What we've been working on

After we had our deck integrasealed, Jim decided that we needed to do something about the rain water run-off under the deck because the staircase had shifted away from the deck a couple of inches.  So we created a couple of dry streambeds that would steer the water away from that area.  Jim did almost all the work himself because he had two truckloads of rock that had to be wheel-barrowed from the driveway to the back and I really couldn’t help with that so I played supervisor.  After the rock was done he did the same thing with mulch.  I think it turned out nice and we’ve already had some heavy downpours and the rain seems to be diverting nicely.

Before

Jim's a hard worker!

After

We realize that it won't stay this nice & clean but we're enjoying it while we can....

Invasive things

A couple of weeks ago Jim & I saw a program on the National Geographic channel about the Asian carp that are invading our rivers across America. I had already been aware of the Asian carp because I had seen other news pieces about them being in the Mississippi River and how they jump out of the water & can knock you out if you’re hit by one while boating along. Anyway, they are very invasive and the experts have determined that they’ve now reached Lake Michigan. Scary stuff if you ask me.


This post is not about the Asian carp but about another invasive species from Asia. The Bradford pear tree is a cultivar of the Callery pear which is from, you guessed it, China. I had read a while back that Bradford pears were very invasive and taking over roadways in the Northeast. I found it hard to believe that they were invasive but now I’m convinced. Jim cut down our Bradford pear tree when it split in two during a storm a month or so ago. Now, where the stump is there are a million little babies. Take a look at the pictures and you can see how far away from the stump the little “trees” are growing – some as far away as 10 or more feet. How’s that for invasive?

And I won't even get into feral pigs......