Last night was a test to my sanity and ability to stay calm in freak-out-worthy situations. I was about to cook dinner when I saw something scurry along the baseboard. Oh crap! And from what I could tell it wasn't a mouse. Oh $h%&! And let me just clarify that I was HOME ALONE. So what is a girl to do when she's home ALONE with an unidentified scurrying animal in the house?! I was on the verge of freaking out but then my adrenaline kicked in and I was DETERMINED to capture whatever this thing was or else I was not going to sleep a wink that night. So I grabbed the first thing I saw on the counter, a bowl, and was on a mission to catch this thing.....
DONE. Ok, so now what?!
Solution: wait for the hubs to come home and make sure nothing moves or escapes from this bowl!
An hour later, the hubs comes home to a bowl on the floor with an unidentified furry animal inside...so the hubs grabbed a piece of flimsy card-stock paper and then a cookie sheet...and off to the back yard we go! MY HERO!
The anticipation was killing us both to examine what was underneath this bowl...only to find out, that this "thing" was already dead. YUCK!
From what I gather, this "thing" was a vole. No that is not a typo, a vole. I googled it. And google knows everything, DUH.
Here is the hubs (in business attire an all) tossing our dead vole into the bushes. YUCKEROONIES.
But wait, there's more. I found evidence near the basement door. That little vole chewed away the spray foam we used to seal a hole we discovered in the frame of the basement door.
Looks like we will be running to Home Depot this weekend to find another solution to patch up this hole. One thing is for sure....life is always an adventure!
I apologize in advance if I start sounding like a broken record, but....I swear with every weed I pull in the yard, 3 pop up in it's place. The area on the left side of our house is a jungle mess of weeds, dandelions and everything in-between. A few months ago I spent the better part of an afternoon clearing this area of all the out-of-control weeds. I even had a run in with Ms. Ivy who came back for some revenge (literally). But I was determined to win this battle. Only to realize a few weeks later the weeds came back with a vengeance. So I weeded some more, only to realize a few weeks later that this battle was a full on war. Needless to say, the area looked like this...
(BEFORE)
Pretty much a total embarrassment in my opinion. So the hubs and I were determined to win this war with weeds. So we decided to lay down landscaping fabric in hopes to suffocate and lock out those pesky weeds. It seemed like a relatively easy and cost effective solution. So we weeded one last time and started to lay down fabric - seen here....
Oh, and it's virtually impossible to tell in the photos, but it was about 95 degrees out, 80% humidity and we were dripping with sweat. Hence the hubs taking a break (or purposely turning his head to avoid my photo?). But after laying the fabric, we covered with mulch and and voila! Instant transformation!
(AFTER)
Looks like we won this war!
Life in the burbs is moving a warp speed...I feel like summer has crept up on me and there are still plenty of projects to get done! Summer's should be spent sitting poolside or lounging on the patio with a margarita in hand. Apparently I live in a fantasy world because there is no time for that! The new screen door in the porch needs to be painted (4 weeks later....oops!), my flea market chair (in this post) has been begging for my attention since last year, and the side yard's jungle of weeds needs to be tamed with landscaping fabric and mulch. I swear with every 1 weed I pull another 3 pop up in its place. Not to mention the gazillion "helicopters" from our maple tree that have taken over and sprouted everywhere.
And yes, we are now those neighbors that have tree's a mini jungle growing in our gutters - which apparently you have to pay people to clean? They look like this...
The photo above is NOT my gutter, just a stand-in photo at the moment. But don't worry, our gutters look FAR worse that this one. I plan on taking a pic or two to post just for giggles this weekend. Warning: you may be horrified at the current state of our actual gutters! Stay tuned!
