Working around the house

This is a picture of our house before we moved in in Oct. 2010.

This is a close up of the house right before I put down new mulch. While I was away in Virginia, our bermuda grass grew aggressively into the flower bed until the flower bed actually looked like it needed to be mowed. I am not exaggerating. Thanks to the help of my wonderful neighbor ... I dug into the flowerbed area and pulled all the grass out by it's root. The above picture is the after picture of all the weed and grass pulling. Strange as it may sound ... I really enjoyed it.

I let a week or so go by and waited to see the areas that I would need to do more pulling, and I spent some more time out there pulling up more weeds and grass. What a job! (Notice the house in back of us now ... it used to just be field and forest!)

In the picture above ... do you notice anything that is missing? A tree perhaps?
Rich cut down the tree that was in front of our house. While we liked the tree, it was obvious that the tree was dying. So, it had to come down. With the help of our wonderful neighbor, the tree came down. We plan to have the stump ground out in the spring, and then let the grass grow in the area where the mulch was ... and then we will just have a small circle of mulch around the remaining tree. (notice the house now beside us?)

This past weekend, Rich brought home some new mulch! I never thought new mulch would bring me so much joy. I spent another couple hours pulling up more roots of weeds and grass, and then got busy spreading the mulch. What a difference it makes!