So we were becoming "
those neighbors" up until Saturday, the one's with the lawn so tall and unmowed that it was becoming it's own sustainable habitat. But alas, we bought a lawnmower. Not just any lawnmower, an electric lawnmower. Now we are one step closer to having no carbon footprint! The good folk at Sears hooked us up with
this fine model. I debated between a simple plug-in model or one that had batteries and ended up with the corded variety. Two reasons: Much cheaper and not having batteries to maintain and push around seemed like the smart idea. Since we switched to 100% renewable power for our house (50% wind and 50% hydroelectric from
Community Energy) , mowing the lawn will now be zero-emission. Saturday afternoon's mowing session was quite exhilarating. I did a rough pass in the backyard with the blade at the highest setting (really really high, abba zabba you my only friend) and then brought the blade down to almost as low as it would go and did another pass perpendicular to the first. It's a whole new lawn!
Pretty soon I will have it looking like Yankee Stadium.
The front yard is another story. I didn't want to mow where they replaced the septic system, since there is a lot of rocks in the dirt and they are coming soon to dump fresh topsoil there. The problem is that some really tall grasses have sprouted up from the dirt there. I figured I could just mow all places around the edge of the yard so we would at least appear to be taking care of our lawn and they would understand the part about the new septic system. There was one little spot directly in front of the house that came out real nice, but I got down the side of the driveway and right near the end I felt the cord get very tight. Crap, we only bought a 100' extension cord and it won't reach all the way to the road.
Note how I got almost to the corner fence by the driveway and then started to weedwack the tall grass above the septic field. Doing that lasted about for about 250 square feet.
The mission of the day will be to get an additional 50' cord and finish the front.
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Now playing:
Phish - Wolfman's Brothervia FoxyTunes
The quarter round trim is finally installed in every room except the spare bedroom. We bought it weeks ago and it has been sitting in the garage. I had the day off Friday so thanks to Richard and Doug for the air compressor, finishing nailer, and miter box I was able to get it finished. No more ugly transitions from the wood floors to the walls!
Pretty soon I will have it looking like Yankee Stadium. 
Note how I got almost to the corner fence by the driveway and then started to weedwack the tall grass above the septic field. Doing that lasted about for about 250 square feet. 
The mission of the day will be to get an additional 50' cord and finish the front.
A set of end tables that the seller believes to be from the 40's. They are a light green that has been well-faded over the past 60 years. The tops needed a quick sanding to remove some peeling paint but they are in great condition overall. This weekend we might have to hit up the Elephant's Trunk Flea Market, but it will be a tall order to rival the Avon Flea Market...
We got a filter/pump/fountain kit and now you can finally see all the way to the bottom (which is about 18" deep, so not really deep at all). The fountain makes a slight bubbling sound, so it's pretty nice to open the bedroom window and go to sleep and wake to the sound of water bubblin' in the pond. During the cleaning process I had to put the fish in a bucket so I could drain the pond. He was pretty disturbed, all thrashing around in the bucket. When I went to drain the rest of the water, I felt the same thrashing of an excited fish 4 more times. Turns out there were more koi in the pond - 5 total. The biggest is the orange one and the other 4 are all smaller brown ones. Which means its time to get some new "color-enhancing' koi food to fatten up the small ones and make them turn orange too (if they even do that, I'm not sure)
It looks kinda boring now that the green is all gone. The lilly pads that are there are brown, so I think it's time for a trip to the Lowe's garden center and get a couple more water plants that are nice and bright green so make it look more lively in the habitat. These fish better learn to eat out of our hands after all the effort we are making to give them a nice home.
