Monday, April 19, 2021

A Little Bit Of The Good, The Bad And The Ugly

Hi, Friends,
How are you? I hope you are well. 
Thank you for your kind words about Ringo. We really miss him. 

We closed on the house out in East Texas six months ago. 
Let me preface this by saying that we are having fun and we love it out there. 
We've accomplished so much but I have hit a bit of a wall. Bill has not. He keeps going and going. 
There is a lot of good but there is bad and ugly too. 


The interior of the house is done for now. I have a few paint touch ups but that project has stalled because I keep forgetting to pick up more paint. All of our paint froze during snowmaggedon/icepocolypse. We have a few bigger things we'd like to do but we aren't in any rush to get those done. 


The house is so comfortable and cozy. We just love it. 


We love having some land. It's not a lot but it's fun to explore the woods and walk the yard. 

The spirea is stunning. 

It's been fun to see it come to life this spring. 

The dogwood tree


There is some new wild flower or shrub every week. 


We don't have any of the coveted Texas Bluebonnets but we have two Indian Paintbrush. We won't mow these and hopefully we will have more next year. The mower will be delivered this week. 


The seeds have been planted in the raised beds. 
The tool shed as a new to us old door. I just need an old door knob. 


The juniper has been trimmed and we've cleaned up that debris. We've started pulling other dead trees from the woods. Some of that has been burned. 
 
I've started some late spring decorating. 


The kitchen window got a new valance and cafe´ curtain. I had the lace and picked up the gingham at Hobby Lobby. 


If you are a regular follower, you know that I love to garden. 
I want to be a farmer when I grow up. 
Well, I did. 
Now I'm not so sure. 
I've run into some snags with a new landscape in a rural environment. 

We came out after staying home for Easter weekend. I discovered that all my pansies were gone. They were chewed off.  I thought maybe deer ate them but we have seen one deer walk across the yard. We have only captured deer twice with the game camera. We've never seen evidence of them near the house. Rabbits? We have never seen any rabbits. 
On Sunday afternoon, I saw the culprits. 


Leaf cutter ants. They don't eat the leaves. They carry it back to the nest and turn it into a fungus which is what they eat. 
I almost went scorched earth. I poured boiling water down the nest. I used ant bait which, I later,  discovered does nothing. I finally mulched with the juniper chips that Bill chopped up from the big limbs we lost. I haven't done a lot of landscaping but it was discouraging to think that what I have done could be eaten. It seems to have taken care of the problem in the front beds for now but I think this will be a continuous battle. The pansies went first. Then they moved to the irises. Diatomaceous Earth is supposed to work so I sprinkled that around the plants.  
My irises in town bloom in April and I have leaves the rest of the year except during a cold winter. I wondered why irises came up but there was no evidence of them last summer when we looked at the house. I thought it was because the former owner didn't water but I think that the ants cut down everything. They start with what makes the tastiest fungus first. 

The grasshoppers are huge. 
We had a pelting of giant June bugs one evening. We no longer keep the porch light on. 
 


I posted this picture to Facebook. One of my friends said to watch out for snakes. 
Another said it creeped her out. I think it is amazing. I am not squeamish. I'm not afraid of snakes or bugs. After a weekend of carpenter bees, giant June bugs and ants that will carry off a small garden, I was ready to put the place up for sale. 
Take me back to civilization. 


But then again... 

On the way to try a church in East Texas. 



Bill has made progress on the quonset hut demo. 
Yes, it is open to the elements. 
We aren't sure what we are going to do to rebuild and this isn't really something that I'm strong enough to do with him. 
I'll keep you posted about this. The price of lumber is so high right now that it is hard to know what to do. 

Now for the ugly. 
I don't know what is going on to the south of us but it is a hot mess over there. 
The property across the street from us sold, recently. On moving day, the guy next store went across the street and got two broken down trucks to bring back to his property. I wanted to shout to stop buying broken vehicles. Once the leaves fell off all of the trees in November we could see glimpses of the situation next door. It is junky! Thankfully, now that the trees and bushes are all leafed out, we cannot see as much of their cr@p. 
We can still hear their rooster, however, all day long!  I fantasized about chicken noodle soup while I painted the cabin. Until I got buzzed by carpenter bees. Then I went inside. 

Our house sits on sandy loam soil. 
I don't know what loam is. Sand, we have in abundance. 


The light tan in the image above is the sand. It rises to the top of the loam. I think grass helps but we aren't growing a lot of healthy grass yet. I sweep sand out of the house constantly. 
We have inside shoes and outside shoes but there is still sand in the house everyday. 
(Question. Why are crocs so expensive? They are made from plastic!)  
When we got the flooring, I was going to put carpet in the bedrooms. Several people said that they would never have carpet out here. What? The flooring guy said that he has ripped up old carpet and then swept up a bucket of sand. I chickened out so we have vinyl throughout the house. 
The night that we closed on the house. I asked the former owner's daughter if she would miss the house that she grew up in. 
She said, "Nope! I like my sand at the beach." I wanted to be in denial about it but the sand is ridiculous. 
In the spirit of I told him so, I asked about the sand the first day we looked at the house. 
I also asked what was going on next door.

Other bad:
Sometimes we smell the chicken farm. 
The road is fairly busy.
It's 9:11 on a Sunday night and I can still hear cars going by.
 There are ticks. Not sure if there are chiggers. We don't have hogs or snakes that we have seen.  

Even with the bad and the ugly, we really love it. 
The towns around us are darling. Exploring them has been fun. 
 Bill has made besties with nearly everyone he meets. People are so friendly. 
The house that I didn't even really like has become our home away from home. 
I cannot believe it has already been six months. 
That is all for now.
Katie 


7 comments :

  1. HI Katie, Hogs? Hogs? It's a lovely property. We had hopes to get a place in mountains. With the housing situation in CO there are no "zillow dots" of properties! Can't wait to hear updates! Happy Monday! laura

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  2. Katie, I have this feeling that you can make good out of any ugly! LOL! I couldn't help but chuckle about the inside and outside shoes and cost of crocs. That is too funny. Marty and I both have our inside and outside shoes too. Ours are your cheap flipflops because neither of us like crocs. But my grands surely do and you are right...some can be pricy. Happy day to you lady. Hugs and blessings, Cindy

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  3. Ah, life in the country, lol! I've lived on acreage for almost 15 years, and I understand the 'bad' you're dealing with (minus the junky neighbor, thank goodness!) I don't have the leaf cutter ant problem, but my sister did (she's in north Texas). She used pyrethrum dust and diatomaceous earth based on a county extension agent's advice. She spread the dust around the plants and along the ant trail back to the vents to the colony. Then she put the DE in a circle around the vents so they'd have to cross it. It didn't eliminate them completely, but it did help her keep her vegetable plants. I've read to be careful not to broadcast ant poison, because harvester ants are beneficial and it's not good to kill them at the same time. Good luck!

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  4. Ah, life in the country, lol! I've lived on acreage for almost 15 years, and I understand the 'bad' you're dealing with (minus the junky neighbor, thank goodness!) I don't have the leaf cutter ant problem, but my sister did (she's in north Texas). She used pyrethrum dust and diatomaceous earth based on a county extension agent's advice. She spread the dust around the plants and along the ant trail back to the vents to the colony. Then she put the DE in a circle around the vents so they'd have to cross it. It didn't eliminate them completely, but it did help her keep her vegetable plants. I've read to be careful not to broadcast ant poison, because harvester ants are beneficial and it's not good to kill them at the same time. Good luck!

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  5. Katie
    I used to buy crocs really cheap like 16 $ at marshalls or Tj max. But they don't seem to sell them anymore. I hate when my resources dry up. I am enjoying your adventure as it unfolds. I guess if you leave your shoes on the porch outside the sand won't come in? Or does it? So glad your town has many friendly
    People in it that's a plus. Enjoy your cozy get away home.

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  6. I guess many situations have the good and the bad. (and the ugly). You made me laugh and be glad that after 20+ years in the same place, which is older, and could use a lot of updating, (and I could use a winning lottery ticket), that I am relatively content with the shabbier aspects of my house. I'm sure you will enjoy your new house and I look forward to reading your adventures.

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  7. We deal with sand at the cottage, too. Hard floor of any kind (your vinyl is great) with area rugs is a good solution. I'm so sorry about the ant situation. I would have gone full on ballistic too. It looks fabulous and you'll have time to do the things that you didn't get -- but it's so liveable and lovely. I feel for you with the guy with the car junkyard next door. Rick had someone like that across the street from him and the city kept fining him. He finally died -- sad, but the junk is gone. At least next door, you can always build a fence!

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