Home Improvements

One of the cons of living in a subdivision with a homeowners association is making sure we follow the rules (which I sometimes, don't even know!).  Spring 2008, we received, along with many other homeowners, a notice that we needed to replace the mulch or pine straw in our islands.  Who knew it had to be freshened!?  So we dutifully had new bark put down.  Fast forward to this spring.  We knew the notice was coming.  (Actually the notice we received was that we had too many weeds in the lawn.  Sigh.)  But before they could notify us, we were blessed with free wood chips!  Several trees across the street in the woodsy part of the common area had died over the winter and needed to come down.  When the guys came out to do the job, Jeff noticed the sign on the truck door, "Ask us about Free Chips."  So he did!  They had not promised the chips to anyone yet, so dumped the whole truck load on our side yard in the pine straw.  Jeff spent days transporting them by wheelbarrow to our beds and islands.  That, along with the new trees and plants we planted, is helping the yard get shaped up!

We transplanted these from the front yard to the back yard.  We planted hosta and gardenias in their place in the front.
Since we live on a lake, we are constantly looking out for snakes!  I have seen a few swimming in the lake, but so far, not any in our yard.  A neighbor said she tried running over what she thought was a rattlesnake, that went into our yard when she missed him!  So I wasn't surprised when I was walking the dog one day, when Cleo was sniffing like crazy beside our front porch.  I stepped closer to see what was there, but quickly stepped back again!  It wasn't a live snake, not even a whole snake, just his skin.  But he shed it not three feet from our front door!