# 582 - He Lost Me at "Impossible"

One of the biggest projects during construction of our house has been the tongue and groove pine wood ceilings.

I knew what I wanted, but it took a long time to find someone capable of doing the job and willing to drive the distance to our acreage to get it done.

Jason Riley of Riley Remodeling ended up getting the job, and he handled the installation of our wood ceiling like a true craftsman.

I spoke with five construction/remodeling companies in our area. I'd start out texting back and forth with them as they asked questions about what we needed. After explaining, I would send sample pictures of houses with similar wood ceilings. Yes, we realized it would cost a very pretty penny. Dump-truck loads of shiny pennies.

We live in a rural area and there aren't many jobs like this due to population. A massive hurdle. Houston, where I was born, has a population of over 6.6 MILLION, and you can find contractors able to do this level of work all day long.

But, if you leave Houston and drive a bit to reach our teeny town of Dallardsville with its population of around 350... it's another realm altogether. Our neighbors are hard-working folk mixed in among ranchers and timber barons. In our small town, we might be the only ones who have retired early from Houston. In the closest city to us, Livingston, 

So, it wasn't unexpected for a contractor to tell me he didn't want to install the ceiling the way I wanted, but would instead install sections of tongue and groove with faux beams in between. He refused to "strand" the boards together for the entire length of the ceiling. He didn't want to make cuts or stagger the boards the way I wanted. He said he'd install sections with uniform boards stacked one after the other.

I do like real or faux beams and had seriously considered working them into our ceiling design, but my final vision was one with clean lines, not busy looking. We already had dormers to contend with, and they break up the focus. I wanted the wood itself to be the main feature highlighting the ceiling's height and angles.

That guy stood in my house and rudely remarked, "You'll never get what you're asking for. Can't be done. Impossible."

Yeah... I've had a few country boys tell this woman she was asking the impossible of home builders and remodelers, but I hail from Houston, Texas, and "impossible" is far from what I'm asking.

"Do you realize pine yellows with time?" he asked with his jaw hung open.

"Yes, I do. I like the amber 'patina' of aging pine," I answered. 

He threw his hands in the air and spat out.. $25,000... to do a job he'd already admitted he couldn't do and wasn't happy about tackling. He'd lost the job before he even bid on it. 

He lost me at "impossible."

Why did this guy even make the trip to check out the job? He wasted both our time.

I kept visiting with potential contractors. Several people responded to my request for contractor references, leading us to Jason Riley of Riley Remodeling. During my first conversation with him, he let me know he was both skilled and brave enough to work on a ceiling of our height. 

It then took more weeks for me and Jason to coordinate our schedules so he could come look at the house in person instead of just in pictures. When he showed up, Jason was complete opposite compared to the other "impossible" guy.

Jason discussed my vision for the ceiling. He understood EXACTLY what I wanted and assured me it was indeed possible.

HIRED.

I worked a deal with him. We had scaffolding, but he needed more for our expansive Great Room. We agreed to rent more so he wouldn't have to deal with that upfront cost. And my husband bought all the materials and had them delivered to the house.

We hired a couple of guys to work at the house doing odd jobs, and they were extremely helpful, so we put them to work helping to poly the boards. Riley knew this part of the job would be handled by other workers.

Jason brought his own tools, and he brought along a helper (on most days). He thoughtfully approached the installation, but we made it easIER for him to show up and go straight to work on the actual install. 

But, this wasn't an easy job, by any means. Even so, he listened to what I wanted, and my husband listened to the two of us talk it out and then accommodated Jason as much as possible.

For that, I'm grateful.

And let me add... Jason is a young man who is deaf. Literally, I can't remember the reason for his loss of hearing at such an early phase in life... an ear infection or something of the sort. He wore hearing aids but would take them out during construction so the power tools, etc., wouldn't create major issues with his prosthetics. 

He'd lay his hearing aids aside and get to work.

Jason created a "bridge" to do the high-point of the ceiling.

I usually play music through the day, especially when doing chores, but we had to keep extraneous sound to a minimum, in case he did need to reinsert his hearing aids.

His attention to our ceiling made me pause.

I don't usually do much of anything in total silence, except during the early part of my day. Early, whatever time that means for us in retirement, is a time when I prefer silence for a while. 

No talking.

No sound.

Nature is all right, but I don't want to hear any synthetic/produced sounds.

However, I can't imagine working hours upon hours without any break or interruption so that my own thoughts can cease. Background noise can be comforting. It can fill the headspace that screams when it's too silent.

A television left on. An electronic device playing the latest news report or an audible book. Music. Oh Lord, music is a must-have for me, but Jason did not have those options.

He confronted morning-silence that lasted all day, every day, yet he focused on the task at hand.

I admire that kind of tenacity.

My husband and Jason worked out a system together. They got the ceiling finished. Jason definitely earned his money doing this job, and he didn't rob us. It took several weeks. He did have a couple of other jobs, so we worked with his schedule and the distance gap.

Yes, I am an "angles" person. Geometry-minded. Art.

Jason also drove every work day from Huntsville to our house to do the ceiling. That's right at a 100-mile round-trip every day, so he'd no likely be in our house for more than 5-8 hours at a time.

With a nearly two-hour drive each day just to reach our acreage, I was thankful to have found him and his remodeling company, even though we weren't remodeling... we weren't finished "building."

The "big bedroom" upstairs.

And to this day, every morning I step out of our bedroom, I marvel at the beauty of this ceiling. Solid wood reflecting our forested surroundings.

Warm and welcoming.

It's wonderful when the impossible becomes your reality.

# 581 - House of Perpetual Construction

We live in the House of Perpetual Construction, established (somewhat) in 2016, but it has a potpourri of current-day unfinished sections.

Why?

Over ten years ago, in 2013, we left a comfortable life in the suburbs of Greater Houston to move onto raw acreage that we'd owned and held onto since our early thirties. The time had come to tackle building a custom home or spend a lot of time planning to build one.

We'd eventually did build our house, partly through our own efforts and partly through contractors.

In 2013, we sold our beloved house in the suburbs and over-stuffed our brand new RV with "essentials. The rest of our belongings were either sold, given away, or put in storage, to include my piano.

Stefie was a HUGE help for us to get moved.

The day we closed on our house and handed over the keys to the front door, we left for the country. Pappy pulled the new RV as I drove our other vehicle that towed a utility trailer loaded down with an assortment of items.

The guys bringing huge furniture
down the curved stairway.

We already had chickens. Yes, in the suburbs we owned livestock... hens. We'd gotten the blessings of our neighbors to jumpstart raising chickens, and everyone enjoyed regular fresh eggs and knew which door to knock on whenever an egg or herb was needed for a recipe.

There he goes with the RV as I follow with the coop.

Moving to the country meant transporting the chickens, so as Pappy towed the new RV, I hauled the tied-down chicken coop through Houston's highways. Ah yes, I did get a lot of good-hearted waving with huge smiles, honking, and thumbs-up. Thankfully I encountered good-humored drivers.

The chickens were inside a locked cage, partially protected from winds by a tarp. Not the normal sight going down a Houston highway.

Once we arrived "Home" to our acreage, Pappy got the RV into position, and we unloaded as much as we could. We were literally exhausted.

Our first hour living on our acreage.
We both had been working for
days to get ourselves moved and were drained.

We lived without electricity during those initial weeks, but we pulled enough power from a generator to get through the month of May and June in Texas. 

My dad drove the near two hours to visit,
and he noticed my fuel container and filled it for me.
It'd last about six hours before needing refilling.

Our temporary laundry facility.

We also didn't have internet/wifi. We cooked with propane and depended on water in holding tanks to take showers, wash dishes, and flush the toilet. With water already ran to the front of the acreage, we could haul it to the RV... a huge pain.

Every day, we had a LOT to do.

Our first day on the acreage as full-time residents.

Boy... it's a good thing significant hurdles didn't stop us from moving forward.

In those days and still today, I often think of our ancestors traveling across rugged landscapes without a Taco Bell, McDonalds, or Starbucks to rejuvenate their energy. No comfortable bed to sleep in. No bathroom. No dishwasher or stove/oven that didn't require starting a fire for every cooked meal or pot of coffee or cup of tea.

Granted, it's about a 25-mile round-trip for us to go to town, so we didn't go, unless desperate.

Pappy had not yet retired when we moved out here. He still worked in downtown Houston, meaning he had to drive 150-mile round-trips five days a week.

And the week before moving to our acreage, he got promoted and that meant going back to night-shift. Yep, we moved to a rural part of Texas to "camp" on our acreage, and I suddenly found myself alone in the woods every night. The nightshift lasted for about THREE YEARS.

My friends and family thought I was nuts, "Aren't you terrified to be out there all alone?"

No, I wasn't.

The only thing that terrified me were ominous Texas storms. Those unforgettable cracking sounds as lightning struck the tops of nearby pines got my attention. I always looked forward to the next morning's walk to search for the tree that had been struck. I would find them as close to the RV as the strike had sounded. Fun times. 

During those initial years on the land, living in the RV, I cooked the best country meals because we didn't have energy left to drive to Taco Bell. I must say, I often love my own cooking and would make enough to have ample leftovers to send with my husband for his lunch the next day and for me to have another meal. 

I won't lie... I did miss the spacious kitchen I enjoyed at our last house, but the RV kitchen wasn't too shabby. I felt a part of the "Small House" movement. Crazy people living crazy lives.

My former sizable yet cozy kitchen.

Our little, efficient kitchen,

It took about TWO YEARS to start building. We never thought we'd live in an RV for very long, but we did. I'm thankful we bought a spacious, new RV, but we obviously weren't in a hurry to move into another house. I think we needed a time-out to think about what we wanted in our next home.

And I admit, the process of designing and building a new home in the woods wasn't an easy task.

My sister, who is a school counselor, would call my procrastination, "Paralysis by analysis." 

Overthinking things.

Constant planning with mounting fear of actually beginning, so the planning continues, and on, and on.

Views from inside the RV were peaceful.

Mainly, we used to seasons to closely watch the patterns of changing weather and how it affected the acreage as we searched for the perfect spot to build. And then that became my excuse to not start the process of building. 

Deep down, I was terrified that I'd end up with a house qualifying first on the list of the "TOP TEN HOMELIEST OF HOMES" from my worst-imagination or some such nonsense.

The funny thing is... more than two years later, we finally picked the spot. Never mind the fact that it was the exact spot my husband had thought would work best before we moved to the acreage... I had to have the idea settled within me. Settled and mildewing. It took nearly three years to go full circle before confirming our house-site, but it's at a great elevation and not in a flood plain. We have a beautiful view and are tucked in deep enough in the forest to make life an adventure in nature, yet close enough to the road for emergency services.

I can't believe it's been over six years since we built the shell of our house. And I can't believe we still have SO MUCH to do. We went strong for a few years, and now we go through long stints of "burn-out," and then a we'll have stints where we work at least ten to fifteen hours per day on projects while still needing to find the time to tackle day-to-day regular chores.

But we plug away. Each project finished brings a great sense of accomplishment and pride in the home we created.

Dirt nightmare. Before grass.

And now I've got to think about our next project for the house of perpetual construction.

Sweeping and mopping the floors; weeding the garden; staining more interior doors; finish painting the exterior of the house; finish the master bathroom; complete the stairway that I maybe should've had carpeted; install bar tops; and the list is long, long... very long, my friend.

# 575 - First Blogging, then BOOKS! What have I done?

Before I add my usual blog post, I want to let everyone know that I've been blogging for ages and will continue doing so...it's in my blood, but I've also enjoyed a long career that's included writing, but I'm now holding my own reins by publishing creative fiction books.

I've got several eBooks set for release, a novella series is the first on the schedule, and Book I was released a couple of days ago. It's a scary, spooky story balanced with humor, faith, and love. You can read it on any device...iPhone, iPad, Computer, Mac, or Kindle. You don't have to own a Kindle to read it! When you order, there will be a choice of where you want to have the eBook sent, and it's magic...it sends it to you with ease!

The button for choosing the place for the story to land will appear just below the purchase button on Amazon. It's easy and allows us to enjoy additional reading choices. You can read the eBook on the device you're using right now to read this latest blog post, it's super simple.

And here's summary of this first book...

Shelby, an energetic teenager, has recently returned from Scotland to America after living abroad with her family for a couple of years. They find a home in the Greater Houston area, close to her father's job and next door to a church, but Shelby doesn't like the house. From the moment she steps beyond the threshold of living room, into the heart of the home, she notices a dark presence, but she's the only one who senses it.

After moving in and experiencing terrifying encounters with an indescribable entity, she starts to question if her mind is the culprit. Perhaps her imagination is the source of terror...maybe her eyes are playing tricks on her, but she can't deny the blood. Circumstances spiral out of her control, preventing her from rationalizing all that she hears and sees. She can't escape the shadowed presence that targets her, but she'll find a way to fight back.

She won't give up or give in as she searches for a way to protect her family and herself from what lies in the middle.

Shelby's family includes a disabled mother, a workaholic father, and two siblings...Brother and Dovey. Brother keeps the humor coming as Shelby utilizes faith and bravery to accumulate useful knowledge to battle dark spirits, and she searches for a way to survive the necessity of sharing a home with a terrorizing presence. She refuses to live in terror, not in her own home, but how can she live with and battle the dark shadow that lurks around the corner from her bedroom, just beyond the threshold?

***

I hope you're able to gather the bravery to read this character-driven storyline of relatable people confronting irregular hurdles. This is the first book of the series titled "What Lies in the Middle."

I hope to discuss a few topics inspired by the book along with some personal experiences of my readers. I've made posts in the past of eerie experiences and reader-comments revealed many of us have experienced discomforting things that can't be explained. And even though this book is a fictionalized storyline, I know a lot of people have tried to explore strange happenings that might never find rational answers.

And to clear up any confusion...we decided to combine the book's title with a subtitle that is also the name of the series, rooting the two together; that's only for this first book. I'll let you know when the next book is due for pre-release with a definitive launch date.

There's a new Group on Facebook that I'd love for my blog buddies to join, and that link is at the bottom of this post

If you join the group, please let me know you're from our blog-sphere. And if you buy the eBook, especially let me know so I can thank you!

Just as I've written my blog and enjoyed a long-lasting fantastic interaction with my readers and fellow bloggers, I intend to maintain the same path with readers of my books, whether they are in the form of an eBook or paperback print...I want to stay in touch with you, give you behind-the-scenes details, and get your feedback along the way...hopefully you guys will be some of the first readers of this series.

***

As for building the never-ending farmhouse...it's still under construction. The long-time blog readers already know that we are slug-slow with finishing our house. We've had rains for months that have made the land a mucky mess. It can get quite depressing to be surrounded by mud, but I'm thankful we've not flooded. So many family and friends this last year were devastated by flooding in the Greater Houston area.

Despite the dreariness of the weather, we managed to work on the laundry room. I'll write a separate post about that experience. I LOVE my laundry room!

We used leftover tile to create a nice design in the floor, and I gave the bead-board a "weathered barn" paint treatment that I concocted on my own, which took me three days to paint.

The room is quite nice...mostly finished, but it still requires finishing touches, such as the trim around the windows and a window ledge for my little plants. I'll write a post about the laundry room because it deserves its own shining spot on the blog!

What can I say? I'm a thrilling woman who enjoys a great laundry room. After we finished this room to a certain point, I stood inside it to re-enact that scene from the Sound of Music as she spins around at the top of a pastured mountaintop with joy...yeah, that was me.

Of course, I wasn't escaping Nazis with a pack of children in tow; regardless, I spun around while surrounded by dirty clothes and stinky dog towels, and it was beautiful.

Aside from my laundry-room-moment, our family has also had some difficult and exciting things happening, which I'll share in my next few posts. With my new laptop, getting back to blogging is easier than sitting at my desktop. I don't know why, but for me, sitting at the desktop is a little claustrophobic. Blah.

Meanwhile, I'll enjoy my laundry room while wrapping up the second book to this series, so if anyone reads "BEYOND the THRESHOLD: What lies in the middle?" by Lana R. Black, then be sure to let me know, then get prepared for Part II of the series! The novella takes about two hours to read...it's an easy-read of about 100 pages, so it's an enjoyable commitment. Feel free to go onto the given Amazon link and stay in close touch by FOLLOWING my author page...there's a button below the book info on Amazon to follow the author. Please give me a review on Amazon after reading and be sure to use the highlight feature that Amazon gives its customers while reading an eBook...then share your favorite parts with me.

***
I've included the Amazon link that takes you to the first couple of chapters, then it will prompt you to buy it for $3.99 --- and that's cheaper than coffee! Isn't that the old line?

https://read.amazon.com/kp/embed?asin=B07MYTBL9B&preview=newtab&linkCode=kpe&ref_=cm_sw_r_kb_dp_-JwsCb7GFYWPT

Facebook Group
https://www.facebook.com/groups/768805986830396/

As always, I'll be reading your comments. Happy reading to my blog-buddies!

# 574 - We're on Country Time

There's no doubt about it, we are slow, slow, slow with finishing the interior of our house. We finished building the shell with the garage at the end of 2015, then moved forward with the mechanicals, plumbing, HVAC, electrical, and such throughout 2016.

When I say "country," I mean it on several levels. Our house reflects a country lifestyle - we're smack in the middle of rural countryside. Our views are spectacular since we live on the edge of The Big Thicket forest. We're also country in that our area is sparsely populated. And it's still very country when it comes to trying to get any kind of worker to come to the house.

Our contractor finished building the house and the detached garage with overhead loft, then we took it from there. We have a long series of hit and misses, such as sheetrocking an area, then having to take it down due to an electrical oversight, then re-sheetrock, then having to take it down again because of a new change in the framing, the start all over again.

We had framed-out doorways changed to regular wall framing, and regular wall framing changed to add a doorway. We installed windows to then take them out and also cut into the side of the house to add windows that weren't originally planned. Then there were the doors that were installed, found to be warped, then replaced with new doors. I cannot tell you the number of changes we've had to confront because of a defect or oversight.

If we had built this house in Houston...in Harris County, each of those changes would've cost approximately $2,200. due to required changes to the architectural drawings, permit changes, etc., Here in the country, it's easy to confront last minute changes or kinks in the construction process since the day-to-day temperament of your contractor is all that is at risk when you're covering the costs. And things usually go pretty well, if you keep changes to a minimum and they make sense, especially if your contractor is well-paid from the start. A builder in Houston would absorb construction issues caused by their own mistakes, but here in the country, builders know their craft, but they aren't continually barraged with as many options and variations that city-builders come across, so they stay rather open-minded. And let me be mindful of staying aware that the person paying for the construction process is the person who gets it the way they want it. Those who build homes are usually eager to make their clients happy, unless they are unwilling or unable to budge on design because of ridiculous constraints.

The good and the bad side of building this country house is that it isn't small enough to be considered cozy and it isn't big enough to be considered a sprawling mansion, but it is somewhere in between the two. We wanted our house to be large enough to accommodate the family that continues to expand with our grown kids, with our love-in-laws, grandkids, dogs, and friends who wonder if we'll ever live to see our house completed. Believe me, we share their concern.

This country house has introduced us to the concept of country time, and we've somehow gone from city people who existed in a perpetual state of rushing to country dwellers moving in slow motion...the kind of people who require one year to sheetrock one room. It's the Rip Van Winkle end of country time for us.

We nearly go into a full-blown celebration after each small accomplishment. We installed a new faucet, so it's time to celebrate at Thai Cottage! We sealed the wrap-around porch, it's time to hit The Seafood Kitchen! Then it'll be ribs or chicken fried steak for doing a bit of landscaping.

And that's how we roll around here these days. Do a little, eat a lot.

After working nonstop so hard and for so long on this house...we got burned out. But lately, we've been trying to work at least two full days on some goal in the house while also doing the ordinary day-to-day chores and acreage upkeep that is demanded. I must say that we've become quite the team. These days, when we tackle a job, we have the knowledge and ability to work faster and to do the job well.

For example, with sheetrocking...you should see the two of us. I can listen to music while wearing earbuds as he listens to a game. We work together without needing to overstep or supervise one another. We have even learned to do a light Sante Fe texturing technique that requires both of us to work simultaneously while the mud is still soft. The finish of the wall texture is subtle, yet attractive...natural in appearance instead of the ordinary splattered on texture. This technique goes beyond the orange peel look that I loved for so long. Of course, our choices of finishes demand techniques that are more labor intensive, but what the heck...we've got nothing but COUNTRY TIME on our hands. If this is going to be the never-ending house build, we might as well have fun with the details.

I've been so thrilled to finally finish sheetrocking the first room upstairs. We've done some sheetrocking in each room upstairs, but no room has been finished, until now! It has multiple edges as the angled ceiling splits into two different directions. There's a small regular ceiling in one area that leads to the dormer window and another ceiling area that slopes with the angle of the roof. This room was a booger to sheetrock, tape, float, sand, then texture. There were many extra lines, angles and joints because of all the cuts that were needed. I even did some tricky sheetrocking while lying on my back beneath the lowest portion of the sloped ceiling. Things got crazy in there.

But I enjoyed finishing the floating and taping because it led us to enjoy ourselves at Cracker Barrel.

Floating and Taping - No makeup, humidity-sticken hair, but

I'm thrilled the room is moving forward.

Today, I was so happy to pick out the paint for this corner room. I opted for a soft, buttery yellow that was in the "chill-out and enjoy the tranquility" kind of paint selection. With the two windows in the room (once they're cleaned) it will be bright and sunny in that space, so we want it to be a cheery feel-good room.

I'd love to begin painting tomorrow, but I'm not sure that will be possible because it has been raining for days in our part of Texas, and more rain is expected. It's a mess out here folks.

This room, once finished...which that might take another year...will be my writing room. It'll also be a soft place to land for reading, chilling out or for having a quiet talk with riotous laughter. This room might even be a place to do limited Yoga since I restrict my movements to coincide with my motto of being an "exercise minimalist."

Regardless...the room will be awesome.

I hope to post pictures of it painted by the end of this weekend...or maybe after Christmas. I'm on country-time. All. The. Way.

* Time frames listed are never concise, y'all.

# 571 - A Country House and Back to Blogging

Years ago I began blogging. So much happened over those years. We went through our house being destroyed by Hurricane Ike, getting our kids through high school and then college, selling our house in Greater Houston, then moving to our acreage in the country and living in an RV for nearly three years as we built a house.

Weather conditions were difficult as we got started. It took much longer to clear the site for the house because of constant rains. It was awful. The large equipment couldn't maneuver in the muddy ground, so we had to simply practice PATIENCE.

It was difficult to imagine a house standing on the acreage we'd owned since our kids were young. David was determined to get his wrap-around porch...that was his non-negotiable feature. Mine was to have large rooms, especially nice sized bathrooms. We've owned homes with TINY bedrooms and this house wouldn't have tiny accommodations.

Another feature we both longed to have in our country house was dormer windows, and we got them...three of them. I love that they are well balanced with the size of the house because sometimes a dormer window can end up to look like an afterthought. Our builder did a fantastic job.

The house is just over 3,000 square feet with over 2,000 square feet of wrap-around porch. Crazy porch space, but that is David's dream.

We kept the forested landscape all around the house. Of course, that's not difficult to do since we live in the Big Thicket.

Our detached garage became a huge construction project in itself. We decided to go all out. On a solid, re-enforced foundation, we built an oversized two-car garage with extra space aside, a four-car carport, and a loft overhead that's over 900 square feet that we use as "attic" space for the time being. We build a full staircase inside the garage to lead up to the loft. I had intended that space to serve as part attic space with a separated area to be used as my art studio. However, this house is such a huge undertaking that it will probably take another two years to wrap up the main house, so the loft continues to serve as an attic storage space. I must say it's wonderful to walk into the attic and to not be cramped.

We now have our garage and attic full of many of our belongings and many things of all size...furnishings, boxes, appliances, etc., that our oldest daughter has stored there for the time being. We are ALL looking forward to the day when they can move their big ticket items out of these spaces so we can use the garage as the wood workshop David truly needs to utilize since we must do many projects to finish this house. For now, we look like true Rednecks with far too many things on our wrap-around porch because they will not fit in this huge garage that's stuffed with everyone's things. We will be working that out this year or me and my daughter will be having a garage sale!

Our builder had been waiting for the bad weather to clear out so he could start construction on our house. It was a miracle, but once he began building from the floor to the metal roof...we did not have ONE rainstorm. The weather remained dry and hot while they built the shell of the house, which pleased me immensely. This was indeed a huge and unusual blessing!

I have loads to catch up with on this blog. I had a problem with pictures, but it seems that issue is resolved, so perhaps my loaded pictures will no longer disappear and that's a great motivator to return to regular blogging!

As for construction on this new home...we have a long way to go to finish, but we are thrilled to be fortunate enough to live a dream. Each day is a challenge and a learning experience, but the rewards of doing so much of the work ourselves is beautiful.

Today I'll be putting up a couple more shelves in the closet of a the downstairs guest bedroom. Each small step puts us closer toward enjoying the house of our dreams.

# 566 - The Grass is Greener on the Other Side

More than ever before, dirt is a part of our life. We purchased our acreage approximately 17 years ago. Our girls were young - Stefie was in Elementary school and Heather was in Junior High. We all worked hard and played hard on our land. They both had fun pitching tents, swimming in the lake, playing in the creek, playing flashlight tag, building camp-fires, and running from bats swooping toward their heads. There are too many wonderful memories of them growing up being wild ones through the forest.

Then again, there are these memories...picking up sticks. A forest has a lot of sticks. Unending sticks. But, to build a camp-fire to sit around and roast marshmallows and make s'mores, you need sticks. The girls learned the value of hard work as they spent time each day gathering sticks, limbs and building their fire to burn that night.

Stefie yanking vines.

Heather determined to also remove the vines and huge roots

left from clearing this area of trees.

We took this rural acreage and cleared a couple of acres. The clearing began with grueling work that Sgt. David perversely enjoyed because he had a lot of energy to expend thru chopping, burning and purging.

About 15 years ago.

By the end of the work for this area of dense wood being cleared, we were left with dirt, dirt and more dirt. The berry vines with large thorns also fought to quickly resurge their growth through the soil.

It took a couple of years of hard work, but we finally laid a pallet of St. Augustine grass in this cleared area and it took root to spread over the coming years to make a beautiful yard. Sgt. David and I had come camping on our land, in a tent, and we ordered the pallet of grass to be delivered. My husband was working so hard and we retreated to the tent for a nap as the pallet sat nearby and I couldn't nap, so I went outside and laid the entire pallet before he woke up. I don't think I have the same strength or energy these days! The photo directly above and then the one directly below are of a time-lapse of a minimum of 15 years.

A bonus of hardy, thick St. Augustine grass is that it prevents growth of the berry vines from coming through, but you have to keep the grass mowed for it to do its job properly. The weeds can't be allowed to thrive and grow amidst the sod. We tried EVERYTHING to keep these horrible thorned vines from growing and spreading, but St. Augustine grass surprised me and finally worked with us to do the trick.

However, there was a gap of time when we didn't visit our acreage at all. There was a full year when we didn't come to the land and that's when my mother discovered she had breast cancer. Her battle was short, only about two years, and in her last year of life, I had zero desire to leave our main home in the city, six houses down from her house.

At times unkempt, the sodded area would have waist high weeds.

However, we eventually managed to fight our way back to enjoying the acreage. In fact, the week my mother passed away, I felt an instinctual strong need to come back to the acreage, so Sgt. David brought me with a loaded down flatbed trailer of yard tools, and I sat on the Cub Cadet mowing for six hours...zoning out...making peace with the inevitable. The acreage gave me space and it allowed me to be with nature so I could accept both life and death.

I didn't want to talk with anyone during this time about her coming death. She was only 57 and wanted so badly to live. Sometimes the fighters die fighting.

I was still working a minimum of 50 hours a week, but for two years I'd been spending significant time taking my mother to M.D. Anderson. I had taken her to her last appointment about two weeks before this day of mowing, and I knew there would now be no more trips to M.D. Anderson. Everything that could be done had been done and the cancer had spread everywhere...spine, brain, lungs, femur...everywhere. I knew, at any time, there would be no more mother. She was leaving involuntarily and I would experience a deep feeling of loss in a new way. She died within three days after my silent day of mowing. 

So, the grass out here has a weird connection to life and death out here for me. I guess people who love to garden and farm can relate.

But, to see the land go from dirt to a place of beauty because of diligence was rewarding, indeed. I might not have been able to control my mother's cancer growth, but I damn sure could chop down the weeds.

The good thing through this process of many years is that I learned that St. Augustine grass definitely is worth the value as it self-spreads while coping with periods of drought, once it is well established. And it is safe for farm animals and is beautiful

The pictures shared so far are of the sodded yard on the side of the acreage where we kept our RV and camped through the years. It's the area we lived in an RV for approximately three long years as we were building our house, but the pretty grass acreage side is not where we would later build our house.

This makes me remember the difference between our years of living in a city suburb to the country experience. In the suburbs, the houses come with sodded yards. The newly constructed houses brag of their "sodded and landscaped" yards for good reason.

The picture above and the picture below are of the same area...freshly cleared and a wreck, then you can see the yard as of this year with my grand-daughter Coraline enjoying it.

Through the years, we have made sure to have a lot of fun.

A family/friend day on our lake for the Three-Acre-Easter Egg Hunt.

Stefie and Heather - my girls who

love the outdoors.

I'm usually the one taking pictures, but every

so often I am at the other end.

Our lake is big...just big enough, but not too big.

No motorized engines, except for a trolling motor.

The good part about having gone through a phase with lotsa dirt is that I am full of hope that the ugly area around the new house will eventually be just as pretty as the side of our acreage with the RV. I keep reminding myself that the sodded area that is now so lush with grass took a long time to grow more widespread and it is great that it continues to creep further outward. What was once rather ugly and chaotic looking is now beautiful.

I'm hoping the same process will happen for the area we cleared for our home-site. However, I tried to sow seed as well.

Several times I walked this entire area while broadcasting seed...expensive seed. I did this four separate times via a broadcaster and then I spread seed by hand, walking and sowing. Not only was this a lot of physical work, it was expensive. We purchased about $200. in grass that was supposed to be GREAT for this area and that is also self-seeding, but it just wouldn't work.

A few times we had unexpected massive rains too soon after sowing the seeds and the ground is so hard that the seeds just washed away. The high clay content made sowing seed nearly impossible. But, I tried.

We knew that we'd have to get pallets of St. Augustine grass to sod the area.

We spent several hundreds of dollars on sod and Sgt. Dave strategically laid rolls down in the areas most critical for immediate needs. We wanted to have a bit of green space in the backyard for the grandkids, and we also wanted the main stairways that lead to entrances to the house be sodded so less dirt would be tracked inside.

Mainly, the sod is crucial in preventing erosion. The rains cause the topsoil to simply wash away. We've had layers disappear as my seed sowing efforts failed. Sgt. Dave laid those two lines of sod seen in the photo below and that has helped retain a measure of soil along those areas. We now have taken notice of areas that desperately need sodding. I hope that we can soon add another pallet of St. Augustine grass to the backyard and that I can make more plugs from a few rolls for areas that are apt to be left forgotten. A few plugs of grass can make a huge difference over time.

We also put sod around the detached garage (not shown) and put many rolls of grass around each sprinkler head in the distance. Later, I would go and separate these rolls to create many plugs of St. Augustine grass for planting around and those have worked beautifully. It will take a couple of years for these areas to see the grass spread out, but they will.

As Sgt. Dave got started with the sod placement, initially forgetting they needed to be staggered, so I followed along behind him to stagger the rolls so that the seams weren't long and deep. We worked to reduce the brown and to increase the green. Even though so much more needs to be sodded, we are thrilled to have a bit of green get started. The ample rain we've had this year is helping the newly laid sod to root and spread.

For now, I walk outside and hold a hand up to block the expanse of dirt still needing sod, and I laugh. It took YEARS for the other side of our acreage to become lush and green, but I can envision the day that the yard surrounding our house is beautiful and even includes ornamental and vegetable gardens.

One day we will have a yard worthy of pictures with grandbabies sitting upon the ground...for now, I use creative imagination.

*******

My thoughts beyond my ordinary catch-up blog post...

The mundane in life is what gives life meaning. Every day we handle the most ordinary and necessary of tasks, but these moments are actually what give life security, depth and enjoyment, even if that seems ironic. Lately, I've been sharing deep sadness with untold numbers of others regarding the terrorist attack in Orlando, Florida. To those who lost their lives and to those who are directly impacted by their tragic loss, I am mindful of your suffering. I understand that you wish to simply do ordinary things in life and that you wish boring enjoyment could be the distraction it had once been. The rest of us should take this time to appreciate the simple distractions of life for the beautiful, carefree moments they offer. A heavy heart can no longer move through a day with ease. One who is mourning cannot do anything anymore with the same mindless movements. Many of us know what it means to experience tragedy and loss of some sort, life usually grabs hold of us in this way, sooner or later. However, the horrific scale of the Orlando tragedy is a stacked type of devastation...one upon the other. For those who endured the attack and survived, I hope you can eventually and miraculously find peace with your circumstances and make your life a representation for all who didn't make it out alive...your purpose is heavy and great. For those who lost a part of their heart, it is true that we do not forget, and we do not recover from such loss, we simply learn to live with it. That's the new task of one who has experienced great loss; the mundane, daily task they must now confront is to live with their hurting heart and aching soul. My prayer is that joyful remembrance will again one day touch the suffering.