We don't need no stinkin' lawn

I was going to whine about another part of the garden needing flowers removed.

This is what I saw when I got home. It reminded me of the movie 'The Money Pit'

lawn - what lawn... I have plants scattered along the drive way, but most seem to be saved.

Why is it always the last place you look? They dug the entire width of the yard to find the sewer drain. They found the old footings to the original porch about 3' from the current porch.

Crap.

Literally. Our annual Spring blocked drain pipe to the road was more than just roots this year. The pipe was crushed to a 1/2" opening. Lucky me. Money we saved to live off on in case the state shuts down for a month was the exact amount needed to pay for a new pipe to the sewer. I know I should feel lucky that we had the money available, but somehow I don't feel it.

I have spent the last few weekends working on a garden that I thought was in great shape. I wasn't planning on adding to it, but a friend was thinning out her garden. Last year many of her perennials went to the compost pile. So I volunteered to take her extras. She had so many that I was pretty busy. Again thinking that when I got done planting I can just enjoy my garden this year. I would thin out my own garden next year. One garden area project ended up being a much larger project than I expected. I am hoping the effort will be worth it - many of the plants were stressed when planted, so it looks nasty. I am expecting it to be stronger next year.

What I wasn't expecting was removing 12' of garden in the front of my house to accommodate a drain pipe. (This is most of the plants from the top photo.) I got home from work and spent the rest of the evening trying to find temporary locations for all of the plants. Later this morning I got a call from Ram-niss. They couldn't find the drain pipe and are now going further down the porch. He wanted to know what plants I needed to keep. "All of them!" was my reply. So now he will be moving more plants. I have no idea what our lawn is going to look like. Somehow that isn't nearly as annoying as redoing 5 years of gardening this weekend.

I thought I was going to be able to sit back and just enjoy my garden this year.

Did I meantion that the dryer died? It has the same symptoms that it had last month when we paid for a repair man to come and fix it. Ram-niss and son purchased a used dryer for less than a repair man. We can still dink with it on our own, meanwhile we can continue with the laundry... once the sewer drain is repaired...

Linden Fire

The kids and I went to Gaines to visit old friends and help thin her garden. (I just pointed at what I wanted and her husband dug it up.) I eventually had to stop because it was obvious that if I got any more, children would be forced to run alongside the car for the drive home.

I had heard on the news that there had been a fire at the Broad Street Grille in Linden. This was one of my favorite buildings. They had spent a lot of money, time and effort restoring it. While we were in the area, we stopped in Linden. Unfortunately the building will be no more. It is to be torn down. Linden is a very small community and this was the large percentage of their downtown. It is very sad.

The image below is a slide show. I hope it loads.

I added a bunch of photos from the zoo and of my garden. If interested check it out!

Zoo, girls, and posies

Of little interest...

This is of little interest to anyone outside of the family. (... and I am not sure how interested they would be as well...) This is a snippet from last night's St. Johns High School band concert. This is the symphonic band. For family members not able to come and are interested in hearing some of the concert this is for you. Son is the round head under Mr. Davis' directing arm. You will recognise the big ears. So enjoy, the tuba solo piece is very good.

Weekend Sun

A little slow in posting. These were from last weekend - Mother's Day. The girls and I went to the zoo.

Pony rides around a nice path.

This is the new otter exhibit. Otters are my favorite. Very nice setup. There is more than these few photos. Potter park does have more than goats.

Mother's Day on our way to MIL brunch. T is wearing her new dress. After I finally found a slip and removed 4" from the hem.

On the needles are the 'pup tent' and a pair of socks. I also have another sweater going. (It is a quick knit - I have frogged the left front panel it 3 times. That exciting *snore* story in following posts.)

Wedding Shower

I can't believe that it has been so long since my last post. In that time we have had 2 gas line punctures outside of our office and a 3rd on the backside of the block. No evacuations, though Friday's I could actually smell in my office and went home. It was nauseating and I had a nasty headache.

I have been knitting. The above photo is of a wedding shower gift. They are washcloths from the Mason-Dixon Knitting book. Inside the enclosed cloth is homemade soap from a local shop.

On the needles is a small pup tent. I am knitting Avast for Ram-niss, with a few alterations. I am using yarn that I picked up at our knitting guild meeting a few months back. Sharon Winsauer was doing a program on lace knitting and shawls. When she walked in the door she had a ton of yarn, placed it on several tables and told us to please take what we wanted because she was not leaving with any of it. I picked up a couple of colors. Everyone did their best holding back so that everyone could get something. Ram-niss liked the yarn I brought home, so now the original yarn I bought is sitting in a bag. I hope there is enough of Sharon's yarn. It is DK weight and is being knitted on smaller needles. I can go buy a complimentary color to work the sleeves.

The other knit, besides the socks - is a toy that I was trying to get done this weekend. That didn't happen. So I will finish it up and put it away for a certain holiday at the end of the year.

Zoe and B plotting.