Snake / Yard Work / Water Catchment

Began my day early as I wanted to tackle a portion of the backyard where the cats have been getting into a lot of stickers and where I usually park my car in order to unload groceries since it is closer to the kitchen and the nosy neighbors can't see what the heck I am bringing in.

We have not had much sun until today so the first thing I did was take my solar lights outside to be charged.  For those new to my blog...I am deathly afraid of snakes...I HATE THEM!!!  I can not even Google anything about them because a snake image will always pop up no matter the webpage and it traumatizes me.

I know it was the cats that killed it since this "baby snake" was dead, had a couple of ants eating it but for good measure, I pounded it with my shovel, moved it to where I was filling in the ruts covered it with dissolved horse pine pellets and as an extra measure of precaution pounded the dirt some more.

Early Saturday morning I was headed to HEB. I was opening the gate when a white truck came to a screeching halt and then went in reverse...it was Pollito...wanting to know when I was going to call him to do the yard.  Told him after the rains of this week pass and once the ground dries as I do NOT want any more RUTS.

After getting rid of the "dead snake" I went to put on my rubber boots, grabbed my trusted garden shears and began snipping away at the weeds after spraying myself silly with mosquito repellent. The mosquitos are everywhere including inside the house and Daddy Long Legs and his cobwebs are doing little to trap them.

I cleared an area big enough for my car and a little more but the pictures did not turn out very well. I filled in the ruts with almost sand like horse pine pellets that have been exposed to a lot of rain these past months.

Paquito was my supervisor this afternoon

Here is part of the debris I cleared and of course Paquito, Nico, and Sonny had to play in it and then mark it...Darn cats!!!

It appears "the boys" were worn out from watching me work so they took a nap...

Paquito napping by the 32-gallon water catchment
containers and the 5-gallon bucket.

Nico and Sonny sharing a hug as they napped completely
 exhausted after having to watch me do yard work.

I moved some more of my rain catchment around to three and five-gallon buckets as we are expecting rain all this coming week and I need more room in the 32-gallon containers I have dedicated for that purpose.

It has been hot and humid it reached 90 today with a heat index of 95 degrees.  I hope I can get some well-deserved sleep tonight.

Good night.  May you all have Terlingua Dreams.

Do I get credit for unboxing?

Woke up early this morning and decided to take the bull by the horns.  I needed to unbox the electric lawn mower I bought back in August 2016 so I could tackle the weeds.

To think that when I was a teenager I was in charge of assembling all the things that required it.  Now I absolutely hate it.

 

This is as far as I got...need to read the directions in order to put it together :(

In order to get it outside, I had to clean out the enclosed front porch which is like a junk room.  Put everything in the front yard as I swept and mopped.  All of a sudden I saw a black truck stop and look my way...that is when I realized that they thought I was having a garage sale, lol!

Took a lot of things to the shed/cats bedroom/ junk room when a second car stopped.  Have no idea why they would think I was having a garage sale when I had no sign and the front gate was closed. Oh well, at least it is good to know that if I ever had one at least there would be people interested in buying my junk.

It was a cool morning excellent weather for yard work.  I got my grass shears and started chopping at the weeds and tall grass.  I was outside for six hours.  I had huge piles of weeds I raked but by the end of the day they had deflated and did not look as impressive as earlier in the day.

One of the many piles

Yesterday, at blogger JO's urging made me some soup.  Had some chicken legs in the freezer so only had to buy a vegetable mix.

It actually tasted quite good and since it was rather cool outside it hit the spot.

Good night.  May you all have Terlingua Dreams.

Feeling Testy

My mother's neighbor parks his family vehicles along our fence line and he once again mowed that area yesterday...guess he was giving me a hint?  Too bad...I will pretend I did not get it...it is bad enough I have to put up with his stepson, his loud music and beer guzzling friends on the weekend.

While it may be fall in other parts of the country here in Del Rio it is hot as hell.  It was 94 degrees as I made a feeble attempt at cutting down some of the tall grass using my garden shears.  After two minutes I pretty much decided it was futile and since I do not have a dreaded HOA to deal with...it can stay that way!  This gal does not like yard work!

Decided to come back inside and face my real demons at this particular time...my taxes :-(  

Please don't lecture me about getting them done on time, blah, blah, blah....I get enough of that from my mother.  I am and have always been a procrastinator and at this stage of my life it is not going to change.  So if you don't see me posting...in a nutshell that is the reason why.

Good night.  May you all have Terlingua Dreams.

Garden Shears are your Friend

I apologize to you all nice folks for boring the heck out of you with my yard work posts but as you know this is not only a blog but also my Cyber Journal.  I still have my spiral notebook journals… but I am lazy and besides I cannot post pictures there… as you know a picture can speak a thousand words!

Have been in the market for some decent pruning shears since my old ones have pretty much given out after years of use.  Thought I had bought them ten years ago but found my receipt and I purchased them in 1991.  Some long time Houstonians might remember this very popular and now defunct store that was located in southwest Houston called Auchan’s and that was larger than a Super Wal-Mart.

Went to price them at Home Depot, Wal-Mart, Harbor Freight and Big Lots and found the winner at Big Lots.  I was only looking for the pruning shears but found a three for one special that I could not pass up.

The grass was too tall on the southeast corner of my yard to be cut either by my electric lawn mower or my small electric weed eater.  So I went to work using the garden shears and found they work great!

There is a stray dog that has puppies and has taken up residence in the unoccupied house next door.  I have caught her twice in my yard but could not figure out how she was getting in.  Caught her red handed!  I think that is the reason the dogs were barking last night.

Good night.  May you all have Terlingua Dreams.