Happenings at home

The yard work continues!  We have now chopped down and dug up all of our camelias and rhododrendrons!  We definitely had some challenges along the way, but we came up with a good system.  Jay dug around the stumps and used a pick axe to chop through the roots closest to the ground surface.  Then he used a sawzall to cut through bigger roots.  And then I came in with a chisel and dug around to find the squirrely roots that tethered the whole thing deeper into the ground so Jay could chop them out.  It was quite an impressive venture! 

We took a load of branches out to the yard waste area and still have the stumps to take when we get a chance.  We know we've worked hard when at the end of the day Jay runs his hands through his hair and whole clumps of dirt come out, and when I run my hands through my hair a LIVE SPIDER comes out!! 

Yipes! 

While Jay sprayed the front yard with weed and grass killer, I was tasked with pulling up the random smattering of flagstone in the back yard.  Everything was going well until I pulled up one big piece that had about 7 billion (no exaggeration) ants underneath along with some little white "things" that looked like maggots!!  I know they weren't eggs - we've seen those in our wireless router (true story!!!) and they are much smaller than what I encountered.  It took me a minute to regain my composure, but before my expression could turn from grossed-out to hard-at-work, I found the same situation under the next one!!  And then about 4 more after that....it is a fact that I was doing the heeby-jeeby dance all over the yard! 

We are also working on organizing our garage and spent the evening with that project last night.  My back seat is full of items to donate. It's so interesting how we want all of our "stuff" but every few months when we take a fresh look we realize that really can live without a random book or belt.  Work in progress!