In the meantime...rennovating the yard

The next day after I got laid off, we got a letter in the mail from an anonymous neighbor.

This neighbor claimed that s/he has lived around here for years and that every year, our yard looks worse.  She asked to make our yard nice.

Which is fine--our yard was indeed turning into a pseudo-meadow and was in need of a major cleanup.  But what really pissed me off was what s/he said next:

 

"I do think you are in reasonably good health and have the money to improve your property.  I am certain that you do not want your fellow neighbors to think that you do not care or that you are lazy or poor."

 

.....WTFudge!!!????

 

Thanks for the advice neighbor, but lemme clarify a few things...

1. By "reasonably good health", are you referring to my father who underwent a partial hepatectomy last year and just got done with his chemo?

2. No, praise the Lord we are not poor, but we do have medical bills to pay.

3. Both my mother and I work hard to take care of the house, my father, and the cat.  Until recently, I had a full-time job and mom did all the housework AND yardwork.  So no, we are by no means lazy.  Other than that, we do not care what our fellow neighbors think about us.

 

I could tell my mother was really discouraged from the letter, on top of me being suddenly laid off over some minor reason. 

I do wish this person came to us directly and asked us nicely about the issue instead of sending an anonymous letter.  But yes, our yard did need a cleanup.

 After I read the letter, I turned to her.

 

"This means war."

 

So now that I don't have a job, I decided to devote my time to helping my mom clean and improve our yard.

We started off by removing clutter.  After purchasing a trimmer, I basically bushwhacked all the weeds growing in our yard, put that and the huge pile of compost under the apple tree into the two new compost bins.  We put the weed-repellant sheet and covered it with bark mulch to make a pathway.



Our backyard for now.  There's an apple tree way in the back and that area still needs cleanup.

Our frontyard...half of it.  This was covered with leaves, pine needles, and old wood chips.  We cleared all that off and covered the path with fresh mulch.  Looks way nicer now!

Of course, major cleanup wasn't limited to our yard.  I still had to get the 75-gallon tank set up for my turtle.  I used the 10-gallon for the basking platform and stacked slates of shale. 

 

This is her previous residence.  With basking area barely big enough to support her, the 30-gallon tank was far too small for her 8" body.
Once everything was set up, I put my turtle in to see how she likes her (somewhat) new, bigger residence.
She loves it.

With ample basking area to stretch out her limbs, and large enough swimming area to get her exercise and dive without bashing her nose against the glass, she was one happy turtle.

I got the 75-gallon tank AND the hefty coffee table stand for only $110!  Thank you classifieds!