Gardening Report on The House That Cleans Itself

It has been two months--TWO MONTHS--since I reported to you on this project and signed off as an "amateur watta-be gardener". I have bravely battled  AREA # 8 and AREA #9 (the backyard) with my never-ending struggle with weeds that I am sure will continue over the summer and into the fall. Weeds are like paper clutter, don't ya think? The broken weed killer spray bottle was returned to Home Depot and exchanged for a new one that works.

I have noticed that one plant flourishes and the same plant does not, thinking I have one green thumb and on the opposite hand a non-green thumb. 

Why is the right pot flower better?

One bush thrives and a nearby one is turning brown maybe due to the watta-be gardener's over-zealous use of the weed killer.

Evergreen

Turning brown

I have encountered the possibility of snakes, poison oak and poison ivy in the backyard. A snake-looking parasite is growing along a branch and I clipped it several places but it isn't seeming to die.

Parasite on branch

Hubby doesn't want his wife to mow lawns and wonderfully a volunteer Wayne has come forward to mow our lawns for free when he is in the neighborhood mowing someone else's yard for pay. I am so appreciative and have found myself cutting branches so his mowing will be easier.


What I did backing up the gas guzzler



Repaired

Wayne also repaired the fence gate that I had backed into and put in a gate to our neighbor's back yard so that Kenny can easily come to our house from where he lives.  Thanks ever so much Wayne! It takes a village to be an Alzheimer's caregiver!

I just asked and a thoughtful friend of a backyard neighbor, Angel, burned the trash pile and it is slowly being converted into regular grass in the back yard. Burn piles will be a thing of the past as I am putting yard banches and clippings out by the curb on Saturdays and one really needs a permit to burn in the country I am told.


Burn pile



Grass growing on old burn pile

I made a list for our outdoors of

what I can do and have started:

1. Put clippings by the street to be picked up on several Saturdays.

2. Weed by the backyard deck.

Old shower stool helps me sit to weed.

3. Put an outdoor rug on that deck. (This rug was used with our popup camper that we no longer own.)

4. Go to Fabric Warehouse to get ideas for uphostery of 4 outdoor chairs used on the deck. They will need to be sprayed black again.

5. Straighten up the potting area and get realistic about my gardening capabilities. Get rid of those extra pots--almost like keeping magazines or fabric I never will quilt with!
  

6. Offered extra chainlink fence material to Sally and Jake for their new dog. Their son came and picked it up.

7. Enjoy my herb garden and find recipes where I can use those fresh herbs.

8.  Make road to the back of the property look neater and keep it maintained.

9. Add items to future yard sale or donate them.  

Problems to live with or wait to solve:

Two-bin compost piles
with cow pasture of neighbors in back

How do I maintain the two-bin compost pile above  that my husband labored at before his Alzheimer's dampened his motivation?  

Small oak trees (that can become large oak trees) seem to want to come forth on fence lines. One oak tree took over an orange tree and both seem to want the same space with the oak tree winning.

I need to hire or enlist someone to do something about the walls stained by my husband's forgetting to turn off the sprinkler all night. (We have iron in our well water used on the garden.)

The metal shed is continuing the go down hill and our dog barks at something maybe living in there.



Houses riding lawn mover and
some other creature--maybe a stray cat



There are two small fountains to get up and running--one in the front yard by the chimney and one in the backyard outside the deck. I bought a fountain pump for one of them that I think needs replacing.

Will continue to work on Areas #8 and #9.  

Any suggestions or volunteers?

Struggling gardener here, 

Carol

Someday I May Need It

Collecting and then de-cluttering!

“Keep a thing seven years and it’s bound to come in handy.”

― Russian Proverb

Most people think they need to do this, don't you, gentle reader—save things because one day we may need them! Then we are stuck with junk in a trunk and our life has gone amuck! Come with me while I sputter about clutter and the things we really, after all, do not need.

Not so hard for DH. We were discussing my home de-cluttering projects.

"Why are all those books on the piano?" and "Why are all those things on the couch?" he reasonably wanted to know.

"Sweetheart, it will get worse before it gets better," I explained about my whole summer de-cluttering project. The summer is now turning into fall.

He did ask if I could clear my organizing off of the pool table so we could play pool. Reasonable. I did that. Only this is not what you should do according to FlyLady principles. My friend Kathy reminded me that FlyLady says take baby steps. "Only take out what you can organize," she advised. So the stuff that used to be on the pool able was moved, not tossed out or given a home.

DH just said the word two years ago when he wanted to get rid of his stuff. His books are for the most part gone. Lumber was given away and shop machines were sold to friends. He quipped, "All my junk is junk, and all your junk is valuable!" I helped him get rid of books, but he is right that I want to go through my junk in case there is something valuable in it. Now his main collection is his DVDs to watch on TV, a main pastime of his.

I have to tell you that my de-cluttering is harder than writing a book. I wrote my book last year, but simplifying our home, getting rid of things is a huge project. I am so ADHD about the whole thing--Almost Done Here Dilemma. Not quite ready for the yard sale and not sure when it will happen. The yard sale will prove it was junk and not valuable anyway.

How did all this happen? I have a couple of theories.

1) We really believe we might need it someday. It could save us money. I got rid of shoulder pads, and then found a wonderful project making Christmas angels out of shoulder pads! See! I could have used those shoulder pads one day!

2) We are attracted to these books like FlyLady's Sink Reflections. We read books on procrastination and collect magazine articles about getting organized. We hear the horror stories. Peter Walsh helped a lady get her home back we saw on Oprah; it took 8 weeks and 100 people to get it back for this couple. Two warehouses were used for a giant yard sale of her stuff. People hoard. We love these stories and we think we are not that bad. See Seniors and Hoarding. Until September 6th there is an "enter to win" tab above where you might win an autographed copy of Peter Walsh's book! If I win I will have another book on organizing to add to the collection pictured above! One day maybe I don't need those organizing books.

3) We collect containers to put our stuff in. Then things look neat. Binders, baskets, tubs, file cabinets, rooms, garages, storage sheds. We have that room with the extra closet where we put too many clothes and where we put the junk when we have company. Containers solve nothing when you get to retirement and face the music.

3) Technology changes. We have old records, audio tapes, video tapes, slides, discs, printers, overhead transparencies, etc. We don't take the time to discard or transfer pictures and sounds to new technologies. Why I bet techno nerds are thinking up new stuff to replace the newest stuff that we have! We buy terabytes of memory so we could one day, however. And information is increasing. They say in this link that every two days now we create as much information as we had in all of 2003.

Anthony J. D'Angelo said, The most important things in life aren't things. How true.

Also Matthew 6:19-21 says: 

Do not lay up for yourself treasures on earth, where moth and rust consumes and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.

Back to de-cluttering, and organizing while thinking of the words I posted here. Done with procrastinating and want a simplified life when I can get there. Ordered another book, however, recommended by Nancy: Clutter's Last Stand: It's Time to De-Junk Your Life. I will review it probably in October, if I don't procrastinate.