Homecoming 2011

Here is Paige and her friend Sander, before going to Bellarmine Homecoming 2011.....

Soul Mates

As I was getting ready for my day, I was thinking....  Those of you that know me already realize that very seldom does my brain stop processing or analyzing things... something is always going on in the background of my brain- kind of like the antivirus on a computer... it is always there, always on, and always processing....  I like to think of it as one of my endearing characteristics, however, I am almost certain that those who are around me the most my think of it differently...

But anyway, so I was thinking and I thought to myself, "Oh my gosh!! Phillip and I both have "champagne" colored Honda Accords AND we both have blue terry cloth bathrobes!!!" (of course mine is a Victoria's Secret and I have several other robes hanging in the closet and he has only 1)  These similarities were there prior to us dating....  

This only means one thing.....  We are soul mates!!!! 

My Saturday Morning

I woke up early on Saturday... 5:30 to be exact.  Hmmm, not what I had planned but I decided to make the best of it.  So as I was putzing around, I took some shots of my quiet early morning as Phillip and Paige were still sleeping.  I love it.

Early morning view from our back deck.

 Got the pellet stove fired up to warm up the house.  Fall is here, don't ya know.

 Cool shot of the fire.

 Making Tzatziki for Phillip.  He does not like cucumbers.  However, he tried some tzatziki that I got from Costco and he loved it.  But, me being me, I don't want to feed my family processed foods, so I searched for a recipe.  Here is my first attempt.  Hope he likes it!

The morning sun is starting to rise and burn off the fog in the valley.  Another shot off the back deck.

One reason I love it here so much!

This is what I get to wake up to every moring.... our 3 pups... Coco, Pawncho, and Max.

Don't you just love them?? 



All this and coffee too...  Loving my quiet early mornings in the doublewide in the woods with my family home, safely sleeping. 

My Destructo Man

So, as most of you know, we had some trees felled on our property.  Now we are saving to purchase a tractor, you know, one of those ones that has a bucket and and hoe and you can add many things onto them... like a grader and a box to level things and even a mower.  Something like this tractor.  We plan to have one by the spring if everything goes as planned and if we can find the one we want for the price we want. 

But I digress. 

Mom and I were out trimming the trees and bushes in the front yard  a few weekends ago and I wanted the rhododendrons gone.  Don't get me wrong, I like the plants for about the 2 weeks they are in bloom, and then I think they are ugly.  Ours were gorgeous in bloom, but hideous the rest of the year.  So, they were getting the ax, so to speak. 

Phillip had informed me months ago that he would be willing to pull out the rhodies when I was ready.  I was a little sceptical as they were near the rock wall and I knew that the wall would go with the the bushes as he pulled them out. 

But I was ready. 

Our front yard was already landscaping armageddon, so why not?  Just one less thing we needed to do when we were ready to get to work with the tractor in the spring.  So I go inside and get my dear husband, and I inform him that I am ready for rhododendron removal.

He is excited. 

He is ready.

He hops in his 4wheel drive truck, with a tow strap hooked up and he is ready to rumble. 

Here is after several rhodies have been removed. 

(Please note the manly pose of my destructo man.  Also note the condition of the rock wall)

Dad is enjoying the manliness of the entire situation too...

(nice t-shirt by the way)

Well, if he can take down the rhodies, surely taking down the flowering cherry should be easy.. 

I am going to digress.  I love flowering cherry trees (and plums for that matter).  However, the condition of the cherry was borderline at best, even previous to the armageddon left behind when we had our trees felled.  However, at some point when they were taking the big guys down, they decided to take out part of the cherry and leave the rest to just look like modern yard art.  I was not too happy, but then again, we will never use those people or recommend those people after what they did and did not do.  So, the tree needed to come down sooner than later.  Which, in all fairness, it was scheduled for eventual removal, but on our time. 

Anyway, here is the strap tied to the tree and my sweetie ready to go. 

 And here it goes!!

He pulled it all the way around to the lower driveway so we can throw it in the ditch.  Which happens to be the same ditch that we unintentionally rolled one of the downed trees into when we were trying to rescue the motorcycle out of the carport. 

Well, if we can do that tree, can we do the other tree? 

Now I liked this tree and it was not damaged by the tree removal armageddon.  However, it had been poorly trimmed (aka topped) throughout its life (which everyone should know is bad, bad, bad for trees) and after mom and I trimmed it up the best we could, we decided we might as well have Phillip take it down too since it needed to be replaced with a healthier specimen. 

Here is the flowering plum. 

 There goes the flowering plum.  I do have to say that this was a tough old tree and did not go easily.  I think the reat truck tires may have even gotten some air during the attempt. 

 Ah, but patience is a virture that my dear husband has (which is a great thing especially because he has to put up with me) and he overcame that tree and the wall and it went down. 

(Note the path of destruction it left.)

My mom was able to save a hen and chick from the now destroyed wall.  She is awesome!

 

As a side note, no animals were harmed in the removal of the rhodies, cherry and plum trees, or the line of bushes on the front edge of the property along the road (which it started raining and I was not able to capture in photos).  Max stayed by my side during the removal stages and ran freely while we were throwing the yard waste in our ditch (which we are planning to have filled with soil so we can use that property). 

Much fun was had by all. 

Favorite Quote

My favorite quote of the morning, by my loving husband, in reference to an email we received yesterday that pretty much put me over the edge....

You can't fix stupid.

Ah, you are so correct my love.