I am hot, sweaty, and PISSY!!!

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gillumhouse

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I saw my yard boy at the Chinese restaurant last week and told him my grass is at my ankles and above and that I had guests coming in. It is now OVER my ankles. I just went out with the manual clippers (I cannot manage the electric ones - too heavy) and risked the poison ivy to do the hedges. I am going to wait for the sun to go down a bit to get out the lawn mower. I am too old for this crap. My knees and my back are going to scream tonight!
As soon as my roof gets done (so I know where I am in the $$ dept) I am going to contact a landscaper in the area about making this yard look GOOD. Vines I got rid of 16 years ago are coming back and they have all but killed my big rhodo bush. I desparately want rid of the blue spruce before it falls on my house or puts half the town out of power. I know what I really want for that yard (not grass) but I will have to win the lottery to do it.
So here I sit, a drippy mess with arms that are shaking fom the strain of using those clippers and madder than a wet hen!
 
I have a friend who is half your age and she decided to save money she'd do her whole yard herself. She had been paying $60/week to have the whole thing mowed, trimmed, raked. She let the guy go. It took her 4 hours and an entire roll of weed whacker string to do what the lawn guy did in 1 1/2 hours. She ain't making money running the lawn mower herself. She's got a new guy for next week.
The one thing it really pays to do is make a good first impression.
 
I have a friend who is half your age and she decided to save money she'd do her whole yard herself. She had been paying $60/week to have the whole thing mowed, trimmed, raked. She let the guy go. It took her 4 hours and an entire roll of weed whacker string to do what the lawn guy did in 1 1/2 hours. She ain't making money running the lawn mower herself. She's got a new guy for next week.
The one thing it really pays to do is make a good first impression..
Exactly! THAT is why I am so angry. It is not as if I do not pay him well. I pay him $20 every time (figuring it will take between 1.5 & 2 hours) he mows etc. (hedges, edge) and I have never come unglued with him when he cut my flowers and herbs (yes, I did identify what is good stuff first). IF I add something extra, I give him another $10. I do not have a large yard. I will not be edging, but even I can do the side & back yards in 1.5 hours if DH leaves me alone. The yard is not level (blue spruce roots) so it is hard on my lower back.
 
I always hired a lawn service or yard guy when we had the business, to do both our yards. It cost me about at least $100 for each visit (more if they did anything "extra" like spray Roundup or trim anything). It was done like clockwork and I didn't have to be out there in the hideous heat during the Summer. The yards always looked neat and presentable for guests.
I've been doing our yard (sometimes my dh helps) for the last two years and it looks better than it ever did when I hired people, mostly because I'm a perfectionist and I do it when it needs it, not when a company has it on their schedule. I just hired someone to do some big things that I just didn't want to do.
I couldn't have survived in the biz as long as I did without someone to do the yards There are always trade-offs....
 
It started to rain before I finished the side yard (what people see) but I finished - and of course DH heard the mower and came out. I had to shut the mower off to hear him tell me how to do it. The grass was so high it looks like a hay field was cut! At least it cooled off from what it was this morning.
Perhaps I will do the back yard tomorrow. Needs done before the weekend.
I got a request from the bank for photos I took Saturday and blogged about - so I did the blog again on Interactive. I made a CD of the photos I took Saturday (got a text from my Leader requesting me to go to the Park if I was in town - Tourist Info Center here) and took it over to the bank. I even got 3 loads of laundry done and dried on the line today. Now to get it all upstairs - tomorrow is another day.
 
It started to rain before I finished the side yard (what people see) but I finished - and of course DH heard the mower and came out. I had to shut the mower off to hear him tell me how to do it. The grass was so high it looks like a hay field was cut! At least it cooled off from what it was this morning.
Perhaps I will do the back yard tomorrow. Needs done before the weekend.
I got a request from the bank for photos I took Saturday and blogged about - so I did the blog again on Interactive. I made a CD of the photos I took Saturday (got a text from my Leader requesting me to go to the Park if I was in town - Tourist Info Center here) and took it over to the bank. I even got 3 loads of laundry done and dried on the line today. Now to get it all upstairs - tomorrow is another day..
You need a fake headset. Just point at it when he's waving at you and keep going.
 
It started to rain before I finished the side yard (what people see) but I finished - and of course DH heard the mower and came out. I had to shut the mower off to hear him tell me how to do it. The grass was so high it looks like a hay field was cut! At least it cooled off from what it was this morning.
Perhaps I will do the back yard tomorrow. Needs done before the weekend.
I got a request from the bank for photos I took Saturday and blogged about - so I did the blog again on Interactive. I made a CD of the photos I took Saturday (got a text from my Leader requesting me to go to the Park if I was in town - Tourist Info Center here) and took it over to the bank. I even got 3 loads of laundry done and dried on the line today. Now to get it all upstairs - tomorrow is another day..
You need a fake headset. Just point at it when he's waving at you and keep going.
.
What a thought! I am now in sit-down mode. Will try to finish the backpacks I knitted for 2 of the granddaughters. Next week is Christmas!
 
this is one of the things I really want to get done but have been hampered by the roof project - want to get most of the front block paved but didn't want them dropping things or the scaffolders damaged - so had to wait till all that was done!
trouble is one side has been done with concrete and awful concrete slabs which sprout weeds all the time, middle part path is tarmac and has been done on the super cheap ie every time needed doing they just put another layer on top so as the layers have broken up ive been pulling bits off and taking them to the tip so that there will be less to go when its finally done.
The last section is slabs put down by the builders under the PO's with no bedding at all just straight into the mud! its a weeding nighmare!
 
This has been another get it in gear day. "The Boy" still has not shown his face so now the "back 40 hayfield" is done. Hot, sweaty, and red-faced - I am going to look sooo good when I see my grandkids for the first time in a year (thanks to Germany last year, it has only been 1 year).
Both rooms from last night flipped, one load of towels in the dryer and it sounds as if the first load of sheets is ready for the clothesline so I can start the next load. The new slide-out cabinet to fill the gap between my stove and the counter is coming tonight. He will install it while I go play in a bocce tournament tomorrow. The young man told me he did find the piece of butcher block he thought he had and used it for the top - always nice to have another cutting area.
 
This has been another get it in gear day. "The Boy" still has not shown his face so now the "back 40 hayfield" is done. Hot, sweaty, and red-faced - I am going to look sooo good when I see my grandkids for the first time in a year (thanks to Germany last year, it has only been 1 year).
Both rooms from last night flipped, one load of towels in the dryer and it sounds as if the first load of sheets is ready for the clothesline so I can start the next load. The new slide-out cabinet to fill the gap between my stove and the counter is coming tonight. He will install it while I go play in a bocce tournament tomorrow. The young man told me he did find the piece of butcher block he thought he had and used it for the top - always nice to have another cutting area..
Sounds like you have bounced back! Still vertical, on the move and taking nourishment!...I think you are going to make it to September!
thumbs_up.gif

 
This has been another get it in gear day. "The Boy" still has not shown his face so now the "back 40 hayfield" is done. Hot, sweaty, and red-faced - I am going to look sooo good when I see my grandkids for the first time in a year (thanks to Germany last year, it has only been 1 year).
Both rooms from last night flipped, one load of towels in the dryer and it sounds as if the first load of sheets is ready for the clothesline so I can start the next load. The new slide-out cabinet to fill the gap between my stove and the counter is coming tonight. He will install it while I go play in a bocce tournament tomorrow. The young man told me he did find the piece of butcher block he thought he had and used it for the top - always nice to have another cutting area..
Sounds like you have bounced back! Still vertical, on the move and taking nourishment!...I think you are going to make it to September!
thumbs_up.gif

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One more VERY long day - breakfast, bocce tournament from 9 til whenever, pack, load, Chapel at 11....... At least everything is caught up. I can take rooms tonight and if I do not (other than my cabinet builder) I am ready for the rez the day after we get back. It is scary - I have never been this organized.
 
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