sadly, the orange tree also had to go.  After so many years of neglect it just wasn't growing.

The previous owners of this house really like to decorate the yard with large rocks, bricks and other heavy objects.  This is just one pile.

Toby and Charlie are wondering why humans would put so many rocks in a perfectly good yard.

We always seem to find interesting things in the yard- this is by far my favorite!  I just hope it wasn't a gravestone marker for the family's former pet duck!

The yard is looking so great!  Once we jackhammer up the cement, we can start with a clean slate!