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You're gonna laugh at me but I was quite envious of the lake view in this picture until I zoomed it and saw it is a building. Maybe I should wear my glasses

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Flyover said:
Discovered a huge patch of poison ivy in the back yard by one of the utility boxes. I couldn't whippersnip in there because I didn't want to spread poison ivy everywhere, or spray it on myself, so I'll have to go pull it out by hand before Friday. (We're having a party on Saturday.)

The only way anyone would know I won the lottery is if one day a crew shows up and hardscapes most of my property. How about a half-acre zen rock garden?

On the plus side I discovered a couple mulberry bushes. One is small, more like a sapling, but the other is probably 10 feet tall or more and I can see it will be yielding fruit this year. Looking forward to that! So now this means I've got maple syrup, cherries, peaches, and mulberries. Not bad for 42˚N and zone 3.
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I can't touch or get too close to poison ivy, so I bought a spray bottle of poison ivy killer to use on several areas of my Mom's yard, it turns it brown in a few hours. Also used it on poison ivy covered trees on edge of parking lot of my friend's store so he wouldn't get sued by customers contracting it.

You could move to Arizona where nothing grows and yards are stones/bare sand... air is dry and 120 degrees... to plant a bush or tree they call a plumber and landscaper and have water piped out to where the roots will be...

I have several small white mulberries and a big one way up here in N.W. Ohio. They grow fast like weeds and are difficult to fully kill. Cut them down and new one springs up from stump/roots. The big one I need to cut down. It was never supposed to get above about 12 feet high and just give privacy from the neighbors but someone borrowed my ladder and didn't return it and the neglected tree is about 30-40 feet now. It's near the driveway and leaves 3 horrible messes a year on the driveway/vehicles. Some kind of preflowering mess which is there now, dropped flowering mess, and dropped fruit mess. Plus birds sit on the branches and eat the dark purple berries and poop dark purple staining crap down on everything.
 
Have you tried regular Vinegar on the Poison Ivy? It kills everything I have ever sprayed it at.
 
I can't eat Chili without some Vinegar, but a lady told me to spray it on weeds, and it kills them very effectively. At about $2.20 a gallon, I will never pay for (Insert brand name) Cancer spray.
 
Shan, the garden looks great!
Last night a snake expert came out. He just finished up his degree the day before & was hoping to find the snake so he could confirm it's existence and location in this area so he could write about it for some paper/journal. Apparently there haven't been any of that species confirmed in my parish (so I was wrong about the "parish record" being size). They must have migrated here because I hadn't seen any before. I've promised him that if I see it again I will call him immediately. He searched under the house as much as he could (did not climb under as he was not dressed appropriately for it). He was going to crawl under in biker shorts and a t-shirt but I said it probably wouldn't be safe with all the crud under there. The sand will chew up elbows and he would need something to keep dirt out of his nose. I said he'd probably need coveralls to safely crawl under. He did tell me that the snake is likely to flee again if it encounters humans and it may leave if it feels uncomfortable with all of the pets around. Said they are too large for the snake to go after for food. He did say they will eat rabbits. My fluffy calico, Aminatu, followed the guy all around and tried to get in his truck when he was leaving. LOL. He said his wife got a calico cat and she runs amok all over the house sometimes & he is fine with just one cat so he handed Aminatu to me so she couldn't take a ride with him.
Came back inside after he left and my smallest cat had caught a rabbit. She ate 3/4 of it while I got something for Mom to eat.
Mom no longer likes the shepherd's pie so I will need to find something else for her to eat.
The guy who owes us $ to do yard work is *supposed* to come this weekend. We'll see if he actually shows up.
Trying to rest today.
 
So zannej... The guy just finished his degree in snake catching, but nothing was in the lesson plans about crawling on the ground? Was he wearing a suit? Oh please say he was wearing a suit. That would be AWESOME!
 
A couple weeks ago we got one of those round swings that are all the rage, and hung it from a thick branch of our big maple via a seatbelt-like strap material. Well the swing was too low, I felt one of the roots scraping my butt every time I went over it, so I wanted to get the swing up off the ground a little more. Today I finally got around to it.

Dumb old me, I disconnected the swing from the strap, then threw the strap up over the branch so it'd loop. Needless to say it didn't go exactly where I wanted it to. First it was stuck in this little branch, then that little branch, each time me climbing up on a ladder and using a stick to poke it where I wanted it to go, sometimes to where I could grab it and throw it again.

Maybe 5 throws later I had looped it around a little branch off to the side somewhere and had to get out my 16ft extension ladder and after a very harrowing shaky climb with a long stick in one hand I was able to correct this issue and allow the strap to hang normally with one extra loop around the branch. I re-attached the swing, to discover it was 3 feet off the ground and only the biggest kids could get on it by jumping and hauling themselves up.

Then I saw how stupid I was. I disconnected the swing again, used the ladder to climb up and undo the extra wrap around the branch, re-attached the swing, and used the adjustment brackets on the actual swing rope to raise it up about a foot. Perfect.

PS. And of course I did all this in flip flops because I do everything in flip flops.
 
Spicoli, he was wearing a t-shirt and spandex biker shorts. I told him I didn't want him climbing under the house unless he had coveralls and a mask (to keep dirt out of his mouth & nose bc the dirt kicks up terribly under there & you breathe it in).

I'm still trying to figure out if we should just wait and see if my friend feels comfortable climbing back under there or see how much of it I can do myself. Problem is, I'm too fat to squeeze through a lot of the places I'd need to go. At least I have more time to clean before he comes out again though. I'm hoping to get to the point that we can open the back door. Bro piled more stuff up there.

Went grocery shopping and found more stuff was in that wasn't in last time. Was too tired to clean when I got home. Just finished watching Father Brown, Death In Paradise, and Midsomer Murders on PBS.
 
A young raccoon passed through dumping pots. It dumped my only pineapple tomato plant. I found it in the mess and repotted it. I think I'll try to trap the coon tonight.
 
zannej said:
Spicoli, he was wearing a t-shirt and spandex biker shorts. I told him I didn't want him climbing under the house unless he had coveralls and a mask (to keep dirt out of his mouth & nose bc the dirt kicks up terribly under there & you breathe it in).

I'm still trying to figure out if we should just wait and see if my friend feels comfortable climbing back under there or see how much of it I can do myself. Problem is, I'm too fat to squeeze through a lot of the places I'd need to go. At least I have more time to clean before he comes out again though. I'm hoping to get to the point that we can open the back door. Bro piled more stuff up there.

Went grocery shopping and found more stuff was in that wasn't in last time. Was too tired to clean when I got home. Just finished watching Father Brown, Death In Paradise, and Midsomer Murders on PBS.
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Sorry, I truly wish your situation would be resolved, but you need to hire a professional, not a moron like Jim Carrey.
 
Eddie_T said:
A young raccoon passed through dumping pots. It dumped my only pineapple tomato plant. I found it in the mess and repotted it. I think I'll try to trap the coon tonight.
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The coon? I have only seen 6 or so at a time.
 
Jeez Spicoli, you never met this guy and you're calling him a moron? I know not every college degree reliably indicates exceptional intelligence, and Zannej didn't say whether this guy had just received his bachelor's or his doctorate, but based on the description provided I'd guess he studied something like biology or zoology with a concentration in herpatology, and either way this is almost certainly not his first time doing "field work". He is interested in the apparently novel presence of a certain species of snake in Zannej's parish. I'd say that sounds pretty interesting, with actual (if modest) possible rewards for scientific understanding. Why all the hate?

As for raccoons, I've seen both loners and groups. Maybe it depends on whether it's an adult male or a female&pups / group of young littermates.
 
Ok, so shall we talk about mowers again? I think that's a SWELL idea! I still haven't gotten my Cub Cadet Zero Turn Electric, model ULTIMA ZT1-42E.

Home Depot.com says it was delivered Monday... Not True.
YRC.com shipping says it was delivered Monday... Not True.
Home Depot.com chat says it was delivered to a service center to be put together... Not True.
YRC on the phone after an hour says it's at the local shipping depot to be delivered when they have a lift gate, maybe next week... Sure.

That would put it at 7 weeks since ordering...

Now, the blessing in disguise may be that apparently the things could be garbage. That would of course be the all too reliable reviews that go both ways from the best product ever to the worst. There is obviously one way to figure that out, but it's undeniable that everybody using these BRAND NEW things is a Guinea Pig tester.

If it's garbage, I have to tell Home Depot to take it back and go buy a gas one for immediate delivery at Lowe's.

Oh, and if you are in the market for an Electric riding mower, don't go to Home Depot for another reason... They keep them outside. Where I'm from, it rains and snows. Of course, check any other retailer to see how they treat their mowers.
 
Flyover, I don't care if he has 3 PhD's. Having advanced degrees in anything means one is good at sitting at a desk. When it comes to actually practicing in any field, this one being removal of a venomous creature, showing up in spandex bike shorts makes him a CERTIFIED MORON.

Unless he was training for the Tour De La Baton Rouge and zannej's place was on the way, so he wanted to get an idea before bringing the work truck, he has no business in the field he chose, no matter how book smart he is.
 
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