Hillbillies on the Corner

"I wanna be a hillbilly, prayin’ for the rain
Drink corn whiskey, raise a little cane
You can have the big city, I wanna be a hillbilly.
When I die, throw me a big fine wake
And have a party in the barn
Let me lie in state
Plant me under that oak tree
I wanna be a hillbilly" - Billy Carrington "I wanna be a Hillbilly"

My yard is pretty!

We've always pretty much been the "Hillbillies on the Corner" (as we've dubbed ourselves).

With our half-dead yard and out of control mutant bush/tree...our dead flowerbeds full of weeds and the "dog yard" - which is a fenced in backyard holding the dogs and copius amounts of dirt splotches and masses of weeds - all we're missing is a truck up on blocks and my dh sitting in a lawn chair in the front yard in a wife beater shirt, scratching his belly as he swills beer.

Everyone EVERYONE around us has a kept yard. But I just haven't been able to go out there and really work without fear of ds bolting and getting run over or getting away. I'm at work when he's in school during the day. Dh is always exhausted. He works his 12 hour shifts and has a second job on his days off that can sometimes go for up to 5 hours or so. He also attends training on his days off. And then when he's TRULY off...he just wants to play XBox or be with us.

Well, we occasionally used to call out a yard service to keep the yard passable. We gave up on the dog yard years ago and just let the dogs have it. Everyone seems to understand and pretty much everyone loves our dogs, thank goodness.

This summer, dh and I for some reason both got sick of being a joke...albeit a good natured joke. Everyone seems to get we don't have time or money. We didn't want to pay the yard service. And, I think the road construction this year that seriously killed the corner of our yard made dh mad. It was like the last insult.

He wondered if he should raise the blades on the lawnmower and if that would make our yard more lush and green. We were cutting it really short because we figured we'd have to cut it less often. Dh was right!! Raising the blades and putting the sprinklers out more often has made my yard lush and green just like our neighbors!! Just like that!! AND he sprayed weed and feed spray stuff and weed b gone (we were lucky that the main yard didn't have a whole lot of weeds anyway..some dandelions mainly) and grass seed. The dead corner isn't totally back, but it looks a lot better.

I put out a hanging pot with flowers and IT IS LIVING!!! I usually kill flowers, but I finally found some that like me!

The dog yard is still the dog yard, and there are tons of weeds still around the base of the house, BUT its looking pretty good. When I drive past our house now, I'm not embarrassed at our yard compared to our neighbors anymore.

I'm thinking of painting the shed psychedelic colors like one of those hippie buses from the 60s... hee....