CambiataCommander ShepardThe likes of which even GAWD has never seenRegistered Userregular
I haven't done planting/yard updates in a while, because a) I'm waiting for trees to be delivered (they're supposed to finally arrive on Friday) and b) the stuff I'm doing other than the living gazebo is slow and plodding, on account of me being fat and the transformations I'm wanting to make requiring a lot of physical labor, which is therefor performed and an extremely slow pace.
But I did want to share some of the stuff I have done in my back yard!
First off is this bunch of wild strawberry plants. These were literally the first thing I was able to plant in our yard, and I'll be honest other than making sure the seeds were germinated I didn't do a lot of work to make these plants feel welcome - it's a miracle any of them survived. Over a year later they're not only surviving, but thriving; they even have blooms on them which surprised me because I wasn't sure this area had enough sun for them to blossom.
The wild strawberries are planted in the "lower" area of my back lawn, which I'm slowly covering up with heavy duty weed fabric:
The fabric that's currently overlapping the pavers on the left will eventually be tucked under those pavers. Although I'm thinking of removing the pavers entirely, because some of them are impeding drainage. If I'm up for the work I might dig under the pavers so they sit lower, but that's a lot of labor as as I've already mentioned, I can only do this stuff slowly. The lower lawn is only partially covered right now because I ran out of fabric, but I'll be getting more of it next week.
I've also planted a new thing in this area next to the wild strawberries: creeping cinderella. I just took some of the clods I had dug up during tree planting and placed them on top of my weed fabric, followed by some additional dirt. Now I do want to be a little careful with this ground cover as I understand it has a tendency to take over everything. That's good when it comes to my nemesis, grass, but not so good if it's gonna choke out my wild strawberries. I'll keep an eye on them.
Finally is the area where I was originally going to do a veggie garden. I am not planting anything here until I have the drainage fixed. My plan is to first dig a solid trench - which I have started, but will take some time to complete - and then either do a french drain or perhaps take the easy way out and just fill it with stone. A French drain would be best, but that will cost around $1k in supplies, maybe more, even if I do it myself. So we'll see how I feel (and how our bank account feels) after I finally complete the trench.
"If you divide the whole world into just enemies and friends, you'll end up destroying everything" --Nausicaa of the Valley of Wind
Sigh ... Just got my escrow report. It's going up 12% because both my taxes and insurance went up 12% last year. But as I'm frequently reminded in the d&d economics thread, inflation actually wasn't that bad last year so clearly this is all just my imagination.
Over the last two years the insurance on my last home went up from 1500 to 4500. Everyone else in Houston is seeing similar increases. My insurance now (one county over, brand new, larger home) is cheaper than when that home started.
Since that last post I called up my insurance and threatened to switch to GEICO if they didn't lock in last year's premium, and they agreed! Of course my deductible was raised but that's the same that GEICO was offering so no big deal.
"Simple, real stupidity beats artificial intelligence every time." -Mustrum Ridcully in Terry Pratchett's Hogfather p. 142 (HarperPrism 1996)
My Girlfriends Brother In Law came over and did some work for us since he's an electrician and did some work on our house. Got a fan installed for free in the living room, new light installed in the bathroom (a job he's been supposed to do for a year for babysitting their kids), and a cover fell off an outdoor outlet that he replaced. He also filled in a hole in the wall that our dog made by knocking over the gate that tried to hold her in place before we got her a crate.
Considering we just got a new bed frame and the installation was over $100 for a 30 minute job, we really made out like bandits on that work getting done for free, although it did eat into a lot of my free time on my Saturday off.
We've got a bunch of other stuff we want to change in the house, and we're lucky that her family is largely people in those kinds of trades and my dad has those skills as well so we just have to pay for the materials and some beer. I lucked out in that my GF's brother in law had messed up and was in trouble with his wife so I didn't have to part with any of my beer to pay him off this time.
It's funny how over cranking your HDR (which is something RE photographers love to do for some goddamn reason) on complicated patterns / textures triggers the same uncanny valley feeling as most ai attempts at photorealism.
Ignoring the inside, which is impossible, I hate the outside of that house, I hate the way it's shaped and that it barely is, it looks like a pile of polygonal deer poop.
this is somehow tempting. i could sell my home and buy this school. what a studio that gym would make
Men only want one thing and its a small apartment attached to an airplane hanger.
this is true. in fact, before buying my place i was seriously considering a 5 acre plot with a setup almost exactly like you described about 20 min out of town. unfortunately it sold before i got to tour it : (
I'm in a gated community and it's all townhouses and there's like 40 feet of yard between the back of my house and the ones behind us. We have trees and we've got a hammock between two of the trees and we let our nextdoor neighbor put up a swing because they've got three kids and no tree of their own. The crazy thing to me is people will be walking their kids and just start using the swing. It doesn't bother me, but it's so weird considering the community has a park for people to use.
CambiataCommander ShepardThe likes of which even GAWD has never seenRegistered Userregular
My trees were finally delivered today! I wanted to see if I could get the entire circle finished today, but for now I have to hide from the mosquitos. Maybe I'll fill out the final few trees once the sun is down. The first thing I did today was pull up the trees that had died. Unfortunately out of the 51 I planted, only 38 survived. So I replaced those first, then added a few more as well. I counted, and I managed to get 17 trees planted today. As it turns out, the tree farm again sent me one more tree than I ordered. Makes me wonder if that's just their policy. The 14 trees left should be more than enough to finish.
I know it's hard to see the new trees in this picture, since unlike the other trees they have no greenery yet. But if you can see them, you may notice they are taller than the other trees. I had actually wanted to get trees in the 3'-4' range just like the first batch, but they were all sold out when it was time to reorder, so I had to go with the 4'-5'. Don't get me wrong, it's nicer to have the taller trees, they're just more expensive is all.
I'm hoping I don't need to order more willows this year, because they're quickly selling out in all sizes by this point.
"If you divide the whole world into just enemies and friends, you'll end up destroying everything" --Nausicaa of the Valley of Wind
+4
Options
CambiataCommander ShepardThe likes of which even GAWD has never seenRegistered Userregular
Oh I ALMOST forgot to mention something. This neighborhood has a lot of crows living in it. I had a suspicion about the crows that I think was confirmed today: They seem absolutely convinced that I am some sort of witch performing a spell, and they're all excited to find out what the spell will do when I'm finished. The thing that confirmed is that in the first half of the day I had planted five trees in place of the dead tree, then had to go back inside to finish my work day. When I came out again to plant some more, I saw at least four crows gathered around the trees I had planted, quickly flying away as soon as they spotted me.
What first made me think the crows have ideas about me is that I found that every time I would go outside, one crow would immediately shout out and all the rest would start chattering among themselves. It happened so frequently that at first I thought maybe they did that for everyone, but Strikor said he hadn't noticed it, and when I observed him go out myself I didn't hear the same ruckus.
So anyway, I'm clearly about to get a crow army, so I would suggest you do not cross me.
"If you divide the whole world into just enemies and friends, you'll end up destroying everything" --Nausicaa of the Valley of Wind
+16
Options
jmcdonaldI voted, did you?DC(ish)Registered Userregular
Oh I ALMOST forgot to mention something. This neighborhood has a lot of crows living in it. I had a suspicion about the crows that I think was confirmed today: They seem absolutely convinced that I am some sort of witch performing a spell, and they're all excited to find out what the spell will do when I'm finished. The thing that confirmed is that in the first half of the day I had planted five trees in place of the dead tree, then had to go back inside to finish my work day. When I came out again to plant some more, I saw at least four crows gathered around the trees I had planted, quickly flying away as soon as they spotted me.
What first made me think the crows have ideas about me is that I found that every time I would go outside, one crow would immediately shout out and all the rest would start chattering among themselves. It happened so frequently that at first I thought maybe they did that for everyone, but Strikor said he hadn't noticed it, and when I observed him go out myself I didn't hear the same ruckus.
So anyway, I'm clearly about to get a crow army, so I would suggest you do not cross me.
Crows are super smart and they determine if they like people. Seems like they may like you.
They accept bribes in the form of unshelled peanuts.
+6
Options
CambiataCommander ShepardThe likes of which even GAWD has never seenRegistered Userregular
Oh I ALMOST forgot to mention something. This neighborhood has a lot of crows living in it. I had a suspicion about the crows that I think was confirmed today: They seem absolutely convinced that I am some sort of witch performing a spell, and they're all excited to find out what the spell will do when I'm finished. The thing that confirmed is that in the first half of the day I had planted five trees in place of the dead tree, then had to go back inside to finish my work day. When I came out again to plant some more, I saw at least four crows gathered around the trees I had planted, quickly flying away as soon as they spotted me.
What first made me think the crows have ideas about me is that I found that every time I would go outside, one crow would immediately shout out and all the rest would start chattering among themselves. It happened so frequently that at first I thought maybe they did that for everyone, but Strikor said he hadn't noticed it, and when I observed him go out myself I didn't hear the same ruckus.
So anyway, I'm clearly about to get a crow army, so I would suggest you do not cross me.
Crows are super smart and they determine if they like people. Seems like they may like you.
They accept bribes in the form of unshelled peanuts.
Oh I know they're smart. To be honest I was concerned at first that they had marked me as an enemy, and I know you don't want to piss off crows.
At some point I want to set up a feeding station for them, but I'm busy with other garden stuff first.
"If you divide the whole world into just enemies and friends, you'll end up destroying everything" --Nausicaa of the Valley of Wind
0
Options
jmcdonaldI voted, did you?DC(ish)Registered Userregular
Oh I ALMOST forgot to mention something. This neighborhood has a lot of crows living in it. I had a suspicion about the crows that I think was confirmed today: They seem absolutely convinced that I am some sort of witch performing a spell, and they're all excited to find out what the spell will do when I'm finished. The thing that confirmed is that in the first half of the day I had planted five trees in place of the dead tree, then had to go back inside to finish my work day. When I came out again to plant some more, I saw at least four crows gathered around the trees I had planted, quickly flying away as soon as they spotted me.
What first made me think the crows have ideas about me is that I found that every time I would go outside, one crow would immediately shout out and all the rest would start chattering among themselves. It happened so frequently that at first I thought maybe they did that for everyone, but Strikor said he hadn't noticed it, and when I observed him go out myself I didn't hear the same ruckus.
So anyway, I'm clearly about to get a crow army, so I would suggest you do not cross me.
Crows are super smart and they determine if they like people. Seems like they may like you.
They accept bribes in the form of unshelled peanuts.
Oh I know they're smart. To be honest I was concerned at first that they had marked me as an enemy, and I know you don't want to piss off crows.
At some point I want to set up a feeding station for them, but I'm busy with other garden stuff first.
You can just throw handfuls out in the yard. The shells are good fertilizer regardless.
The crows will know.
0
Options
minor incidentexpert in a dying fieldnjRegistered Userregular
The crows always know.
Ah, it stinks, it sucks, it's anthropologically unjust
+10
Options
3cl1ps3I will build a labyrinth to house the cheeseRegistered Userregular
When Enzo (our 15 year old blind husky mix) passed a month-ish ago, at almost exactly the moment the vet was moving him on a crow started circling our house going tree to tree and making weird rattling noises.
I'm not a spiritual or religious person, but it was very weird timing.
there is a large group of crows that live in the back of the walmart parking lot. awhile back, i started feeding them. they started escorting me to the doors of the store, and back to my car when i get out. always good for a few peanuts.
+9
Options
CambiataCommander ShepardThe likes of which even GAWD has never seenRegistered Userregular
Oh I ALMOST forgot to mention something. This neighborhood has a lot of crows living in it. I had a suspicion about the crows that I think was confirmed today: They seem absolutely convinced that I am some sort of witch performing a spell, and they're all excited to find out what the spell will do when I'm finished. The thing that confirmed is that in the first half of the day I had planted five trees in place of the dead tree, then had to go back inside to finish my work day. When I came out again to plant some more, I saw at least four crows gathered around the trees I had planted, quickly flying away as soon as they spotted me.
What first made me think the crows have ideas about me is that I found that every time I would go outside, one crow would immediately shout out and all the rest would start chattering among themselves. It happened so frequently that at first I thought maybe they did that for everyone, but Strikor said he hadn't noticed it, and when I observed him go out myself I didn't hear the same ruckus.
So anyway, I'm clearly about to get a crow army, so I would suggest you do not cross me.
Crows are super smart and they determine if they like people. Seems like they may like you.
They accept bribes in the form of unshelled peanuts.
Oh I know they're smart. To be honest I was concerned at first that they had marked me as an enemy, and I know you don't want to piss off crows.
At some point I want to set up a feeding station for them, but I'm busy with other garden stuff first.
You can just throw handfuls out in the yard. The shells are good fertilizer regardless.
The crows will know.
Yes, yes, but you can't train them without a platform.
I'll go ahead and buy those peanuts I was eyeing, however, since "Oh, the local witch is good for food!" is a connection I do want them to make.
"If you divide the whole world into just enemies and friends, you'll end up destroying everything" --Nausicaa of the Valley of Wind
+8
Options
DaimarA Million Feet Tall of AwesomeRegistered Userregular
Just remember, if you ever start feeding the crows you won't be able to stop because they will put up an unholy screeching fit if you ever miss a meal.
0
Options
minor incidentexpert in a dying fieldnjRegistered Userregular
A fair price for our dark covenant.
Ah, it stinks, it sucks, it's anthropologically unjust
CambiataCommander ShepardThe likes of which even GAWD has never seenRegistered Userregular
THE CIRCLE IS COMPLETE.
There's a total of 64 trees there.
One oddity I found when going out to finish planting today, is that some little nibbly creature has bitten one of the trees clean in half:
At first I thought it must be a dog, because I've seen dogs react to saplings with no leaves, thinking they are a nice stick for playing fetch. But had it been a dog, I think the tree would have been pulled completely out of the ground, not nipped in half. So I'm assuming it's was caused by a rabbit or field mouse or something
"If you divide the whole world into just enemies and friends, you'll end up destroying everything" --Nausicaa of the Valley of Wind
One oddity I found when going out to finish planting today, is that some little nibbly creature has bitten one of the trees clean in half:
At first I thought it must be a dog, because I've seen dogs react to saplings with no leaves, thinking they are a nice stick for playing fetch. But had it been a dog, I think the tree would have been pulled completely out of the ground, not nipped in half. So I'm assuming it's was caused by a rabbit or field mouse or something
I've lost more saplings that way. Squirrels, rabbits, and other rodents will just chew whatever to keep their teeth pointy (they keep growing). There's also the occasional deer that will just bite down on saplings that are soft enough, not sure if it's food or they just think it could be.
There's also something in my yard that likes to dig wherever I just dug. Which means the day after transplanting something into the outdoor garden, it's roots are at least partially dug up. I've taken to covering up where I dug with leaves and such so it doesn't look like fresh turned soil, and that seems to help.
We leave food out for the local feral cats and the raccoons are such possessive assholes with it that I had to rig up a remote controlled system to drive them off. They go full "I will murder you and your entire family" mode the second a cat or opossum show up and that isn't cool.
The squirrels just chase each other around, look cute, and use their tails as an umbrella.
+1
Options
3cl1ps3I will build a labyrinth to house the cheeseRegistered Userregular
I mean...they're wild animals, they're doing wild animal things.
Also raccoons aren't as bad as cats for local ecosystems. Cats just murder the shit out of a ton of wildlife for reasons beyond food that ultimately wreck local bird populations.
People who let their cats out are crazy but people who let their intact cats out deserve to go to the special hell, so no argument there.
Although when I lived in CA we had a (spayed/neutered obviously) colony that was so pampered and lazy that birds would hang out around them and they wouldn't do anything because oh it's so difficult being a cat, why hunt when I can just go over there to the food dish. It was pretty bizarre to watch.
Posts
But I did want to share some of the stuff I have done in my back yard!
First off is this bunch of wild strawberry plants. These were literally the first thing I was able to plant in our yard, and I'll be honest other than making sure the seeds were germinated I didn't do a lot of work to make these plants feel welcome - it's a miracle any of them survived. Over a year later they're not only surviving, but thriving; they even have blooms on them which surprised me because I wasn't sure this area had enough sun for them to blossom.
The wild strawberries are planted in the "lower" area of my back lawn, which I'm slowly covering up with heavy duty weed fabric:
The fabric that's currently overlapping the pavers on the left will eventually be tucked under those pavers. Although I'm thinking of removing the pavers entirely, because some of them are impeding drainage. If I'm up for the work I might dig under the pavers so they sit lower, but that's a lot of labor as as I've already mentioned, I can only do this stuff slowly. The lower lawn is only partially covered right now because I ran out of fabric, but I'll be getting more of it next week.
I've also planted a new thing in this area next to the wild strawberries: creeping cinderella. I just took some of the clods I had dug up during tree planting and placed them on top of my weed fabric, followed by some additional dirt. Now I do want to be a little careful with this ground cover as I understand it has a tendency to take over everything. That's good when it comes to my nemesis, grass, but not so good if it's gonna choke out my wild strawberries. I'll keep an eye on them.
Finally is the area where I was originally going to do a veggie garden. I am not planting anything here until I have the drainage fixed. My plan is to first dig a solid trench - which I have started, but will take some time to complete - and then either do a french drain or perhaps take the easy way out and just fill it with stone. A French drain would be best, but that will cost around $1k in supplies, maybe more, even if I do it myself. So we'll see how I feel (and how our bank account feels) after I finally complete the trench.
Over the last two years the insurance on my last home went up from 1500 to 4500. Everyone else in Houston is seeing similar increases. My insurance now (one county over, brand new, larger home) is cheaper than when that home started.
Considering we just got a new bed frame and the installation was over $100 for a 30 minute job, we really made out like bandits on that work getting done for free, although it did eat into a lot of my free time on my Saturday off.
We've got a bunch of other stuff we want to change in the house, and we're lucky that her family is largely people in those kinds of trades and my dad has those skills as well so we just have to pay for the materials and some beer. I lucked out in that my GF's brother in law had messed up and was in trouble with his wife so I didn't have to part with any of my beer to pay him off this time.
{Twitter, Everybody's doing it. }{Writing and Story Blog}
https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/17405-Hawks-View-Ct-Edmond-OK-73012/69164911_zpid/?
never being to tell the distance, heading, or speed of objects in my home
living the dream
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dazzle_camouflage
My retinas are melting
this is true. in fact, before buying my place i was seriously considering a 5 acre plot with a setup almost exactly like you described about 20 min out of town. unfortunately it sold before i got to tour it : (
e:
this is the most edmond thing i have ever seen
One roof*, some assembly required.
Edit: whoops got too excited and didn't do a count of the plywood, only about 1/3 of roof
{Twitter, Everybody's doing it. }{Writing and Story Blog}
I know it's hard to see the new trees in this picture, since unlike the other trees they have no greenery yet. But if you can see them, you may notice they are taller than the other trees. I had actually wanted to get trees in the 3'-4' range just like the first batch, but they were all sold out when it was time to reorder, so I had to go with the 4'-5'. Don't get me wrong, it's nicer to have the taller trees, they're just more expensive is all.
I'm hoping I don't need to order more willows this year, because they're quickly selling out in all sizes by this point.
What first made me think the crows have ideas about me is that I found that every time I would go outside, one crow would immediately shout out and all the rest would start chattering among themselves. It happened so frequently that at first I thought maybe they did that for everyone, but Strikor said he hadn't noticed it, and when I observed him go out myself I didn't hear the same ruckus.
So anyway, I'm clearly about to get a crow army, so I would suggest you do not cross me.
Crows are super smart and they determine if they like people. Seems like they may like you.
They accept bribes in the form of unshelled peanuts.
Oh I know they're smart. To be honest I was concerned at first that they had marked me as an enemy, and I know you don't want to piss off crows.
At some point I want to set up a feeding station for them, but I'm busy with other garden stuff first.
You can just throw handfuls out in the yard. The shells are good fertilizer regardless.
The crows will know.
When Enzo (our 15 year old blind husky mix) passed a month-ish ago, at almost exactly the moment the vet was moving him on a crow started circling our house going tree to tree and making weird rattling noises.
I'm not a spiritual or religious person, but it was very weird timing.
Yes, yes, but you can't train them without a platform.
I'll go ahead and buy those peanuts I was eyeing, however, since "Oh, the local witch is good for food!" is a connection I do want them to make.
There's a total of 64 trees there.
One oddity I found when going out to finish planting today, is that some little nibbly creature has bitten one of the trees clean in half:
At first I thought it must be a dog, because I've seen dogs react to saplings with no leaves, thinking they are a nice stick for playing fetch. But had it been a dog, I think the tree would have been pulled completely out of the ground, not nipped in half. So I'm assuming it's was caused by a rabbit or field mouse or something
I've lost more saplings that way. Squirrels, rabbits, and other rodents will just chew whatever to keep their teeth pointy (they keep growing). There's also the occasional deer that will just bite down on saplings that are soft enough, not sure if it's food or they just think it could be.
There's also something in my yard that likes to dig wherever I just dug. Which means the day after transplanting something into the outdoor garden, it's roots are at least partially dug up. I've taken to covering up where I dug with leaves and such so it doesn't look like fresh turned soil, and that seems to help.
Just dumb enough to wage it.
take that back. raccoons > squirrels
https://the-toast.net/2016/05/05/everything-thats-wrong-of-raccoons/
Edit: Also!
The squirrels just chase each other around, look cute, and use their tails as an umbrella.
Although when I lived in CA we had a (spayed/neutered obviously) colony that was so pampered and lazy that birds would hang out around them and they wouldn't do anything because oh it's so difficult being a cat, why hunt when I can just go over there to the food dish. It was pretty bizarre to watch.