This is the front of our house:
Here is our custom-built (by Hubby), extra-large, stainless steel mailbox:
With the tulips I planted last fall:
Look down the road to the right:
And down the road to the left:
There are lots of cool things about living out where we are, such as . . .
. . . we have a tractor
We can burn stuff, and nobody cares. This used to be a pile of tree limbs from the yard:
And this will eventually be gotten rid of the same way:
Forget bags, we buy mulch by the truckload - mulching is my job!
AND we have a wood-burning boiler that heats the house and the hot water. This past winter, it saved us over $1,000 because we didn't have to buy propane - just chop wood!
Hubby built it himself - please note & appreciate how it matches the garage.
Something else I like about our home is that there are plenty of places for plants!
These plants were already there when we moved in . . .
My favorite shrub - gets beautiful pink flowers in the summer:
I love this lilac shrub - we had to seriously prune it (with a chainsaw) as it was terribly overgrown and blocking our view of the road, but it's come back beautifully:
See?
And this - this is the bane of my existence. It gets lovely white flowers in the summer, but it hasn't been pruned since who-knows-when, and the branches grow together in a huge twisty mess. I've tried three times to prune it with no luck - once I cut the branches, I can't remove them from the jumble - so we're going to have to chainsaw it, as well.
Here is something funny - these bricks were here when we moved in, I have no idea why, but Pepper has decided there is something living in this tree, so he spends an ample amount of time digging for it. He's now gotten it dug out enough that he can fit his whole body in the trunk, so I have dubbed it "Pepper's Secret Lair":
I have no clue what this shrub is, but it gets marvelous red flowers in the spring:
And finally, my favorite flower - the resurrection lily. It looks like this now:
but in awhile the leaves will die off and there will be nothing. Then, toward the end of the season, the flowers will show up:
They're also called "magic lilies" or "naked ladies."
As much as I love the plants that were here before us, I'm also quite proud of the ones I've added.
This is the first planting I did - it involved digging up a bazillion yucca plants and replacing them with Asiatic lilies surrounded by daylilies:
Here's another - hyacinths, tulips, and something else I've forgotten, surrounding St. Francis (who looks out for our weenie dogs!):
This is a trellis I built from tree limbs, to set off another area that I'd worked in - the plants were already there but they needed to be thinned out.
This year, I planted a climbing jasmine for the trellis.
I know it looks kind of sad, but if you look closely, you'll see there's new growth at the bottom - yay!
I have two more jasmine plants waiting to go up on these beautiful trellises that Hubby built for my birthday:
Notice the wonderfully beveled edges? Hubby does not mess around!
Here are some seeds I've started in pots - flower mixes for cutting:
and lettuce:
Speaking of growing things you can eat, here are some photos from my garden.
Hubby built the raised bed for me last year:
And in it, I attempt to grow such things as . . .
parsley,
oregano,
carrots (for the first time),
basil,
strawberries, which not only came back from last year (which they're supposed to do but I always worry),
but they've already got flowers!
This year, I tried my hand at potatoes:
Silly me, I didn't notice they'd sprouted until I looked at them next to a strawberry plant and realized it wasn't just an offshoot. See the difference?
However, something that also comes with living in the country is this:
Someone's been in my garden!!!
I wonder who it could be . . . oh, here's a clue:
Yup - Bambi and Thumper. Bambi has also been responsible for tipping my birdfeeder to spill out all the seed.
So I had to add some things to the garden:
Marigolds are supposed to be a natural deterrent, and they're pretty!
And to wrap up the garden tour, here's the view behind the garden on a cloudy day:
What else should we do this afternoon? Oh right - play with weenie dogs!
First, Hubby takes Pepper on a ride. Pepper LOVES rides - car, truck, motorcycle, 4-wheeler:
Oscar does not like the 4-wheeler - it's too noisy for him. But when it is turned off, he gets jealous if he doesn't get to sit on it with Dad:
After the ride, it's time to play fetch.
I've never seen a little dog move so fast - as soon as Pepper drops the toy, he's off and running:
He's just a little fuzzy blur:
He only stops to get a grip on the toy:
Or - on very rare occasions - to catch his breath:
Oscar, on the other hand, believes in the slow-and-steady method of fetch:
But occasionally, he will get mad:
This is Oscar being mad:
Can you see what he's mad at? Look closely in the upper right corner:
But once I shake the toy out of the tree, he's content. So content that he leaves the toy for something better - a stick!
Meanwhile, Pepper has discovered one of the many mole-holes in our yard, and is convinced that he is going to evict the occupant:
Yep, if he keeps digging, surely he'll get that mole . . .
He didn't have any luck, but we did end up with a Pepper-sized trench in the yard:
Oh well.
That wraps up this afternoon - after all this fun, it's time for some serious weenie-dog snoozing. Thanks so much for coming to visit!
