Me vs The Tree

The tree in my front yard is dead. I was hoping it would come around but since the builder planted the tree during the heat of the summer last year the tree didn't survive the heat of the summer.

This morning I woke up at 7:45am and my little one (Ladybug) was jumping all around wanting to go for a walk. So I leashed her up and off we went for a brisk walk around the block. By the way it was cold this morning! When I came up to my house I just cringed at that stupid dead tree. I looked at all my neighbors trees and all their trees are full bloom and looking good and there was my poor pathetic dead tree looking like a sore thumb in the neighborhood. 

I decided at that moment to take the tree out. I was going to go out there and with little effort yank that dead tree out of the ground. Since the tree has been dead since last year the roots never took so it shouldn't be that hard. Some things to take note, First the soil in the area is clay and the second it's been raining a lot lately.

I go get all my tools which consisted of a wheel barrel, a shovel, a rack and a hatchet and I start.

First, I rack back all the mulch then I begin to dig and dig a little more. The deeper I dug the muddier it got...ODD. After I figure I had dug enough and grabbed a hold of the tree and pushed and pulled and pushed again. The tree started to move. I told you this was going to be easy. The tree was at least moving some what freely.

However the more I moved the tree the more it made this sloshing sound. As I continued to move it water started to seep up. Now I was facing the problem of a mud hole. Gross!!!

So what do I do....I call Mitch! Not much he can do but I was hoping he could give me a magic idea to get the tree out...no luck. No magic ideas to remove a mud filled tree...I just needed muscle which I am lacking.

Then I saw my neighbor walking his dog, I said hi, he said hi and the poor man looked at my tree which at this point resembled the leaning tower of pisa , then looked at me and my cloths half covered in mud and then the tree again and asked if I needed help. I know he was thinking "what the hell are you trying to do lady...that tree is heavy and your not going to do it alone"

This is where I am learning to take up offers of help. For some reason, I am stubborn and it is hard to admit there are times I need help. Well, I knew in the back of my head I wasn't going to do this alone so I smiled at him....took a look at the leaning tree and turn back and said "yes, I need a lot of help".

Then the task begun again. He brought his pick ax and some rope and we hacked at the roots and removed more mud. Then he decided to try to pull it out with his car. We tied the rope around the roots and wire meshing and then to his car. Needless to say, the rope snapped.

So I called my dad and he said he had some chains and a come along that will get the tree out. He was still eating breakfast and needed to get dressed and would be over after while.

So Vince and I kept hacking away at the mud and roots. Once most of the mud and dirt was free from the roots we both started to pull on it and up it came! Right out of the ground! I have to admit it was very heavy! Then we yanked the wire mess out of the ground which was surprisingly heavy to.

I thanked Vince because this whole thing took 2 hours this morning and without the extra pair of hands and equipment I would probably still be working on it or I would have given up and left my tree dangling from the ground.

Then the clean up began! I filled in the hole with the dirt and mud I had dug out and then dumped a whole bag of mulch to finish filling in the hole and make it look clean. Then I hooked up the hose and sprayed down all the mug that got on my grass. Next I moved one of my pots filled with flowers over to the center of the hole and I called it done!

So in this case I won...even though I had to ask for help, I still won. The tree is out of the yard and the yard still looks good.

In fall I plan on removing all the mulch, finish filling in the dirt and seed it to let grass grow. No more trees in the front yard for me. If I plant any trees it will be in the backyard where I need the shade.

Here is what the end result was....I didn't think about getting any before pics but this is the end result....looks good enough!

Until my next adventure:)

I'VE FINALLY GOT IT!!!

That right there is the most beautiful blue piece of paper you will ever see! That piece of paper took me 30 days, two trips to the recorders office, three trips to the planning and development department and countless hours on the phone in order to receive it and lets not talk about the money dump that was required for this!

That is my fence permit!!!

I will very proudly display this one piece of paper in my front window in a week or two. This will announce to the entire neighborhood I am officially crazy and actually took the time and money to get this piece of paper so I can "legally" put up my privacy fence. Unlike some of my other neighbors who plan on skipping the permit and just putting up a fence. SCARY!!!

Now I can't wait to get started on my fence!!! Ready..... Set.....MITCH!!!!!

Patio and Fence

So the guy came to remeasure my patio and it ended up not being to much bigger. We talked about the details of what I wanted and he was impressed that I took the time to arrange my patio furniture in different spots to figure out what exactly I wanted.

I even took all the flags that were left behind from the utility companies and marked the design of my patio which really gave me a visual of what I wanted. Its going to be perfect!!

The estimated time of installation is May 14...so I have to await. In the meantime I'm still working on my fence! Its driving me crazy that my permit hasn't come through yet. I called last week just to check on it and the guy said he just hasn't had time to sit down with the public works department and he hopes to have something next week for me. They weren't joking that it takes 30 days for a permit to get approved...I think its ridiculous!

Once the permit is approved then I can order all my wood and then see who is willing to help out and what weekends everyone has available. It looks like the fence won't go up until May...so there is a chance we will be working on the fence the same time as the patio which is not idea. I don't want anything to happen to the patio. I'd like the fence to be in place before the patio but it will work out the way it works out.

Dress for Success

So the Morning Dove volunteer thing didn't work out for me. They never called me after I submitted the application. So Mom and I were talking and she volunteers once a month at Dress for Success which is an organization that provide professional attire for under prevalege women for interviews.

My mom is one of them who helps them pick out an interview outfit, which includes shoes, suit, handbag and some jewelry. So they are set up for their first interview. Its like being a fashion consultant...which sounds like fun.

So I put in my application and we will see what happens.

INSANITY

I purchased INSANITY about a year ago and attempted to complete it. I made it a week before a tweeked my back so I put it on the shelf and moved on. The past couple of months I've been thinking about it again, I think mainly because I'm feeling out of shape and have considered going to a gym and then that thought brought me to think about INSANITY.

So this morning after watching an infomercial for INSANITY, and let me tell you there really wasn't anything else to watch early this morning, I decided to do the test again and once again try to complete the two months. I'm horrible at sticking with stuff but I can at least try.

So I got the calendar stuff out which tells me what CD to watch on what day and it gives you a chart for the fitness test that you take every two weeks or so.

The fitness test is only a glimpse of what INSANITY is going to be like and let me tell you I AM OUT OF SHAPE. When you can't even finish the fitness test because your heart is beating to fast and your completely out of breath you know you are out of shape.

The fitness test consists of 8 exercises, and you complete as many reps in one minute of each exercises with a minute break between each one. Sounds easy but after the 3rd one I had to pause the CD for longer than a minute to catch my breath and then again a few exercises later. Its not that the test is all that hard...OK,yes it is but I'm really out of shape.

Here are my scores for each rep
Switch Kicks - 47
Power Jacks - 31
Power Knees - 65
Power Jumps - 12
Globe Jumps - 6
Suicide Jumps - 7
Push-up Jacks - 0 (I gave up on this one, after all the other ones I was tired, out of breath and decided to sit this one out)
Low Plank Oblique -30

If I can actually stick with the program I should be able to complete more in two weeks. You do a workout each day for 6 days and then your off for one day...which will be Saturday for me:) and then start again.

Wish me luck...I'll report back in two weeks.

Changing my mind

Sometime I wish I wouldn't change my mind so often however that's just who I am.

I'm moving forward with my concrete patio. Why the change of mind because one of the companies called me back and decided to give me a discount. The reason for the discount is because they were able to get other jobs in the area. The down side, I have to get my patio done the same time as everyone else. The discount as a good discount and I can't turn it down.

So, he's coming back out on Monday to remeasure and give me a new quote....I only need the new quote because I changed the size of the patio, again!! Of course, I made it bigger so that means more money.

The thing I have to workout is the fact that it is going to four days to get the patio done, which means I have to figure out what I'm going to do with  my dog. She's used to having free access to the backyard and has never had to hold it for long periods of time. Some options are to take her to a doggie day care, hire someone to walk her 2 times a day or see if I can work from home 4 hours during the patio install.

My first option is to see if I can work from home 4 hours a day during the patio install, second option is try to find someone to walk my dog during the day.

I'll work it out...its just 4 days,  no big deal!

I'll make sure to post pictures of the new patio...I'm so excited!

HAPPY EASTER!!!