Friday, August 29th, 2008
I don’t know if you are aware of this, but I have been busting my butt to get the front sidewalk area of the house landscaped. It wasn’t all that difficult because things were in pretty good shape. I really like mulch areas, so I decided to add a few. Keeps the weeds down, if you know what I mean. Also, it just looks damn good.
After a few trips to the local hardware store for some mulch and a lot of weeding and digging, I can finally show you some photos of my hard work. I think you will be impressed with my perfection.
Here you go.
Mulch area in front of the house
Front of the house from a distance
New Blue Princess Holly bush
After all that weeding and trimming, I had a few open areas. I decided to get two Blue Princess Holly bushes to fill the void. I also decided to get some more landscape lighting. Oh, you just wait for the next post for that one.
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Saturday, August 16th, 2008
Whenever it starts to even think about thundering outside, our beloved dog, Holly, starts pacing around frantically. She pants and walks, pants and walks. She really doesn’t know where she is going, but she know she wants to get there fast. Poor dog.
Laura seems to think this whole issue is caused from an event a long time ago. She brought the dog to a kennel for a short retreat. The kennel person thought it would be nice to give the dog a bath and then put her outside…during a thunderstorm. Well, that’s one theory. My theory is that Holly is just scared of the thunder and that’s that.
One thing we can always count on about half way through the storm is that light “tat tat” of Holly pulling herself into the bathtub to hide. It’s actually a relief when we hear that because it means that Holly will be away for a while and not under our feet. She eventually falls asleep and lets herself out after a while, when the thunderstorm is over.
We asked the vet if she had any advice on what to do about this. She said to give the dog two benadryl when we first hear thunder. That will bring her “to another place.” We did that a few times and it seemed to calm her down, but it’s kind of easy to forget to do.
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Wednesday, July 23rd, 2008
It has been pretty dry here lately. It just rained this morning, which is good, but up until that, we haven’t had any substantial rainfall in quite some time. I have been watching many plants wilt because of the dryness. The neighbors are getting used to the guy with no shirt standing out front with a hose in his hand.
I have had a few goals. One of them was to finish the rhododendron line across the front of the property. I have been looking at Home Depot for rhododendrons, but none can be found…anywhere. I guess they are a Spring time seller. I actually had to dig up and few that were already planted on the property and the ones I planted earlier in the season to finish the row. It’s done now, so that’s good.
I also wanted to plant some sort of a perimeter around the patio area near the basement doors. I decided to go with the Blue Prince Holly that I have been buying (it’s the only thing left), along with some that I planted earlier on. Earlier in the season, I had no plan and I was just sticking these things in the dirt. Now, at least I have a plan.
I did make a nice discovery yesterday. For a few months, I have been dismayed at the price of mulch around here. I used to pay $20 per yard at the other house. Here, these crooks are charging about $50 per yard. I need to get some of what they are smoking. It’s funny because when I call somewhere for a price, I always sense a little hesitancy in their voices as they tell me how much they charge. They know what they are doing.
I called the local hardware store and found out they sold mulch by the bag. They had 3lb bags of pine mulch for $4.49 per bag. I didn’t think that was too bad, since I just paid almost $5 per bag at Home Depot for that dyed junk. I stopped by the store and picked up 10 bags. That’s 30 cubic feet (a little over a yard) for about $45. I beat the system, you see. Now, I can go back and get 10 bags at a time only when I need them.
The mulch is very important, not only to me and my mulch addiction, but for the plants as well. The whole reason for the plants wilting is because the ground wasn’t holding in any of the moisture. I kept watering them, but the sunshine was just too strong. Now, since I mulched and gave each plant a nice soaking, I think the plants will grow nicely.
Blue Prince Holly planted for a hedge line.
The holly bushes really don’t need any mulch because the grass is nice and moist in the back yard.
Speaking of grass, I don’t know how I did it, but the back and side lawns are like a nice thick green carpet. I now mow the lawn on the highest level the mower will go and I think it made a difference. I also overseeded with the Vigoro Contractor’s Mix, so there is some good warm weather seed in there. The reason I mow with the higher setting now is because the grass I planted holds most of the water it absorbs in its leaves. If you mow too low, you are actually cutting off all that water. Also, a short mow exposes the dirt so it gets baked and weeds start to grow. Mowing at a higher level will give you a greener lawn.
Here, check it out…
Hand in grass showing height of mowing.
See, I’m not making this stuff up. Now, if I could just get rid of the brown crispy grass in the front and replace it with this stuff, I will be in good shape. The seed is down, so a bit more rainfall should do it.
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Thursday, May 29th, 2008
We made a visit to Home Depot yesterday (we are going to be buying from Lowe’s from now on). I wanted to go shopping for shrubs. Maybe I can just cut this, and the following posts short. You can just read all the other ones about shrubs I have written through the years.
I had a bunch of stuff on my list, but mainly items from the garden area. Here is what I got:
- 1 Blue Hydrangea
- 4 Holly bushes
- 2 Rhododendron
- 1 25 lb. bag of grass seed
- 2 Tomato plants
and some other stuff. Maybe I’ll write about that later.
Laura picked out the Hydrangea and made sure it was blue. There are a few others around here, so it should fit right in.
There are a lot of areas I need shrubs. I really like shrubs at the ends of driveways. I don’t know why, but I do. Therefore, I needed shrubs to put at the end of this semi-naked driveway. I put the Holly and Rhododendron there. There is room for a lot more though.
I also did some seeding yesterday. I went through the whole bag in about two minutes. The spreader settings needs to be high, so it really shoots out fast. I raked the seed in some bare spots in the lawn, and just spread it out on the areas up near the road. If the birds eat it, I’ll just get more.
What’s really exciting is our new tomato plants. These are hybrid something-er-others. They are supposed to produce nice big tomatoes. I like tomato sandwiches, so I am hoping they come out nicely.
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Tuesday, May 13th, 2008
When we got home this afternoon, we found fat Simon laying out on the stairs, soaking up the sun. The weird thing is that he didn’t move when we tried to get up and down. He only moved when Holly ran by. I think he got a little nervous, because we all know Holly will step on your face if given the chance.
I ran to get my camera, but by the time I got back to Simon, he was already sitting up. Oh well, at least I got this pleasurable pose…
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Thursday, April 10th, 2008
Today, Laura and I had to bring Holly the dog to the vet. She had to have her teeth cleaned and some minor surgery. The vet had to put Holly under (not down, as Rob mistakenly thought today), so we had to burn about six hours of the day. Since we live an hour away from the vet, we decided to head up to Millbrook, NY for a visit. It got to be about 68 degrees and sunny today, so it was the perfect day for a little road trip.
Millbrook is a nice little town in Dutchess County. It has some farms and a nice little main street. I’m sure many people would like it if you brought them there. Believe it or not, I actually know someone who grew up in Millbrook. It must’ve been fun.
Anyway, The first thing we did was to cruise down Main Street. We parked the car and walked down to a little park at the end of the road. Paul would know the name of it. I’m sure he’ll write a comment for me.
I gotta say, it is a very nice park indeed. We walked up the zigzag sidewalk and then back down. Of course, I had to stop to take a few pictures.
There was a nice bridge over a small pond. The pond waterfall wasn’t running though. I am going to write someone a letter about that.
I call this the “chair of thought.” I sat in the chair of thought for about 30 seconds…just long enough for Laura to take this photo of me. I wanted everyone to know exactly how smart I can really look.
After we were done with the park, we walked up and down the main street again to check out all the little shops. I think the town is quite content with itself. Everyone looked very satisfied. That’s a good feeling if you live in a little town. We found a good restaurant to eat in, but they weren’t ready to serve until noon, so we decided to go to the Trevor Zoo at the Millbrook School. This has been on our agenda for some time and we figured it would be a great thing to do before eating lunch.
On the way to the zoo, I pulled over to look at a horse. Then, I thought to myself that a picture of the nearby farm would be a good thing to show my loyal readers. That would be the picture above.
As we drove down the road, I realized that we were coming upon the Millbrook School itself. I had no idea that it was a fancy private school. I was picturing those plastic slides like they have in the backs of some nursery schools. Um, not so much. After we parked the car, we took a stroll up the road because I saw some purple flowers I wanted to take a picture of.
Now, I didn’t know what to expect with this zoo. I even went as far as telling Laura that I didn’t want to go because I feared it would be just some pig in someone’s backyard. She expressed to me how important it was for us to go, so I agreed. This is the second time that I was wrong about someplace and she was right. The first time was Block Island. Boy was I wrong about that one. You know, it really hurts a guy’s ego to be wrong twice in a relationship. Good thing it was only twice.
As we walked up, we saw a nice waterfall and a bridge. It was the entrance to Trevor Zoo. Oh, how neat. It looked much bigger than I thought it would. After we went in, we saw how many animals they had.
They had birds and turkeys…
…and they even had this big bird that wouldn’t put its wings down. I guess he was getting some sun. We also saw rabbits and lemurs, a deer and a bunch of other stuff. There weren’t many people there, so it was really pleasurable. That, mixed with the nice weather was really making this a day after all.
This is just a great last shot I took of the Millbrook School from the Trevor Zoo. Obviously, I am on the other side of the pond.
After we left the zoo, we headed back into town for that lunch I was telling you about. We ate a nice meal and headed out to our next destination…the Millbrook Vineyards & Winery. At this point, it was about 1:30PM, so we were spreading things out nicely.
We rolled up to the winery with some wine tasting in mind. Good thing in was a Thursday in April, because there were only a few people there.
We paid $14 for the both of us to taste seven wines. We also got to keep the wine glasses we drank out of. To follow our tradition, we bought a bottle of wine before we left. I guess that’s what people do. I think we got a Cabernet. I am not such a huge fan of that type of wine, but Laura seemed interested, so again, I agreed. I know, I know…yes, I am a catch.
I thought I would throw those last three shots in there. I had to do something while we were waiting for the tasting guy. Besides, I was trying to show off my “angles” to my lady.
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Monday, January 14th, 2008
Yesterday, we heard that it was going to snow overnight. I think we were supposed to get a few inches while NYC and Boston were supposed to get hit pretty hard with up to a foot of snow.
Laura and I were watching TV when I asked her if it was snowing. I think it was around midnight when she told me it was. I got up and stood outside on the front steps. I think the nicest thing about the snow, especially late at night, is the silence. I love to hear the flakes hit the ground. The neighbors had their driveway light on, so I could see how much was falling.
I walked inside and, half kidding, asked Laura if she wanted to go for a walk. She didn’t say no all too quickly. I think she gave me a weak excuse. I was sort of kidding anyway. While I was sitting on the couch taking my shoes off, she came out and said, “I’ll go with you.” Oh, how neat.
As we were walking down the road, I asked her when the last time we took a nice night time walk in the snow was. We couldn’t remember. I mean, I remember doing this stuff when I was a kid, but those days are long gone. Now, everything is work and thinking about work. It was very nice to be outside while there were no cars on the road and everyone else was asleep. It’s such a different world.
This late night walk came right on the heels of a great daytime walk we took yesterday. That one went for a few miles. On the way back, when we were almost home, I thought to myself how I didn’t want the walk to end. That’s the sign of a good time.
These walks are very therapeutic for me. If you haven’t noticed, I get kind of stuffed up during the Winter and a bit frustrated at things. I think I am going to make an effort from now on to walk more. In addition, Holly likes long walks. After all, she is a snow dog.
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Sunday, December 2nd, 2007
As I said in the title of this post, hey, it snowed today. This is the most snow we have had all season. I would say it was about an inch.
I was laying in bed this morning, going through (in my mind) what had to be done today. Hmmm…let’s see. Get up, pour a cup of coffee and sit on the couch near the pellet stove. Sounds good to me. I heard Laura put Holly the dog outside. She came back in and told me that Holly was out in the snow. I took a look out the window and sure enough, the snow was falling. I like the early snow. The late snow gets ugly and annoying, but the early snow is nice. I grabbed the camera and took some photos. They really are for your viewing enjoyment. Here, have a gander…
This is the backyard from the bedroom window. Notice the beautiful screened in porch and the not so beautiful redneck meat smoking shed down the hill.
This is Holly the snow dog. Notice how she blends like in like a chameleon. Actually, she is a Norwegian Elkhound. She is very pretty, but she has bad breath, so don’t try to give her a kiss.
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Monday, September 11th, 2006
I have been doing some research on this deer stuff. Apparently, there are some plants and shrubs that deer don’t like to eat. I have heard that they will eat just about anything on especially cold winters when not much is available, but for the rest of the year, they will avoid these plants.
I found a good study on the Rutgers website entitled “Landscape Plants Rated by Deer Resistance.” I think the key word here is “Resistance” and not “Proof.”
I took a look at the list and went to the nursery this afternoon. I bought a “China Girl Holly.” It’s not on the list, but tons of other Hollys are that are rarely damaged, so I took a chance. I also picked up some Hybrid Lilacs. These are middle of the road, but I just can’t resist Lilacs.
So how did my deer repellent spray work? As far as I can tell, great. I didn’t see any deer this morning and none of the plants were eaten. I am going to reapply in a week, then once a month. Also, I picked up some “Deer Scram” this afternoon to double up the protection.
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Saturday, September 9th, 2006
This year, Bear Mountain’s “Dogswalk Against Cancer” was held on May 7. We go every year with Laur’a parents and the dogs that we have. Last year, we went with Mickey and Holly and the year before we brought along Bessy (aka Low Rider). We lost Mickey last year due to some sort of a skin cancer.
This year’s walk was good. It was a very nice day and there was a great turnout. Besides being a good benefit, we use it to see each other at a different venue than the backyard or at Pam’s house. It’s a great reason to get out and walk around a lake in a beautiful setting. We also had a special new guest this year…Jackson! (Laura’s father Allen’s new dog)
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