Category Archives: Home & Garden

Just Brown and Gone

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Wonder why the leaves are not turning the bright fall colors that we’ve come to expect this time of year? It seems like the leaves are going straight from green to brown. The yard is already full of large brown oak leaves and smaller brown hickory leaves. I don’t mind raking these leaves in an afternoon, but when the burr balls start to fall from the hickory trees, I will be gathering them up with a vengeance. The burr balls are a nuisance and cause twisted ankles as well as puncturing the soft pads of my dog’s feet.

Bees and Wasps

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For some reason my yard is full of bumblebees this year. I noticed a couple of them about 2 weeks ago hovering around the rose bush by my mailbox. Then a couple days ago I noticed there were 5 or 6 bumblebee buzzing around the rose bush. Of course, the rose bush is in full bloom right now, so it is obviously very attractive to bees. But I do not remember seeing so many of them buzzing this bush last year.

There is a new wasp nest in the soffit of my roof, just around the corner from my front door. I have seen 3 or 4 red wasps flying about the yard this week, but I couldn’t find the nest. But this morning as I was going out to get the Sunday newspaper, I noticed a wasp flying over my head and as I tracked him with my eyes I noticed the next tucked away in the soffit. So next time I’m at the hardware store I’ll have to pick up a can of wasp killer and take out that nest. I can put up with the bumblebees as eco-friendly gesture but I can’t abide the red wasps.

Wrecking Their Credit

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My sister’s husband was in a car wreck back in March and hasn’t worked since. He hurt his back and has been back and forth to all kinds of different doctors. It’s bad enough that his car was totaled and he can’t afford a new one, but he’s in pain every time he does the least little bit of lifting or carrying or pulling on things. We figure the car insurance will help take care of most of these kinds of things. What worries my sister and me is that he’s not earning any income all this time and the household bills are piling up.

Sis had to come out of retirement and go back to work just to bring in some money and pay the basics, like food and the utilities. But the rest of the bills are getting harder and harder to put off. I’ve helped her out a little here and there, but they are going to need a lot more help than what I can give.

She finally started looking into debt consolidation and counseling, and I’m sure the possibility of filing for bankruptcy is in the back of her mind, too. There’s a wide difference in the types of debt relief services and I want her to make informed decisions about this important financial matters. It’s bad enough that we are in a tough economy, but with her husband hurt and her two sons in college, she has a lot of worries.

I Spy

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One of the guys at the warehouse works for us part time and for his other job he works security for a chain of local convenience stores. I gave him a call tonight and told about my concerns in the neighborhood and he suggested I put a couple cameras on the exterior doors and the driveway. He has a bunch of that kind of technical stuff in his garage and he’s going to bring some of it with him tonight to let me borrow the cameras and controllers. He says they are easy to mount and are wireless, so I can have them up tomorrow in just a few minutes. They run the video feed to a regular CD or DVD player or to a personal computer. So I can record any activity and have a record of it to show the police. This is cool – I’m totally up for this little spy game.

Who Are They Really?

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With my little incident of my car getting egged last night, I happened to chat with a couple of my other neighbors this afternoon and mentioned my troubles. They both have noticed little problems like mine.

My neighbor across the street says that his trash can that was put out for pick up was knocked over and the trash strewn across his yard a couple of weeks ago. He thought at the time it might have been animals that did it, but it could have been kids trying to pull a prank.

My next door neighbor says that her boyfriend’s car was left parked on the street one night and that the next morning it had been broken into and all the personal items gone through, although nothing seemed to be taken. We doubt that the CD’s with titles like “Country Hits of the 80’s” and “Best of Travis Tritt” had any value for the punks down in the ghetto.

All three of us suspect the new renters down the street or their friends.