Mama, Don't Let Your Fencelines Grow Up to be Grapevines

To wit: 

Oh, yes. 

That's a fenceline. 

My bad. 

There's a pasture behind there. 

I cut and I cut and I cut. 

That's what some of the grapevine trunks looked like. 

Those are grapevines!  Whew. 

You can see the pasture again!  

That's the brush pile way down there. 

These are mushrooms growing on a dead tree.  I'm going to take a better picture of this tree tomorrow. 

I worked on the pasture side of the fence, too.  This tiny beautiful little red plant 

is a young Virginia Creeper vine. 

Several of these guys were on the house porch (wooly bears). 

I stopped to take this picture on the way home... got out of the car.... The trees are getting so beautiful.  This pond is so peaceful. 

This barn sits above the pond. 

This farm is right across the road from the pond.  There are several barns and a granary. 

But the house is gone... it clearly was in that copse of trees... and the pasture had 

peacefully grazing cows in it.  There was an additional barn, I didn't get it in the pcitre... it is behind the trees, and would have been behind and a little to the west of the house. 

On the way home, I went by my friend Diane's to give her a sack of egg cartons I had found in a storage building at the old house.  This made me laugh out loud.  It's a BIG Angus bull.  

He is standing in between the supports of a sign that says "New Haven Angus", large 

cattle breeders here in Leavenworth County. 

There was a truck behind me and I couldn't stop (see him in the side mirror?) 

Here is what's really funny... he turned around pointing NORTH in the time it took me to deliver the cartons and chat for a minute... so he was facing me again as I came down the road.  This time, I pulled into a driveway, and calmly took the picture as I got the stink eye. Now you can read the sign that says "New Haven Angus". 

He's pretty photogenic. 

Jester likes his daddy a lot. 

Keith is going back into the hospital either today, tomorrow or Monday, he is finding out now. 

This is getting to be part of our lives.  

Please remember him in your prayers if you think of him this weekend. 

And these guys live about a mile from us, right down the road.  How I always would 

have loved to have had some alpacas.  Maybe in my next life.  

 And now I'm going out to cut grass for the last time this year. (I 

HOPE) 

Funny, It Seemed Like a Long Day...

Brandon and Jordan rose early and were hard at it when Chris and I got to the old house this morning. 

The underlay is going up fast.  Keith brought them more this morning. 

Keith and Brandon had a consultation and then Keith left for Ames to 

see his parents and to play in a golf tournament tomorrow with his dad. 

Brandon and Jordan started pulling off the bad spots on the east side. 

And got the zip board up on part of the back.  They also had the stairs to both decks finished 

by the time we got there. 

As an interesting aside... Keith and I saw this zip board product used at a home show probably 3 years ago in the spring.  Keith remembered it all this time, and it is as strong or stronger than plywood, and CHEAPER. 

Christopher got right to it and was cutting down saplings and weed eating.  I tried to 

pull the weeds from this garden bed... it just wasn't happening. 

He did some judicious weed eating... but then... we ran out of weed eater cord. 

While he was weed eating, I was at it with the nippers. 

Look!  There was still a viburnam (hydrangea????) under all those weeds!  And.. it's healthy! 

The sedum was buried, but still blooming. 

Even though I had Chris do judicious weed eating, I am going to have to dig 

out this south bed and then re-bed with dirt and mulch.  Then... I hope we have the house rented, and 

it will not be my problem for a long time. You just can't maintain garden beds from a distance. 

We found this little guy at the top of the storage building door. 

The faithful Lil was with us. 

This scene greeted us behind the shop, the barn we used as a shop.  The fence line on the right 

is the fence between our yard and Troy and Kathy's.... covered with grapevine.  I couldn't see 

how Troy had been able to cut back here... then I went closer. 

It was a MAZE of wild grape vine on two sapling trees.  We cut... and cut... and cut... and then cut the saplings.  

I did not take a picture of the piles we have made in two days... they are huge and many.  I talked to Troy about it, and he and I will try to haul them down to our brush heap with his tractor... OR... I had a later discussion with Keith, and he and I will haul them in the back of the truck IF we don't get significant rain this weekend. 

I just have this to say... if you buy a place in the country, this is what you deal with day in and day out.  We have only been gone five months... and literally, the place would be a jungle if Troy had not been cutting the grass, and doing a little weed eating.  I explained to Chris as we worked that every single night after work... I would feed the animals, and then start working on something in the yard or pasture... cutting down weeds, etc. etc. and that it was never ending. 

There were some bright spots. 

In the course of all this, Chris was stung by a wasp, and began to swell.  Troy took 

him next door to give him a Benadryl... and you know that causes drowsiness. 

And then this happened: 

It would have been funny if we hadn't been so tired and hot and sweaty... the rake broke as Chris was raking some of the debris from the flower bed.  We started laughing... and then I told him that it

was a sign from God that we needed to stop for the day. 

He is sleeping downstairs as I type this... we were both worn out. Yes, his leg is swollen, but 

I think he'll be fine. 

I'm going to clean myself up and go to the T Bones game for a while... Chris is not  a baseball fan, so he 

will stay here and rest up for a trip with his mom and brother tomorrow. 

Keith is having dental surgery on Monday, but then I'll work out at the old house 

doing yard cleanup little by little as the week goes on... 

and the good thing is... we're getting closer each week!