A whole 6 months has passed since I updated last. The baby arrived a month or so after my last post, so needless to say we have been hunkering down all winter. Not getting anything accomplished on the house front. Spring is here, baby is finally sleeping (mostly) through the night, and I have the energy to get some stuff done. Our pool area has been a bit of a jungle since we moved in. We attempted to tame the beast right after we bought the place. Being pregnant last spring/summer I didn’t spend much time pulling weeds or tending to it, so we have some work cut out for us this year. I tried to get ahead by ripping out some of the ivy and pulling up all the old river rock. I couldn’t believe it, I kept digging and digging, and kept finding river rock that had been covered up decades ago. I ended up using it to make a completely new and double-the-original-size rock bed. I STILL have some stones left over. I put down landscaping fabric to help deter weeds, and then put the Landscaping Rocks back down.
Before 
Landscaping Rocks
There’s only so much you can tame nature out here. Every year our beautiful big pine trees lose their needles, which creates a mess. It’s so hard to keep up with, and to an extent you just have to let it be. Or pay an astronomical landscaping bill, but we will pass on that.
We also finally got this Sweet Gum tree taken down. These trees drop those spikey balls of pain in the fall creating a minefield, along with leaves very close to the house, so we decided it had to go. It allows more sun to hit the screened in porch/that side of the house. We will see if thats a good or bad thing over the course of the summer.
If you have a chainsaw and/or an itch to do yard work, come on over! We have beer 🍻
