Monday, January 31, 2022

a day with the chainsaw


After two weeks or so of zero activity beyond picking up a few sticks in the yard and walking the dog, Sunday dawned with a clear blue sky and temps promising to hit the mid 60s. I did my yoga routine and after our Sunday brunch put on some ragged blue jeans and headed outside with the chainsaw. Pre-deck I spent most my yard and flower bed maintenance in the little and big backyards and so the front is usually in a state of neglect and untidiness. Sunday I set out to correct some of that. There is a fairly large pittosporum next to the yew tree that had two big dead branches and the yew trees needed some low branches removed and the three red tip photinias across the front were completely out of control and neglected and full of dead and low branches and the three crepe myrtles had water sprouts all around as did the two Chinese fringe flower trees which also needed low branches removed. And so I spent 4 hours out there with the chainsaw and long handled nippers trimming and pruning out dead wood and low branches and water sprouts and then cutting up the downed branches into manageable sizes and loading the truck with all the debris. Before I loaded up the truck with Sunday's debris, I filled it with the pile of dead orange cosmos, another pile of fallen dead wood, and the pittosporum and yew branches and then emptied that onto the burn pile. The photinia debris is still in the truck though because by then I was really tired and still needed to walk the dog.

When I was loading the truck the second time my neighbor Gary came by and asked if I hired out. Yes, but I don't think you can afford me. My sister came out to observe and remark on all the fun I was having. Well, the fun part's over, the fun part was using the chainsaw. Neither offered to help.

But, you know, if it wasn't actually fun it did feel good to get out there and do some physical labor, use my body, and it looks so much better.


before (I had already worked on the one on the left before I took this picture)


after (though I saw three more branches that need to come off but I had already put everything away)

the view from the street (before this the branches on the street side were so low you couldn't walk under there, you can now but you do have to duck a little)

I still have a lot of work to do in the front, tidying up and bordering the flower beds and doing some planting around the deck, spreading mulch in the areas that only get enough sun for weeds. I was going to take advantage of these warm days today, Monday, before a cold front starts moving in to dig up a clump of dietes iris that's in an inconvenient spot and which doesn't get enough sun to bloom but it's overcast and has and is supposed to rain all day. Just as well, I guess, because by the time I quit yesterday, the body was tired. And we do need the rain.

Here's the 12.5 acre pasture behind our house, behind everyone's houses on my side of the street, with the trailer park on the other side. 




The animal path is right about at our property line.

Neighbor Gary, a retired farmer who has lived in his house all his life says that property has a kind of slough through it at the far end from me and even my end can be under water after a hard rain. I wonder if the prospective buyers realize how easily that property floods.


15 comments:

  1. Looks like you got about two weeks' worth of work done in four hours. You are a strong woman!
    The yard is looking good. It's never finished though, is it?

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    1. Nope. And now I have to pay more attention to the front that I've basically ignored because of the new deck.

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  2. I am in awe of the amount of work you can get done in four hours. It really looks so good there. It's nice to see all that open sky and pasture too.

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  3. Be happy you got that work done before today (Monday). It's been raining here since 11am, and doesn't appear to be letting up any time soon. That's fine; as you say, we need the rain. Your work with the chainsaw and loppers looks great. The good news is that some of that won't need to be done again for a while -- thank goodness!

    I saw my first ten-petal anemones on Sunday. They were a little ragged, but they were there.

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    1. Yeah it rained here off and on all day Monday. The 10 petal anemones in my yard have really come out, just in time for three nights below freezing.

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  4. Do buyers in TX have to go before a commission that knows all about a property that interests the buyer and have a dialogue with them about what they can and can't do with the property. Just the "wet" issue would make it a wetland here and subject to every EPA regulation on the books.

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    1. I have no idea but considering this no regulation state I doubt it. The property is in the county so there wouldn't be the same kind of restrictions as there would inside the town limits. I'm sure they will be apprised that it's in the floodplain but I don't know if they would be required to carry flood insurance on undeveloped land. Any structure they would put on it though would have requirements as to how high off the ground the bottom of the floor would need to be.

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  5. What a difference your efforts made on those trees! Kudos to you! The iris bulbs will be easier to dig up and transplant once the rain has softened the ground. Best to wait on that task! Thanks for the photos... love them!

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  6. My brain translated the word "pittosporum" to spittoon & that's all I have to say about that.

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  7. Your fun with the chainsaw is my fun with the power washer. Every time I step out on the mossy patio, I am getting excited . . .

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  8. Flood risk will definitely dampen (ha!) anyone's enthusiasm about that land, I would think. The bushes look much better!

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  9. Does Texas have any kind of disclosure laws for real estate transactions? I'll bet not too stringent if they do. AZ makes you write a book when you sell a house, it was several pages. WA, a nanny state, does not seem to care as much.

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    1. Texas does have an owner disclosure form wherein you are supposed to reveal all the defects and problems to your knowledge but I don't know how that applies to undeveloped land. After the Harvey flood, the floodplain plans were upgraded so surely the buyers will know that it's in the floodplain. I don't know if land requires flood insurance but if there were any structures on it they would be required to buy flood insurance and keep it as long as they had a mortgage or wanted FEMA help in the future. I don't remember how long it's been since it sold last time but the group that bought it hasn't set foot on it for more than a handful of times.

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  10. In remember the surprise of how low the ground is when I lived in Texas. Frontage roads always flooded first after heavy rains.

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  11. I love how the stone fountain is posing between the trees.

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I opened my big mouth, now it's your turn.