Tuesday evening the lawn mower kept sputtering and quitting on me. I know nothing about lawn mowers at all! It had gas. So I checked the oil. The oil was really low! Last night I put oil in it. I thought it must have been really low because it took the whole quart.
I pulled the cord and the mower started...then white smoke started billowing out of it and oil was leaking from something on the side...I know nothing about mowers, but that didn't seem healthy for a mower to be doing, in my opinion! So I shut it off.
It seems that lawn mowers don't take a whole quart of oil! I found that out after I called my brother-in-law, well I guess he won't be my brother-in-law any more. But any way I called Daniel and told him what I did and what happened. He said he would come look at it. There was no fill line or instructions on the mower! How was I supposed to know?
It didn't seem wrong, I mean a car takes way more. So in size comparison between a car and a mower, one quart seems ok. And it never over flowed! I poured it down the tube and it never even filled up into the tube, it just all disappeared into the mower! So I didn't think anything was wrong, it didn't seem to be too much!
So more tears of frustration! I suppose you live and learn! Lesson learned! But there should really be a manual of some kind for women who aren't familiar with mechanical things such as a lawn mower! Just a basic how not to screw things up guide...like don't put a whole quart of oil in a mower!
Since I couldn't mow, I decided to start clipping down some of the vines and trees and such that had over grown along the fence.
I have narrowed vines into three categories! Forget the whole binomial system of classification! I have my own!
1. Good Vines - good vines are any vine that will not hurt me! These do not have thorns of any size or kind. So I can safely grab them and not yank my hand back in pain!
2. Bad Vines - bad vines are any vine that will hurt me! These have thorns on them.. If I grab them, I will yank my hand back in pain! And sometimes the thorns remain stuck in my hand and I have to pull them out! The vines are bad all around because the tiny thorns are everywhere and you can not safely grab them to pull them away without wearing gloves! You can pull it from the ground if you grab it at it's base.
3. Evil Vines - evil vines are the thick green vines that grow straight up and have huge thorns. These vines have the potential to cause serious injury! If I grab one, I will yank back a bloody mess! There is a pro to this vine. The thorns are spaced far enough apart that I can safely grab said vine and remove it without injury!
It was hard to decide between the bad and the evil vines because of the size and spacing of the thorns. The evil vines don't seem as bad because their thorns are spaced so far apart when compared to the bad vines. The bad vines have tiny thorns EVERYWHERE! The spacing is practically non-existent, it is not possible for a human to place their fingers between two thorns for removal! What ultimately made the decision for me is that the bad vines will not cause you to bleed to death if they poke you! The evil vines will!
While clipping at the vines that were everywhere, they were falling to the ground. I was wearing short shorts and flip flops. I somehow managed to get tangled in an evil vine. I stepped away from the area I was clipping to grab the rake so that I could rake away the fallen debris. The evil vine caught me and I tripped trying to get free. By the time I got away I had a sliced and bloody toe and a puncture wound in my calf that was bleeding as well! I now see why people wear pants and boots while doing yard work! That will be another lesson I will not learn because it is just too hot for pants and boots! Plus I need to be getting my tan on!
Cade was his usual Louis and Clark expeditionary self! He likes to explore and refuses to stay and play around me! So every two minutes I was dropping my tools to bring him back! It was tons of fun!
Oh and lets not forget the mosquitoes! They are one of the best things about living in the south! Mosquitoes bite you and leave behind red bumps that then itch! So we humans use bug spray! My OFF, didn't keep them off of me! I'm not sure why! I sprayed Cade down with it and they stayed off of him. Except I didn't put any on his face! I misted it over the top of his head, but normally I spray some into my hands and spread it over his face. I didn't think to do that this time. So of course the mosquitoes got him around his forehead and temples! But no where else!
Science and PE all rolled into one on yet another adventure in Jumanji land! Thank God the mosquitoes aren't big enough to kill us, because they were in Jumanji!
Showing posts with label vines. Show all posts
Showing posts with label vines. Show all posts
Friday, June 5, 2009
Wednesday, June 3, 2009
Lessons Learned in the Land of Jumanji
Yard work has been a real challenge for me! Don't get me wrong, I have done yard work. But the amount and type of work that I now have to do is insane. Maybe not really insane, it was let go for a couple of summers, so now I am having to deal with the clean up process.
First let me explain about where I live. I live on the back end of six acres of land. My ex's grandmother bought this land a long time ago, over 20 years ago. The main house was built in 1903 and there was another house that the hired help lived in that was built around that time as well. The property used to include a lot more land because it used to be a peanut plantation, but pieces were split and sold at some point. With exception of the front of the property, the land is surrounded by trees from one side all the way around to the other. Behind my house there is a pond and the tree line is behind that. All I'm trying to say is, I don't live in some neighborhood where over grown means the yard has weeds in it and that's as bad as it gets. All together there are five homes on the property. With exception of the rental, the other three homes are occupied by my ex in-laws! LOL! I get along with all of them! Plus the house is in my name!
During my marriage I mowed the lawn, with a riding lawn mower. I don't exactly have a small yard, my yard is apart of the six acres. And it would take a riding lawn mower to keep six acres mowed! But it wasn't like I was a lazy ass on a riding lawn mower mowing down a 6x6 area of land! I even pulled some weeds. But for the most part, my ex took care of the yard work.
There is a piece of land that my ex's grandmother had fenced off for the animals she had. She had goats and geese. And of course the pond is included in that fenced in area. That fence runs behind my house and then to the right all the way to the property line. I am so bad judging distance, I'd say there is 18 feet, probably a little more than that, between the back of my house and the fence. It's a pretty good size area!
Last summer the yard behind my house was let go! I couldn't do it because I had a baby. Cade was under a year old and it just wasn't possible to get it done with him. I want to say it was even over grown from the summer before, mainly because my ex had a bunch of stuff going on and didn't keep up with it. I was pregnant and taking it easy. I had a difficult pregnancy, swelling really bad, so I had no business out there! As it was the baby was born at 33 weeks. So the prior two summers I was just unable to do anything with the back yard.
So lets fast forward two years, back to today! Looking at the yard was just overwhelming! It made me think of that book, Where the Wild Things Are! When we first moved into the house we planted a weeping willow tree. It seemed to struggle and struggle and I didn't think it was going to make it! Well after two years of no yard work, that tree flourished and finally grew! There were trees planted along the fence line that were just out of control. Weeds were every where! I am talking tall weeds! Honey suckle grew out of control every where, as did raspberry vines. I even noticed that the entire yard was covered in vines. They crisscrossed the yard in every which direction! The flower bed that my mom and sister helped me plant was a bed of weeds! It even had oak trees growing in it! It was just insane, an insane mess! And for someone used to managing an already kept yard, it was definitely a task!
I am by no means a diva! I can hang outside and get dirty! I love to fish and camp and just be outside. But at the same time I am a girl, I like to be pretty and keep my nails filed and pretty. I am by no means a Paris Hilton, but imagine for a moment throwing Paris Hilton out in a wild jungle and her having to clean it up! Well really she probably wouldn't do it, she'd just give up the first second she was pricked by one of those damn thorny vines! But here I was outside attempting to clean up the mess, acting like I was some pro landscaper!
The first thing I learned...ok maybe I didn't learn...was that you get blisters from using yard tools for a long time! And blisters hurt! And they really hurt when you take a shower! I want to say I have never in my life had a blister on my hands. But the first day in the yard, I walked away with a couple on both of my hands! I realized, oh yeah, that's why people wear gloves! But I still haven't learned my lesson because I have a brand new pair of gloves and I still haven't worn them! And I got another blister last night! But this one was no where near as bad and really didn't bother me!
I of course started with mowing the yard. I was hoping the mower would maybe chop up the vines that ran across yard. No such luck! And really the mowing I was doing was just to mow down the weeds and what grass there was. It used to be lush and green. But I soon realized that the grass was brown and had died because of all the vines! It looked like someone played a game of Jumanji and wild vines came out and attacked!
So I had mowed the yard and cleaned out the flower beds over the last couple of weeks, it's been a process! I have a 19 month old remember! LOL! Sunday evening and last evening I mowed the yard, cause you keep having to do it! LOL! I then started the task of trying to rake up the vines that were every where! Talk about back breaking work! Some of them came up easy but some of them didn't! There were vines growing up the fence and even some that had grown up into the weeping willow tree. These vines had actually pulled the branches to the ground, so that vines grew over top the limbs, trapping them between the ground and the vines! I had to go in and clip the vines out of the tree! In doing that I saw species of insects that I have never seen before! So it was like PE and Science all rolled into one! I worked for a few hours raking and pulling at the vines. I raked up lots of dead brown grass as well! I would say that I have about 3/4ths of the yard raked up.
By the time I stopped I was so black from dirt! I am going to say I have probably never been that dirty. Maybe at some point as a child, but never as an adult!
So let me tell you about the fun parts. Trying to keep Cade with me so that I could not only watch him but accomplish my task was nearly impossible. He kept following our puppy Brownie into the woods, when I say "our", she belongs to everyone who lives there! That's a whole other story! Cade was tromping around in the woods like Survivor Man! How he wasn't covered in ticks is beyond me! Every five minutes I was having to drop what I was doing to chase him down! At one point Brownie and Duke, my sister-in-law's dog were chasing each other. They chased each other around this huge magnolia tree and finally went under it to play. They were making tons of noise as they ran through all the crisp dried leaves that had fallen from the tree. Well a noise like that is too irresistible for any child! He was all up under the tree with the dogs, trying to climb like Tarzan! This tree covers a large area and has branches all the way to the ground. So keeping him out was nearly impossible! At one point I was yelling for Cade to come back to me when I realized that my nephew Patric was home. He came outside and I looked at him, I said "Patric, come play with him so I can do some of this yard work!" He could tell I was frustrated! I usually ask, I never just tell him to do it. So Patric played with Cade while I tried to accomplish something! I kept a check on them! I didn't want a repeat of the coffee cup massacre! But Patric is really good with Cade, very responsible for his age!
But through all of the work, the yard has actually taught me some things about myself. First, yard work is relaxing, who would have thought! It allows you to think. It doesn't talk back or judge you and it's there to catch your tears without complaint! It is also a lot of hard work which is good! It allows me to release some of my pent up aggression and has me so tired after that I sleep well! But even more than that I see how my own hard work is shaping something that was out of control into something that will be pleasant. There is enough of my own blood, sweat, and tears in that yard that I think we could maybe be related! LOL! My DNA runs through it! But it's taught me that I can do anything! As overwhelming as it may seem, if I take it one little piece at a time, it doesn't seem as bad. Instead of focusing on it as a whole piece, I focus on just a tiny piece, and before I know it not much is left! So it has really become a give and take, 50/50 relationship! I am manicuring and improving, it is teaching me about myself and life! I think any overwhelming task can be faced as long as I face it one tiny piece at a time, instead of the the whole damn thing at once! It's about taking things one step at a time!
I so wish I had taken before pictures! I am still not finished with the yard. With a 19 month old, it isn't exactly something that can be accomplished really fast! But already the difference is huge! It's something I can be proud of! I can stand back when it's all finished and say, I did that! I did it in spite of the thorns, the snakes, the blisters, the heat and in spite of how impossible it seemed for someone like me! And I did it all by myself!
First let me explain about where I live. I live on the back end of six acres of land. My ex's grandmother bought this land a long time ago, over 20 years ago. The main house was built in 1903 and there was another house that the hired help lived in that was built around that time as well. The property used to include a lot more land because it used to be a peanut plantation, but pieces were split and sold at some point. With exception of the front of the property, the land is surrounded by trees from one side all the way around to the other. Behind my house there is a pond and the tree line is behind that. All I'm trying to say is, I don't live in some neighborhood where over grown means the yard has weeds in it and that's as bad as it gets. All together there are five homes on the property. With exception of the rental, the other three homes are occupied by my ex in-laws! LOL! I get along with all of them! Plus the house is in my name!
During my marriage I mowed the lawn, with a riding lawn mower. I don't exactly have a small yard, my yard is apart of the six acres. And it would take a riding lawn mower to keep six acres mowed! But it wasn't like I was a lazy ass on a riding lawn mower mowing down a 6x6 area of land! I even pulled some weeds. But for the most part, my ex took care of the yard work.
There is a piece of land that my ex's grandmother had fenced off for the animals she had. She had goats and geese. And of course the pond is included in that fenced in area. That fence runs behind my house and then to the right all the way to the property line. I am so bad judging distance, I'd say there is 18 feet, probably a little more than that, between the back of my house and the fence. It's a pretty good size area!
Last summer the yard behind my house was let go! I couldn't do it because I had a baby. Cade was under a year old and it just wasn't possible to get it done with him. I want to say it was even over grown from the summer before, mainly because my ex had a bunch of stuff going on and didn't keep up with it. I was pregnant and taking it easy. I had a difficult pregnancy, swelling really bad, so I had no business out there! As it was the baby was born at 33 weeks. So the prior two summers I was just unable to do anything with the back yard.
So lets fast forward two years, back to today! Looking at the yard was just overwhelming! It made me think of that book, Where the Wild Things Are! When we first moved into the house we planted a weeping willow tree. It seemed to struggle and struggle and I didn't think it was going to make it! Well after two years of no yard work, that tree flourished and finally grew! There were trees planted along the fence line that were just out of control. Weeds were every where! I am talking tall weeds! Honey suckle grew out of control every where, as did raspberry vines. I even noticed that the entire yard was covered in vines. They crisscrossed the yard in every which direction! The flower bed that my mom and sister helped me plant was a bed of weeds! It even had oak trees growing in it! It was just insane, an insane mess! And for someone used to managing an already kept yard, it was definitely a task!
I am by no means a diva! I can hang outside and get dirty! I love to fish and camp and just be outside. But at the same time I am a girl, I like to be pretty and keep my nails filed and pretty. I am by no means a Paris Hilton, but imagine for a moment throwing Paris Hilton out in a wild jungle and her having to clean it up! Well really she probably wouldn't do it, she'd just give up the first second she was pricked by one of those damn thorny vines! But here I was outside attempting to clean up the mess, acting like I was some pro landscaper!
The first thing I learned...ok maybe I didn't learn...was that you get blisters from using yard tools for a long time! And blisters hurt! And they really hurt when you take a shower! I want to say I have never in my life had a blister on my hands. But the first day in the yard, I walked away with a couple on both of my hands! I realized, oh yeah, that's why people wear gloves! But I still haven't learned my lesson because I have a brand new pair of gloves and I still haven't worn them! And I got another blister last night! But this one was no where near as bad and really didn't bother me!
I of course started with mowing the yard. I was hoping the mower would maybe chop up the vines that ran across yard. No such luck! And really the mowing I was doing was just to mow down the weeds and what grass there was. It used to be lush and green. But I soon realized that the grass was brown and had died because of all the vines! It looked like someone played a game of Jumanji and wild vines came out and attacked!
So I had mowed the yard and cleaned out the flower beds over the last couple of weeks, it's been a process! I have a 19 month old remember! LOL! Sunday evening and last evening I mowed the yard, cause you keep having to do it! LOL! I then started the task of trying to rake up the vines that were every where! Talk about back breaking work! Some of them came up easy but some of them didn't! There were vines growing up the fence and even some that had grown up into the weeping willow tree. These vines had actually pulled the branches to the ground, so that vines grew over top the limbs, trapping them between the ground and the vines! I had to go in and clip the vines out of the tree! In doing that I saw species of insects that I have never seen before! So it was like PE and Science all rolled into one! I worked for a few hours raking and pulling at the vines. I raked up lots of dead brown grass as well! I would say that I have about 3/4ths of the yard raked up.
By the time I stopped I was so black from dirt! I am going to say I have probably never been that dirty. Maybe at some point as a child, but never as an adult!
So let me tell you about the fun parts. Trying to keep Cade with me so that I could not only watch him but accomplish my task was nearly impossible. He kept following our puppy Brownie into the woods, when I say "our", she belongs to everyone who lives there! That's a whole other story! Cade was tromping around in the woods like Survivor Man! How he wasn't covered in ticks is beyond me! Every five minutes I was having to drop what I was doing to chase him down! At one point Brownie and Duke, my sister-in-law's dog were chasing each other. They chased each other around this huge magnolia tree and finally went under it to play. They were making tons of noise as they ran through all the crisp dried leaves that had fallen from the tree. Well a noise like that is too irresistible for any child! He was all up under the tree with the dogs, trying to climb like Tarzan! This tree covers a large area and has branches all the way to the ground. So keeping him out was nearly impossible! At one point I was yelling for Cade to come back to me when I realized that my nephew Patric was home. He came outside and I looked at him, I said "Patric, come play with him so I can do some of this yard work!" He could tell I was frustrated! I usually ask, I never just tell him to do it. So Patric played with Cade while I tried to accomplish something! I kept a check on them! I didn't want a repeat of the coffee cup massacre! But Patric is really good with Cade, very responsible for his age!
But through all of the work, the yard has actually taught me some things about myself. First, yard work is relaxing, who would have thought! It allows you to think. It doesn't talk back or judge you and it's there to catch your tears without complaint! It is also a lot of hard work which is good! It allows me to release some of my pent up aggression and has me so tired after that I sleep well! But even more than that I see how my own hard work is shaping something that was out of control into something that will be pleasant. There is enough of my own blood, sweat, and tears in that yard that I think we could maybe be related! LOL! My DNA runs through it! But it's taught me that I can do anything! As overwhelming as it may seem, if I take it one little piece at a time, it doesn't seem as bad. Instead of focusing on it as a whole piece, I focus on just a tiny piece, and before I know it not much is left! So it has really become a give and take, 50/50 relationship! I am manicuring and improving, it is teaching me about myself and life! I think any overwhelming task can be faced as long as I face it one tiny piece at a time, instead of the the whole damn thing at once! It's about taking things one step at a time!
I so wish I had taken before pictures! I am still not finished with the yard. With a 19 month old, it isn't exactly something that can be accomplished really fast! But already the difference is huge! It's something I can be proud of! I can stand back when it's all finished and say, I did that! I did it in spite of the thorns, the snakes, the blisters, the heat and in spite of how impossible it seemed for someone like me! And I did it all by myself!
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