Before (left) - After (right)

Backyard Make-Over

There were a lot of things we immediately liked about the house the first time we saw it. However, the landscaping was not one of them. We looked at each other and said "take it out"! Now I realize that to many people a yard of Oleander, Gardina bushes, Roses, etc would be wonderful. However, the Oleander reminded Larry of the freeways in California where Oleander is used in the medians; the rose bushes were many years old and had been neglected. They were very large but need a lot more TLC and work than I was willing to give them. Besides, roses are not easy to grow in the desert. The gardenia bush was huge and about half of it had to be kept cut away so you could walk up the sidewalk to the front door. Other assorted trees had been let go until there were a few stray limbs with leaves on them. So...for the last 3 months we have been spending weekends taking everything out by cutting it down and digging it out. I will gladly give him credit for doing the digging and at least half of the cutting. There are 2 really nice palm trees that had not been trimmed in years. The drip system worked but most of the water was coming from breaks instead of from the drip lines it was supposed to come out of. And oh yes, the rocks! I have never seen so many river rocks (1" - 3") in my life outside of a river. They were not just on the surface of the ground but were a foot down in the dirt. If I had a dollar for every shovel full of rocks we moved...

The palm trees have now been trimmed and look wonderful. The areas have been replanted with desert plants. The drip sysem has been replaced and the water comes out where it is supposed to now. About all that is left is the time to enjoy it.. And yes, the golfers put their 2 cents in on what we were doing...

Golfer Watching - Our Favorite Entertainment

One of Larry's wishes, when we were looking for a house to buy, was that it would be on a golf course and we were pleased to find one that met the requirment - along with 15 more requirments on the list. The house is not only on a golf course but the 18th tee is just on the other side of the 2' wall that surrounds our back yard. We are about 30-35 feet from the golfers when we are setting in our chairs on the patio. People pay for entertainment that is not nearly as good as the entertainment we have while watching the golfers that play through. Some are good and some are really, really, really bad. They are all sizes and shapes. There are business people and some who look like they came straight from Woodstock. Some are young and some are old, not just mature but old and can barely walk. One buy who has had many, many birthdays drives the cart up on the tee so he minimizes how far he has to walk. Then there are the very spry senior citizens who walk the course and carry their clubs. We have some interesting conversations with some and others pretend they don't see us. For a fun Sunday afternoon, get a cool drink, sunglasses, newspaper and retire to the patio for a fun, entertaining afternoon. Hard to beat and it's free!

Is it Spring or Fall?

Cool nights…
Warn days…
Planting tomatoes, lettuce, spring flowers…
Getting the furnace checked out for the coming winter…
Grass is greening up and has dew on it in the mornings…
Butterflies and birds are everywhere…
People are starting to come out of their houses and are active during the day…

Having lived in “traditional climates” (Midwest, California, etc)and now having lived in the desert for a year, late October is when it is heard to know if it is spring or fall. All of the above are currently going on around us here in the desert. The nurseries are full of vegetables and what I think of as spring flowers but here they are planted in the fall. The summer is a memory with it’s 100+ days and now the weather becomes the ideal climate and what brings the snowbirds to the desert in droves. The butterflies and birds that are everywhere are those that have migrated from their summer residence up north to the sourth for the winter. Some will stay here all winter and others are just stopping on their way further south. So….if fall is spring then what is spring?