YARD

We have been dying to get at our yard and do some work on it! This weekend, Chris redid the flower beds on both sides of the front door. They are fairly good sized and had bushes in them that looked as if I gardener on crack had planted them. Poor spacing, mishapen, bare spots, you name it. He did a bunch of transplanting from elsewhere in the yard and then picked up a few new things and planted them, too. It looks so much better! Everything is in shock and a little withered right now, but by next spring it will be just beautiful!

The boys were happy to occupy Chris' transplant holes!

We also got started on clearing the property line so our fence can be installed. The back of our yard has a huge overgrown hedge and several trees that are going to need to come out so Chris and one of our neighbors  worked on clearing that while I cleaned up the flower beds. It is amazing how much nicer it looks, just having all the dead winter stuff gone! 

We were very pleased with our work and ready to do some more....I think this big yard is going to be an ongoing project! Unfortunately, Chris is on his own now. I resigned after I had a horrible reaction to the poiso ivy that I had (unknowingly) been up close and personal with it when I was clearing what I thought were weedy vines. I couldn't even identify it, let alone have any idea what it could actually do to a person! I took this picture about a week into it:

My arms continued to blister and swell until I couldn't bend my wrists or elbows anymore and the infection was so bad it was literally oozing out of my skin and soaking through my shirts! Totally sick. It was just about the grossest thing I have ever seen in my life. It finally cleared up after a couple of weeks and two or three rounds of medication, leaving me with multiple scars on both arms that make me look like I cut myself! I tell ya, I never gave old poison ivy much thought but that stuff is no joke!