5 posts from May 2009

Weekend Photos

On Saturday morning Neil and I headed out to get some photos of the trestle bridge in town and whatever else caught our eye. 

The town of Mount Holly was named such in 1875 after the cotton mill that was named after yarn that was produced at a spinning mill in Mount Holly, NJ. It was incorporated in 1879. 

While we were walking around we noticed that the Mount Holly Farmers' Market is back up in full swing. Neil picked up a small tub of some very tasty hummus and we walked around town for a bit. I was excited to see a couple farms there with everything from beef to pork to chicken - and of course eggs and all manner of in-season veggies. I am hoping that Daddy's Girl will be back as well this year with her wonderful goat's milk cheeses. 
As we headed down Central Ave, we met a very, very sweet gal who was looking for a new home. The lady at the drug store said some man had been kicking her and yelling at her and swearing at her - someone called the police and he abandoned the dog. The lady has two dogs of her own so she was looking for a new home for this pup...I think she looks like she is part beagle and something else. She was absolutely adorable and just wanted attention and love.

Dog
Dog
I do not know how people can be mean to animals. I am going to tell my neighbor about the dog - if she hasn't already found a home, maybe she will find one there.

It was a really nice morning...the rest of my photos can be seen on my Flickr page. The one thing I did notice as I was sorting through all the photos that I took - I need to work on my focusing. Or maybe just general camera stability (the lens I was using to shoot the bridge did not have IS). Whatever the case, it has obviously been awhile since I have picked up the camera and definitely need to brush up on some basic skills!

2 comments Tags: flickr, photos, dog, farmers market, nc, mount holly, trestle bridge …

2009 Wildlife/Bird List

I want to start keeping track of birds and other wildlife that I see outside either in the yard or at the feeders:

Birds:
  • American goldfinches (only one pair so far...not the huge flocks like I got last year)
  • House finches
  • Common grackles (annoying suckers, but I am still fascinated with their iridescent coloring)
  • Red-winged blackbird (so far I have seen two come to the feeder at separate times...they seem to be hanging out with the grackles, identified a female at the feeder today!)
  • Tufted titmice
  • Brown-headed cowbirds
  • Song sparrows
  • Wren (not sure which kind - they don't hold still long enough to get a good look at their striping)
  • Carolina chickadees
  • Mourning doves
  • Northern cardinals
  • Northern mockingbirds (these hang out in the trees and scrub on the hillside)
  • Eastern bluebirds
  • Black vultures (circling over the woods behind the house)
  • hawk (maybe Cooper's hawk or sharp shinned hawk - seen circling the yard over the feeders)
  • Barred owls (I haven't actually seen these yet, but I hear them every evening at dusk calling to each other - I keep looking for them)
  • Killdeer (in the yard the other day - probably flew inland because of weather)
  • Wild turkeys (seen along the road nearby the house)
  • woodpecker (still working on what kind - today was the first one I've seen, though I hear them all the time beating on the trees in the woods!)
Wildlife:
  • deer (yay! There are 4 of them this year)
  • opossum
  • rabbits
  • squirrels (they are new-ish in this yard...last year I didn't see any around the property)

2 comments Tags: wildlife, birds, list, 2009

Happy grass...

an update on my mom's visit and the holiday weekend.
My mom's visit was fantastic. She loves yard work....adores it. Personally, I don't share quite the same level of enthusiasm, but I do enjoy it. Out first project - extending the patio with a 4' by 5' pad made of concrete pavers so that I could get my grill off of the patio (and more specifically, so that it was no longer sitting directly in front of my living room window). We dug out the grass first. Not as easy as it sounds like it should be...with the drought over the past several years, the grass and weeds that did get established had some serious root systems to contend with! Once that was done the smoothing and leveling began one paver at a time. It took 2 days to get the pad completed (really only about a day total - 4 hours each day with a total of 12 eighteen inch pavers). I have one that settled more than the rest with all the rain we've had, so as soon as the weather gets a little nicer I will pull it up and put some more sand under it to bring it back up to the same level as the rest. With the grill moved, I also relocated the patio furniture so that now there is plenty of room for folks to sit outside and still have room to walk around the patio without ending up in the grass.
Next project - planting beds and bird feeders! A trip to Lowe's got us many bags of lava rock to finish the front bed, a concrete bird bath, bird seed, and the thought that we should later bite the bullet and go get pine needles to create the rest of the planting areas. Since it was sweltering that day, we did the easy stuff first - put up bird feeders and got the bath put out and leveled (smart mom - we used left over sand from leveling the pavers to make a little spot to put the bath that could be adjusted to keep it upright). We then dumped and spread the bags of rock and realized we were going to need more. But, before that, we decided to tackle the edging that I had purchased last year. The stuff is cool - it is the inexpensive black PVC stuff, but instead of the kind that you have to dig a trench to install, this has tabs along it that you just pound stakes through as needed. SO much easier to get in straight and even. Exactly two lengths of it completed the front bed! A little digging was needed here and there to get the ground under the edge level, but all in all, it was as easy as advertised! Someday I will replace it with larger stones to edge all of the beds, but for now this helps keep the rock where it belongs and give the bed a nice finished look.
Off to get pine needles. I learned that my truck holds exactly 12 bales (we ended up needing 14 - good thing the materials place is close to the house!). We bedded along the entire garage end of the house and also extended a couple areas around trees and finished around the holly bushes since the lawn guys never did. It looks amazing! While we were outside, a random neighbor from up the road stopped by to offer us two azaleas that she didn't want and was going to throw away...cool! So we planted those too. When we went back to Lowe's for the remaining red rock, we also ended up getting a couple bags of grass seed and some starter fertilizer/mulch to throw down on the bare areas in the front yards and one more bird feeder - I needed a new mesh one for the thistle seed.  
Last but not least for the week - we installed the solar lights that I have had since I moved out here and also the copper tiki torches that I had purchased last year. The lights went in all along the house where we made the beds and also out under the trees and shrubs in the side and back yards. They don't give off a ton of light (they have amber LEDs in them) but they do make for nice delineation of the yard at night and offer enough light to see the shrubs and trees that they are near. The torches went around the patio and will be filled with citronella oil to help keep the flying, biting, creepy-crawlies away while we are outside.
This weekend it ended up raining about half the weekend (Sunday and Monday and more today), which was OK. I got a little housework done, watched the entire first season of Dollhouse, and mostly just vegged out with the dogs. The best part was that I haven't had to water the front lawns where we seeded. The rest of the established grass also seems to be very happy with the warmer weather and the water. It is already looking like it needs another trim and will be very ready by Thursday when the guys come.

If and when the weather clears up a little, I will get out and take some photos of the yard and house and get them posted. I am thrilled with how 'finished' it all finally looks! This fall will really be the icing on the cake when the lawn guys do a proper seeding of the entire lawn - it should really grow in well. 

Post a comment Tags: vacation, diy, landscaping, yard, projects, long weekend

Sad news...

I found out yesterday that my grandma died. Other than the fact that she was old, it was unexpected. Her health was good, as far as everyone knew, and she still got around just fine. She was 90...I guess, if I am lucky enough to live that long and in such good health, then fast and unexpectedly is the way I would like to go myself. 


I am sad for my aunt and my dad, though. My aunt especially - for the past five years, Grandma has lived right down the road (at an assisted living facility) and spent almost every weekend with my aunt and uncle at their home. The family will hold a service for her in her home town of Mitchell, SD in early June. I really want to go, but I am not sure I am going to be able to afford the trip. 

I wasn't all that close to this grandmother, so I am very taken aback at how much it has upset me that she is gone. It really shook me to hear Dad crying on the phone when he called. I wish I could say that this might make him appreciate the remainder of his family more (a sister and a brother and of course, two daughters), but I doubt it will and that is truly heartbreaking. I have wished for years that he would take more of an interest in his older brother who is disabled and lives in a home back in SD.

I can't even begin to imagine the changes Grandma saw and experienced in her lifetime - automobiles, television, computers, air travel, cell phones, microwave ovens, electricity and running water (she was born and raised on a farm that lacked either most of her younger years), political world changes and war - even the silly things like clothing and hair styles! 

I don't really know what else to say about it...it is one of those things that I find is hitting me at the most inopportune moments, but mostly I am OK. She was a terrific woman who touched many, many lives and will be fondly remembered by everyone. Besides, what better memory could a gal have of childhood than her grandma teaching her to draw a giraffe from ovals and circles? :)

2 comments Tags: grandma, 1919 to 2009

Less angry...

I finally feel a little more under control today. Of course, now I am under the gun for getting the house cleaned up and all the random little unfinished projects I have around here done before my mom comes to visit in a week. Ha! I did get the HVAC filters changed this morning...maybe this afternoon I will drag the ladder back out and get the burned out light bulbs changed in the kitchen. (Stupid vaulted ceilings...)

Really, after that it is simply a matter of laundry and some Spring cleaning. I need to wash all the guest linens and get that room thoroughly vacuumed and dusted. The rest of the house needs the same. Luckily, I am doing a local review next week so I will have evenings to work on it all.

Oh, and next weekend I will finally get my bathroom ceiling painted and get everything hung back up in there. Right now I am going to go find myself some lunch.

Post a comment Tags: life, to-do