The Cure for Boredom is Curiosity.

My backyard is a fermentation tank!

Between the figs falling and the abundance of apples I can't clean them up fast enough. Although the apples are my fault because I was waiting for them to be ripe enough to pick. They went from unripe to falling off the tree in a matter of days. I cleaned up the mess as best I could along with the leaves that have started to fall. I just picked figs on Sunday. Basically the ripe ones I could reach from the ground and from the third rung of the ladder. I decided not to worry about the unripe ones that fell off as I picked because there are so many. Half of the figs that weren't ready to be picked n Sunday are ready to pick now. So tomorrow I'll do another round of picking off the lower limbs. At this rate I'll never reach any on the higher branches.

I think I could write a horror movie based on worms.
These suckers are freaking me out.
I'm usually not squirmish about worms, but these are the mack daddies of worms.
I pulled up a bunch of weeds and thought I found the one I photographed yesterday.
I decided I was wrong when I found three more about the same size.
I'm going to go have my soak.

Before I show the pictures, let me just say that I am a bleeding heart. Or a sucker for a sob story. Not sure which one is more accurate. As I was taking my after-shots, I noticed some men walking up the street. They had taken a break from doing some yardwork for one of my neighbors. Definitely a ragged bunch and obviously doing odds and ends to make a dime. They offered to help me finish removing the rest of my brush when they were done up the street. I politely declined. One of the men waited behind the others explaining that he was their captain so to speak and introduced himself with his full military title. I'm thinking to myself "oh great, he's going to ask me for money". As he starts the story, I realize that he is from North Carolina. Of course, I have this immediate bond with this man I don't know. He grew up in Kinston, he's around my dad's age, he's a Vietnam Vet and he's just trying to get by. Oh yes, the violins are playing. He never directly asked for money, just said that they were planning on buying some canned goods that would last for a while. And I, who have been called a b*tch and other nasty things by many homeless people and other's begging because I refuse to be guilted into giving someone money, gave this man money. Because for some reason, I walked out onto my porch, in my pajamas to take pictures at a busy time of the morning. Because I believe in angels and doing things not because you should but because you can.

Now for the real point of this post. RTL decided that what she really wanted for her birthday was to hire a couple of day laborers and finish ripping out the juniper.
( The Before Picture )

( Juniper Loses to Men with Shovels )

Now all I need is to rent a chipper/shredder and the victory will be complete. Now we've got to figure out what color to paint the house and what to plant in our "new" front yard. I just realized that you can even see the new front door in today's picture.

And the carrot cake was full-fledged no holds barred carrot cake.

I've gotten sidetracked by not giving quality posts, so I'm going to work on that. I figured with RTL gone that I would have insight on amazing things at 2 o'clock in the morning. No, not really. I just find myself surfing the net and finding random websites that tickle my funnybone. I'll also put stuff behind cuts so I don't overload anyone's friends page.

( Yardwork )

( Edibles )

( The Daily RTL Phone Conversation )

I think that's it for yesterday. I'm sure more excitement is in store for me today. I'm thinking about going to the library. I should get off my butt and go to the Berekely Resident Services and get a sticker for the car.

I haven't listened to JLC in about a week and I'm suffering from withdrawal. I'll have to make my smart playlist even smarter than it already is when I stop listening to my 80's flashback - all day and all night.

Been out doing errands this morning. Had to be up at the crack of still dark out this morning. RTL had to catch an early morning flight to Redmond, again. I'm thinking that Redmond should just be moved south a few miles. It would make it a lot easier for me to avoid early morning NPR wake up calls.

Then off to the floor store to return the floor samples we borrowed over the weekend. We had all the hardwood floors refinished before we moved into the house, but we didn't/haven't done anything to the floors that were tiled or the closet floors. We were considering installing some in floor heating for the bathrooms, but have since discovered cork flooring. So I think we've narrowed it down to cork tiles for the bathrooms, closets, and pantry.

And I went into the new Target that is closer to the house. OH MY GOODNESS! It's beautiful! Two floors and clean and not junky and it's very Berkeley.

Haven't been to the grocery store for people food or the pet store for Bella food. I'll get around to that eventually. I've got access to the car for the next couple of days to make running errands less of a hassle.

I've put on my junky clothes so that I can implement phase 6 of the juniper attack. Sounds like a B horror movie from the 50's.

The dog has been relegated to the back porch today. No cozy inside bed sleeping for him. Besides the toilet paper, digging through RTL's workbag for paper scraps, and the copious amounts of other mischief he finds; today he figured out a way to reach his treat bag in the pantry, ripped through the plastic baggie and ate what I believe to be approximately half of the treats in the bag. Not sure if the cat aided and abetted in the crime, but I believe that climbing the litter box was part of the plan.

Taking a break from RTL's freelance work briefly to do all of this. Let's consider though that I sat in front of the computer for about 13 hours straight yesterday to finish phase 1 of the task because RTL's freaking out about getting it done. Yes, I am having that moment when I want to ask "if we didn't live together would you be breathing down my neck like this?" I am semi-regretting that I agreed to help out. I keep reminding myself that it pays property taxes for the year.
Also taking a few moments so that the maid, dishwasher, laundress and gardener can get some work done around the house. They forgot to show up this weekend, so I had to giggle a little (OK, I laughed so much that I almost got the hiccups) when RTL couldn't find the clean clothes she wanted this morning. But the mess is driving me crazy, so I think some cleaning up is in order.

I finished filling the plant bin. Woo Hoo!
I feel like I've accomplished a lot so far this week and it's only Tuesday.
This week's scores in Battle of the Yard.
Creepy crawling/buzzing flying things - 0
Spiders - 0
Juniper - 3
Grass - 1
Weedeater - 1
Dana - 27
Flying debris, dust and other miscellaneous plant material - 102

Clearly this is unscientific and based solely on my own biased opinion. But I feel a win.

Despite what I've accomplished I didn't get a nap, never figured out what's for dinner and I'm starving.
Woe is me.

I'm so tired and I have to make an attack on the juniper hedge today. I would love to wait until tomorrow, but plant pickup is tomorrow and it must be done.
I wish there was a better way to get rid of the juniper than my slow but steady progress. Of course I told RTL my dad's suggestion of hooking the juniper up with chains to the truck and ripping them out, which she is all into now. I'm afraid that may be on the to do list this weekend.

I think my brain may be too clogged to write. Tired or too many thoughts? Not sure. Trying to stay focused just ain't workin' right now.
We'll see how I feel after a little juniper mutilation.