Tuesday, April 8, 2014

A Few Shots of the New House

No, not inside yet, sorry!  

Here are some scenes from outside, so you know I have my work cut out for me. 


Here I am looking at the front door.  Can you see the damaged hedge???
The ones on the right have been dying for a while, and it has spread to the first one on the left. 


A better view. 

I think these are coming out.  I am not even sure how to do it, to make sure we get all the roots. 
Hostas are going in in their stead, as a memorial to Brandon and Joel, Keith's sons, and 
to my brother and sister. 

I'm going to get some advice at the nursery. 

I do subscribe to the advice that you are best to wait a year before doing 
anything in your new "garden"... but gosh... these hedges that must be manicured 
don't do it for me. 


This damage is in the front yard, just in front of the porch.  I am not sure if it was from the two big dogs that lived here (one was a mastiff, one a weim) who ran free. 

It almost looks as if water lines were dug up at one time. 

I'll be filling in these slight holes and re-seeding. 


This is the west side of the house... there is a drainage hose snaking through there that is 
not connected to anything... I think it blew in, and I'm going to take it out.  Where the yellow flag is laying there is a gas line.  

So you see, I don't have much space to work with here.  
I like the grass... and we'll see how the mounded over grass looks this year... but the barberry bushes are out of control.  Their trunks are pretty big, so I am going to take a better picture, and take it to the nursery and see what they say.  I envision phlox and other flowers growing in here. 


And look what I found away down on the very end, at the corner of the house!  Tulips, that someone planted long ago.  I was so glad to see them! 

I'll take some pictures of the back of the house, where I am VERY limited because of the septic tank and it's mound.  


Here, however, I'm looking out at the front yard.... there are four small trees in it, and I am dying to see what they are.  They are just budding out. 


And here I've turned back towards the front of the house again... and you can see that we have a problem area where the side retaining wall meets the fence.  Yesterday, a Big Black Dog appeared in our fenced portion of the yard suddenly.  He is very elderly... and we think he must have jumped down from the wall onto an additional retaining wall you can JUST see on the left, where the fence starts, and down into the yard.  We are not sure that Lilly can jump UP... but we are going to put a section of picket there so that no dogs can get in, in the future... and no little grandchildren can fall over the wall, which is quite deep at it's highest, by the house.  

I wanted to apologize today for something I said the other day, and I think Sandy from Oklahoma Transient called me out on it... 
I mentioned that I had always considered my animals as "pets" and not "livestock" and that I always treated them as such and really took care of them.  Well... a good farmer...even a good "hobby" farmer... takes care of his livestock the right way, if he wants them to be productive for him.  I didn't mean to demean anyone, and I think I was just trying to say that to me, they were never a means to make money or produce meat., etc., but were my hobby.  A hobby that I broke my neck over keeping well over a series of very hard winters!   I know all of you have gone through the same thing, and are still going through it... as I saw Michaele's picture of snow in Nebraska again this week!  

Kudos to all of you! 

I'm working up to pictures of the house, don't worry... and I'll throw in some pictures of the inside of the OLD house as well. 


Here's the sturdy, beautiful deck Keith built at the old house... and where I had so many planters last year. 
He mentioned in passing one day that I needed to "get rid of " the planters.  HAHAHAHAHA.  
Hysterical laughter here.  The green one is going somewhere in the front of this house... and I'm finding homes here for the others, I'll show you my plan tomorrow.  

Now I'm going to go read a few blogs!  Tonight Keith will lock up the birds for me, and I'm going to go watch Grandson Jax in his play at school!  


19 comments:

  1. Wish I lived closer. I would take any planters off your hands. I have a huge collection too that I grow some of my veggies in that I can't fit into my big garden. LOL

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  2. Looks like a nice house!! I'm sure you will be very happy

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  3. Looks nice, and with potential for a lot more!

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  4. Nice house.

    I have been dreaming of that and a lot less work but I am only one of the caretakers here. The farm will pass down through the family.

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  5. that green planter would look great right under the light to the left of the garage! you have such potential for the front! i would rip out all of those shrubs and lose the restrictions that are now in place. i would create a wonderful flowing flower garden out there with lots of colors. you really have a blank slate to work with which is so much fun! i can't wait to see more!

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  6. YOur new home is beautiful! It just needs some hedge love, you should have seen the mess we moved into....time and care, it looks pretty good now. Congratulations!!!

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  7. I think your new house is very nice!! Over time, you will make it your own, I'm sure, and it will be fun to see what you do with the landscaping! I'm sure it will be exciting to see what kind of trees you have in your front yard, and what color those tulips are!

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  8. What a great house and the yard, wow so much potential. Our city (in town) yard is a tiny postage stamp, one reason we wanted space in the country. Dang, if we had a yard like that, we might not have bought in the country, ha. So much room to do awesome stuff. Congrats!!

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  9. Your new home is just beautiful Mary Ann. Such a huge yard,, and so many possibilities for you to have fun with it!
    Change what ever you want-- and spend sometime "dreaming " of ways to make it "you".
    We love all those pots,,,and you will find just the right place for all of them!
    You fence looks so nice!
    love
    tweedles

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  10. The house looks great and now it is yours to
    do with as you want.
    When you pull out those shrubs, make sure you
    turn the soil real good and put in some really good
    dirt or soil for the new plants. I'm sure you know this
    but I wanted to make the suggestion..

    M : )

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  11. You have lots of gardening ahead of you. I'm with you on the manicured hedges. I hate those things. I like all your ideas.

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  12. I agree, your house is lovely and with the nice big yard you have you do have room for lots of possibilities. It'll be fun to put in your own personal touches . When we moved where I live now, there was nothing and hardly any grass at all. Now all the beds are full and it's wonderful watching something different blooming April through November anyway...in the winter everything is frozen. How nice to go watch your grandson, That is always a treat !

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  13. A blank palette for you to create a wonderful design on!

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  14. You will make it even more beautiful in no time!!!
    stella rose

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  15. I suspect your shrubs in the front were damaged by salt used on the sidewalk in winter. I love hosta but gave up mine due to slugs. Those nasty things love hosta. My sister's first home had a patch of hosta in the backyard. They were huge plants. I've never seen any that big since.

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  16. I am really liking your new home...I am sure with time you love it just as much as you loved your 'farm"...I want to say thank you for clarifying your statement about "pets" and "livestock" I too was a bit put off/angered by your statement...we are a farm, we have livestock...we eat some of our animals like our pigs, cows and chickens and milk our goats...BUT we also believe in the humane treatment of our animals even if they are to become food ...It is part of the reason we do what we do...we know what went in to our animals and how they were treated...We take great pride in how we treat our animals and I think some of us viewed it unfair for you to insinuate that those of us with livestock didn't really take good care of our animals...farming is a give take relationship...we give to the animals and they give to us...we take care of the soil it produces amazing vegetable...its a working relationship...if we treat them/it right, they treat us right...no one wants to make food from a sick animal and I think most of us take great measures to ensure the health and welfare of our animals......So, again I thank you for apologizing and clarifying...

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  17. That looks like a beautiful house, and how exciting to do all that fun planning!

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  18. The house is even better than i imagined! And Mary Ann, anyone who knows you would know that you meant no harm or offence in what you said.

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