BushGate 2010

 As you know, my weekend plans involved yanking out those blasted shrubs. It was an epic project. But first, I wanted to show you what just how tall those bushes were and what a difference removing them made!

This first picture was taken looking out the two front windows. On the right side, you can  barely make out the top of a jeep parked out on the street.

By Friday morning, after BK and I worked, this was the view-- please excuse the trash and recycling bins. Oops.

What a difference!!

We got back to it Friday after work. K-Dog (my supervisor) even came out to help! Really he just wanted to use his brand new reciprocating saw that he loaned me. We didn't use it Thursday night, if you can believe it.

The weather was pretty nice- not as hot as the day before. We actually had a lot of fun working- these two guys crack me up on a regular basis and with countless "bush" jokes going around...well, you get the idea. Fun was had by all. I'm not kidding when I say that my neighbors two houses down were also amused. I could hear them laughing on the front porch, enjoying the show and our antics.

We ... and by we I mean BK... got a dead branch out of this tree in the front yard. BK also attempted to shake the windsock out...it's been stuck there since last October. Really. Stuck. And yes, it's still stuck.

After we got the branches all cut off, K-Dog left and BK and I moved branches to the curb and to the giant pile on the side of the house.

And voila!! MUCH better, yes? It's funny, BK were sitting on the porch swing, taking a break before we cleaned everything up and two women were walking by. They said it "looked great!" and that they were friends with a neighbor across the street who had been wanting the previous owner to trim the bushes way down or remove them all together!! I can't tell you how good I felt to hear that. I have often felt that everyone many people in my neighborhood loved the previous owner. One particular neighbor seems to make comments every time I see him about how she "used to keep things so nice" and how she "spent a lot of time" on things. HA!

Maybe that's petty and not very nice, but I felt good that maybe, just maybe, she wasn't perfect.

Later the neighbor that wanted the bushes trimmed or cut down was outside and he yelled that it looked "great"! He did so right after that one particular neighbor yelled, "Your house looks naked." Not nice, not good, but "naked." Sigh.

Anyway, BK and I were proud of our hard work....but the hard work wasn't over yet...

Stay tuned... 


**PS- I really wanted to try to get this in one post, but I have so many pics and such a story to tell that I just couldn't do it! Plus, I'm tired!