yard thoughts

Modern. Native. Edible. Functional. Social.


We live in an older, traditional neighborhood so I know the front yard needs to have to traditional green turf and neat landscape. We are trying to keep a clear view outside the windows with low-growing shrubs and plants like heather and dwarf conifers. We'd like to add a few more large rocks to those arrangements.

I cut out and pulled up a ton of English ivy off the trees, fence and house, where it once festooned every tall tree. We removed the tacky plastic non-functional shutters from all of the windows. A few of the windows need to be replaced due to cracked glass. We plan to build or install as large a shed as we can in back to become a mini-workshop and tool storage building. John wants to have a compact woodshop with a small outside deck that he can work at. We also need the space to store large things like ladders. We still desperately need house numbers either mounted on brick or posted in the front yard and on the mailbox.

We would like to use mostly native plants and edible landscaping for the back yard, which has a wood fence that we plan to replace. We also have a laid stone retaining wall on one side at the back of our lot that needs to be repaired, preferrably using all the original stones so that we don't have to purchase too many more. I think 2/3 of the wall could be original stone - maybe more. We had crepe myrtle trees that had been attacked by ambrosia beetles that have been cut down along the rock wall side of the house that now have stumps that need to finally be removed/ground down. My guess is that some sort of new plants and shrubs need to go along the rock wall to help with erosion control.

NO English Ivy! I am still removing it everywhere I can, mostly concentrating on taking it off the trees. My neighbor shares my hatred of overgrown English ivy. She's working at ridding her yard of it as well. I am also taking it upon myself to pull out poison ivy where I see it. Slowly, the old roots of the poison ivy are going away and I cut down any flowers/seeds from the poison ivy when I spot it trying to reproduce, whittling way at it as best I can. I am a one-woman ivy-killing warrior. I'm not agains all vines - just those troublesome invasive or poisonous plants. Grapes are cool. Muscadines are cool. Grapes would be great. I even turn an occasional blind eye to Virginia creeper if it's not in my way.

The inside of the back yard is mostly mud, mulch and shade. We have new plantings of edible and/or native plants like elderberry, chokeberry, blueberry, trillium, ferns, golden seal, jack-in-the-pulpit and I'd like to add more variety so that I could have year-round blooms for bees and birds (and humans). I have a dinky herb garden that I am still figuring out.  We are also planning to place a small fire pit/grill and seating area to the side of the future shed.

And the drive way needs to be repaved - preferably with some sort of simple roof added at the top for the cars. The car shelter is not a priority but it is something that would make life a lot nicer.

extortion?

Oh, North Carolina, why don't you love us? Should we have been prettier, richer, funnier, younger?
I got a phone call this afternoon from someone at a business named R3Z Solutions, who was calling to offer one-on-one classes for deactivated Uber Drivers at $100 a class. I told him I had no interest in his company's services unless Uber was willing to pay for it. Good riddance.


Speaking of scams, I was also walking around with our next-door neighbor yesterday evening and looking up in amazement at the horrible job someone did on her roof. She hired someone who actually was recommended by an associate and came home to a roof full of holes made by nails far too long to use in roofing. The nails on the shingles went all the way through the plywood and moisture barrier under the shingles and came out the other side about a quarter inch. The roofer insisted that this was just the way it was always done and then tried to reprimand her, saying he didn't expect her to be "so difficult". I think women get taken advantage of by contractors a lot. Everyone does get the bad end of a deal with builders now and then but, just like mechanics, everyone assumes if your female, you're an idiot. *sigh* It makes me sad looking at her roof.


MonsterMustDie just found out his employer is hiring a new supervisor for the department that he is in charge of. In other words, he is being demoted or replaced by a guy in a suit. He says he is not worried about it but I do not trust any employer that much. So, on that note, I really believe we need to be dedicating every weekend solely to finishing this house that he has taken apart, just in case we need to unload this financial burden and relocate again soon.

A New Low

Looks like Uber has fired me.

I did not get any calls this week. Uber just a text explaining that since my ratings fell below 4.3 out of a possible 5, I have been dropped.  There is no reason given for the rating. There is no phone number to all or any source for feedback or debate. So, one more possible source of income gone but, on the plus side, no more college students to take to four at a time to multiple locations that they don't input on the client app all around the Triad area.

I must resign myself to being a stay-at-home housewife here.

Not feeling the love this week

So far, this has not been a good week at all.

I've had only one job interview this week on Tuesday, at another temp staffing agency, for a creative position that would actually be close to home. I showed up for the interview, on a very hot day, in office casual attire - dark slacks and a long gray boyfriend-style shirt. The job is budgeted for $10 to $12 an hour, depending on how good a fit the employee is. The interviewer advised me, if I wanted to work in this area, to dress differently and to change my hair style to something natural. I have no idea how I am supposed to look here. I can guess that my hair should be shorter and a light natural brunette or ash brown - easy enough to do. Not sure how to dress, especially with no budget for new suits.  I told the interviewer I could look any way they wanted me to for the client interview. This interview was just with the staffing agency and I would still have to meet with the client later.

The staffing company phoned me today and, as it turns out, I didn't get the job because I have no experience in QuickBooks, an application I have never been asked to use before. It seems like I can't win here. I probably will go ahead and change my hairstyle for a more conservative area anyway just to see if that improves my chances. I can not see myself wearing high heels or skirts so that is not going to happen. If I could find an affordable lightweight linen or cotton weave suit, that would be good too. It's hard to invest hundreds of dollars in new clothes that might not get me anything in return.

As for office software, I have a copy of MS Office 2011 but anything outside of those apps (Word, Excel, PowerPoint) is something I don't know outside of graphics work. Most of what I use is in Adobe CS (Illustrator, Photoshop, InDesign, DreamWeaver).  So, it looks like the only work I can get here is driving for Uber. The summer will suck because most of the Uber business is High Point University students. This is the last week of the semester and graduation ceremonies are this Saturday, so there will be a long dry spell in student business after that.

Lastly, I was looking forward to driving down to Atlanta for Mother's Day, hoping to finally visit a few friends as well this week. I spoke to my mother this morning about her plans this weekend. I am trying to schedule a day to go out to eat or just visit her. She doesn't want anyone to see her home these days because she is not physically able to maintain it. She said she is having dinner at my brother's house on Sunday, which is good, but that excludes time with me on Sunday. Many of my friends are going to a big wedding this weekend that I am not invited to, probably because of hard feelings with MonsterMustDie and the groom over facebook sociopolitical rants on both sides. The rest of my friends are mostly going out of town to visit family or tied up with their own families.

Next week, MonsterMustDie will be working in NYC and I will be here alone with no work. I really hope something good pops up between now and then.