24

Last night R & I were watching '24' and were talking about how Jack Bauer has been tortured, stabbed, shot, beaten, etc and still gets up to run around NYC to save us all from a nuclear threat.  

I then wondered out loud what was in his bag.  He always has it with him, but I've never seen him take anything out of it.  

R began naming things that Jack Bauer would carry in his bag:

*wisps ( for fresh breath & clean teeth)

*power bar (for when he's hungry)

*apple (again, for when he gets hungry)

*smoke bomb (to smoke out the terrorists)

*Red Bull & Monster drinks (to help keep him up all day & night)

*a gun & knives (to defend himself)

*and toilet paper (because when he has to go, he might not have access to a toilet!)

If Jack Bauer was a real person, she might not be too far off the mark!

Now here's something to make you chuckle:

A little more garden work today

I was up and out in the yard by 7:30 this morning digging in the dirt.  It was not easy, especially sense I'm so out of shape, plus there were a bunch of river rocks in this part, and of course all those dang little rocks.

It doesn't look like I did much, but it took me nearly 2 hours just to turn the soil and pick out the river rocks.  

I wanted to add the border to get a better feel of how it would look, so I just went with what I had ~ the bricks that were there before.

They're not exactly even or straight, but it doesn't really bother me.  Under the last four bricks is the concrete slab, which goes as far as the spigot.  So I just dug down to it and laid the bricks on top.  I'm hoping the 5" or 6" of soil will be okay.  If I need more I can pull it from the end with the big rock.

When I got done (it actually got hot in the sun!) I did a Google search on desert flowers.  Turns out the ones I really like are all wild flowers!  Here are ones I like best, and according to the Phoenix Botanical garden are pretty easy to grow and care for:

click for larger view

These all have a good variety of color and height, so I thought they might look nice together.  

And OMG! the blanket flower is so awesome!  I really, really want to plant some of those.

From what I've read, I might've missed the optimal planting time.  I believe most of them should've been planted the beginning of the month.  

Oh, well.

Tomorrow I'll be back at it again....

On hold. For now.

I never got back to working on the backyard.  I had some design work to do for Allied Gate, and since that pays, it took precedent over playing in the dirt!

I'm going to try to get out there this weekend and get rest of the grass, weeds and rocks out of the bed then figure out what I'm going to use for the border and how I'm going to lay it out.

I'm still stuck on that one.  I have an idea, but it involves digging up more bricks that are on the North side of the house and replacing them with the crappy rocks from the backyard.  

It could potentially take me several days weeks to accomplish.

I've got some brainstorming to do....

Backyard makeover - Day 2

This morning was perfect for working on the yard;  it was a cool 65 degrees and the ground was still wet, making weed pulling easier.

Speaking of weeds, a funny thing happened on the way to school this morning.

First, I'm gonna backtrack a little.  Last week, Sean wanted the girls to pull the weeds in the front yard, so he had them out there and was telling them how to do it so they get the weed by the root and not just break the stems.

This morning, on the way to school, I was telling D that I was planning to do some more work on the yard, which included pulling all the tall weeds.  So she proceeds to tell me I have to be sure to do it right by grabbing the stem down close to the ground and pulling at an angle.  I laughed so hard.  I had to remind her that we had a vegetable garden every year when I was a kid and I am all to familiar with how to get out of pulling weeds.

I keep reminding them they have no idea how easy they have it.

So, anyway, this was the target spot today:

The first thing that had to go was that hideous cactus plant.  It was in the front when we moved in and I asked Sean to get rid of it because it's so ugly it's embarrassing.  

This was his idea of getting rid of it.

He wanted me to keep it.  I said too late!

I had taken it out of the pot; a bunch of pieces broke off that I tossed in the alley, then I hefted the main part of the cactus with a huge ball of dirt over the wall.  In my attempt to save myself from touching it too much and dragging it across the yard through the back gate, I ended up with some burrs in my right thumb and smashing my left hand between the dirt ball and the wall.

Now I have a scrape and a big bruise on the back of my hand that runs across it up to the first knuckle of my ring finger.  It really hurts like a son of a gun.

Then I set to work on pulling the weeds and digging out the border bricks.  Which wasn't too bad until I got to the area of the border with the big rocks.  Which were on top of the bricks.  There were 3 or 4 of them that were not only stuck into the ground, but had grass roots all wound around them holding them tight into the dirt.  

And to put the cherry on this little adventure cake, as I was digging out the stuck bricks, I ran into an ant hill.

Some of you may not know, but when I get bit by anything, I have an allergic reaction and the bite swells up twice the size it would on a normal person.  As I was trying to dig out the bricks, I was also trying to avoid the ants.  

Like the plague.

But I didn't avoid them well enough.  I got bit FOUR times on my right ankle and TWO times on my left.  I was so sure I was away from the little suckers, but I guess not far enough.  Now I have two itchy, swollen lumpy ankles.

I worked only an hour today (I was afraid if I kept going, I'd chop off a toe with the shovel or something!) and it looks even better than it did yesterday.

Now the hard part is next.  I have to dig out all that grass and give the soil a  good toss.  All while trying to avoid those blasted ants.  It looks pretty good though, not all sandy or hard clay which is typical of Arizona soil.  

Here is the whole length along the wall now:

That rock is staying there as a corner stone because it is heavy and I am not going to try to move it anywhere else!

This is going to be the tougher area.  The soil looks okay, but there are all those blasted stones I hate so much in the dirt.  I dug a bit to see what might be under the soil and hit either I good size piece of concrete or a slab.  I'm hoping it's just a piece and I can pull it. 

I'll find out tomorrow when I start digging.

What am I getting myself into???

Our back yard is a mess.  It was a mess when we moved in and now with all the weeds that have sprouted, it's an even bigger mess.

But I have a plan.  I'm going to put it out there in cyber space, for all to see, that I'm going to clean it up.   I will post pictures of my step by step progress so you can see how it will all turn out, and I figure if everyone knows about it, I will have to continue with it, and not quit part way through.  

How embarrassing would that be??

Plus, we have a pretty nice pool that I plan on using a shit load this summer.  

Let's face it, a pool is so much more enjoyable when the yard looks nice.

I'm hoping this bit of amateur psychology I'm using on myself works.

I think the previous tenants attempted a couple of flower beds along the back wall.  But they were not cared for and, well, they suck.  As a border they stacked a hodgepodge of bricks, river rock, concrete and re-bar.

Yeah.  Re-bar.  Not quite sure what they were thinking there.

There is also a 'vegetable garden' in the middle of the yard.  I hate it.  With a passion.  First, it's bordered with railroad ties.  Tacky, predictable, over done, cliche.  Second, it's in the middle of the yard!  Yes, that's where the sun is most of the day.  But, still THE MIDDLE OF THE YARD??!!  Sean wants to leave it, clean it up and grow veggies.  It will probably never happen.

Unless I do it.

And, believe me, I know  how much work goes into a veggie garden and although I love the fresh food, I hate the work.

So, we (and by we, I mean me) will see how it goes.

I first plan on attacking those flower beds along the back wall.  That's what I did this morning.  I pulled weeds, dug up rock and brick, moved railroad ties (not easy by yourself!) and did some general clean up on the one by the tree.  It was a bit of a dumping area for things that should have gone all the way to the alley.  

Like the old board gate they pulled down when they put up a new one.  I saved part of it because Sean wants to use it to put on the north wall by the pool for privacy, since our neighbors window is RIGHT THERE.

I think it will look white trash, but he insists it wont.

We'll see. 

In my quest for the better back yard, I disturbed a few critters.  This little guy was one of them.  

I think he needed to warm up because I was able to pet him & he barely moved.  So I left him on his rock and moved it into the sun.  He scurried off an hour later.

After I worked hard for 2-1/2 hours (and, yes, Mom. I got dirty.  Very dirty.  Even my hands were dirt crusted!!) it began to look so much better.  

I pulled out everything, saved what was good and I can reuse, and tossed the rest in the alley.  

The boulder I left because I didn't feel like moving it.

So, what was good to reuse, I stacked in neat orderly piles so I know what and how much I had.  

This is why I did the clean-up and not Sean.  I'm much more organized.  

Plus I have the time.

These are what I have so far for reusable products.  I'm not sure what I want to use to border the new bed, I don't think there is enough of one item.  I'll know more of what I have when I attack the other flower bed tomorrow, but I don't think there is as much there.  I really want something unique, not your typical 'bricks stacked as a low wall' type border.  So I will think about this for a bit.  I still have a lot of clean up to do before I get to that point.  

One of the things in that area, too, are those pain-in-the-ass rocks that are put on yards to cut down on maintenance.  All they do is create problems.  The tree in that corner drops it's leaves in the fall and raking them off those rocks is a bitch.  So it was never done.  I want to shovel the rocks all up and get rid of them, but that might be a bigger project than I can handle.  I do know in some spots they are pretty thick, but they really need to go. 

So far, I think, I'm off to a pretty good start.  The yard already looks better, so I'll be back at it tomorrow to tackle the other flower bed.  

And the weeds.  

If you have any ideas for a flower bed border, let me know in the comments, I love to get ideas for others.

Now I'm off to remove a splinter.

And take a nap.