Another Hot Spell #2

It's quite cool! I'd use wooly thyme I'd do if I could get rid of my grass.

Thanks for info about wooly thyme - I looked at some photos and it is beautiful. Now if I could only get my neighbor to do something about the 3 ailanthus trees she has planted at the fence line - they are beginning to push the over fence (which belongs to me) and are marching toward my house. When the city suggested that I have a dead/diseased cherry tree removed form my front yard I immediately did so. The neighbor put a sign in her window that faces me - the sign reads "we love trees - even dead trees have feelings". What do you think?

;o) double post...

Warm again today, rain tomorrow

I think dead trees are great - when they are in your neighbor's yard and not contributing to ill health of the trees of everybody else in the neighborhood.

My neighbor loves his dead trees as wildlife habitat and I agreed, except for the four times they fell and ripped apart my fence and damaged my shed. :-)

I'd just stay focused on the fence and ask your neighbor that they prop their trees up or cut them back so they don't damage the fence. That's pretty reasonable.

I have 3 cottonwoods across the property line from my neighbor, the last guy to keep a horse in Mountlake Terrace. And he still hands out business cards from when he was Mayor.

They are now 60-70 feet tall, which is not the distance from my house to the trees. I have called him about the issue once about a month ago, and all he was facinated with was the regulatory aspect. If I had mailed him a certified letter telling him about the risk, it would have transferred liability to him

These trees are SW of my house, which is where the prevailing winter winds are from, so it is highly likely that they hit my house, deck, bedroom.... You get the picture. Brain of a politician, and clueless tree buyer.

Or have the city tell them they are not allowed to damage their neighbors property....they don't sound like the type to be very receptive to portland's suggestions...

On the other hand, the owners of the property in back of us have not been seen or heard from that I know of in the nine years we have lived here. The lot is mostly nasty blackberry bushes that constantly over run our fence and come up all through our yard...roundup and a machete seem to be the only solution....but I hate chemicals. Isn't it lovely??

Well, it's private. Maybe you should "see" them on the blackberries and "raise" them with some running bamboo.

I'm on the phone with mom, she says if the bamboo would block out the blackberries, she way prefer the bamboo. I agree, though black berries are tasty and I do have a wild blackbreey I transplanted into my yard.

Oh I like the bamboo. On the positive side, no burglers can get over that fence and I hope you like blackberry cobbler LOL. I don't like chemicals either, but Bush-B-Gone takes care of those things. If I can't get them out by hand that's what I use.

Mom has a neighbor (not me, the other one) who lets his stuff grow over the fence. I cut it down regular and spray with round up over the fence. He either doesn't notice or doesn't care.

Good luck with those neighbors, they sound a little strange. I like trees too (I have seven) but will readily cut one down if it's going to damage property or be a threat. I just had a huge oak of my Mom's taken care of by a tree service, they can trim them so the wind goes through instead of trying to blow over. It's not cheap though.

I hate cotton woods, those had to be a mistake in creation. We just won trying to get two cut down in our common area that is right behind our house. First spring in a long time I could enjoy being outside. Took 3 years to get them cut down and I even helped cart away the mess, the sinus headache was worth it.

analogdog - I wonder if the certified letter thing is valid here in Portland. I could send the cert letter stating the danger to my fence, driveway and house and then the liability is theirs? Makes sense. The neighbors are two sisters who live together and their yard they also claim as a wildlife habitat. The postal service will not deliver their mail because there is no access to the mailbox and the steps to their porch are covered with vines. All the other neighbors have had dealings with them and everyone is of the same opinion - crazy!

They do sound "Special".....I love trees, vines and adore all wildlife but there are limits...to everything there is a time and a place, and where and what they have does not appear to be the correct one in either case.

I also love trees and have plans to put in a few more. My neighbor on the other side is a garden designer and is giving me great advice. The neighborhood is actually really fun and everyone else is terrific!

OOhhh can we borrow your designer neighbor??!!!

She is such a nice person and actually designed my garden for a previous owner. I am just changing a few things, like removing grass for a flagstone area with ground cover planted between the stones. Grass takes too much water and you have to mow the darn stuff. I will replace the dead cherry tree that was removed. She is happy that dead tree is gone since it was aiming for her roof. There are a few spots with vines that are beginning to cover other plants so I need to get that under control.
I am sore all over from carrying heavy flagstone - too old for such chores!

speaking of sore, we're headed out the door for ou Sunday bike ride...talk to ya later if I can still walk when we get back

Sally – I think that is one of my allergies too. My allergies are bad today. I just coughed, trying to get rid of phylum, until I gagged. It’s not the first time, but it sure sucks.

Portland1 – Yeah! Another anti-lawn person; I keep hoping it’ll become the standard, rather than the exception. There seems like there is a lot of us out there. I rent so I can’t remove mine, but I protest by not caring if there are weeds in the grass.

I think most people are “too old” for that chore. That ideally should be left to young, strong people. I don’t think I could do it easily and I’m 29, but then I’m also 5’, 120 lbs.

So, the rain just started here again, I hope mom and dad are in from their ride, they should be soon, if not already. It's not hard, but it still sucks to ride in the rain.

Well we cut it really short today...started raining about six miles out and we don't have fenders on the bike....the rest of the guys continued on and I imagine they are really wet by now. We lucked out and got home with only a few sprinkles....the real rain didn't start until we were at lunch.

zhinu having a lawn in this particular neighborhood in Portland is pretty rare - it is a very environmentally conscious area. The local public school is an environmental school and there are vegetables and sunflowers planted all around it. You can regularly see the kids out working in the garden on the weekends and in the summer months. The neighborhood gardens tend to be cottage-like/English style and everyone has vegetables growing. I still have a patch of lawn in the front yard but I haven't decided what to do with it yet - but I am letting the weeds grow!

Portland1 - I think that is great. Our school isn't that cool, but I have started to see a lot more houses without lawns in this area. There is even one with corn for their front yard. I live in a HOA so no such luck here. Next house I have I don't want to be HOA, preferable I'd like our next house to be owned by us, but we'll see how that goes.

Perhaps you've heard about this family in Pasadena, California. I posted about them awhile back:

http://www.pathtofreedom.com/about/urbanhomestead.shtml

Looks cool!

Boy, that was interesting to say the least. Thanks.

Clouds have moved in tonight. I didn't believe them and watered anyway, it was necessary. Got up to 90, but had a breeze, so not too bad in the shade.

Still trying to get the shed set up. Went shopping for shelves and electrical stuff today. Found a piece of linoleum in the remnant bin that pretty much fits and the price was great. We needed 7 1/2 ft by 12 and the piece was 6 1/2 by 12, I'll find something for the other part. It won't be in the working area anyway. Started looking at paint for the house, DH says he likes anything I like (that makes it all my fault).

zhinusmom..sorry your ride got cut short. Rain with no fender is icky.

zhinu...do you know what the people with the corn do in that area during the winter?

Portland...I can relate to the work, we moved here 10 yrs ago and we're still working on it LOL.

Sally - No clue, I just found it about a month ago.

Something to check out later then.

Will do!

it was 90 today Sally??? wow, where was I at, for some strange reason I really didn't notice. So I guess that breeze must have been doing a lot of good!! Good to know though.

Still haven't put my thermometer at home up. But that's what the one in the car said. We were out running around all day and it changed depending on where we were.

Good you could drop in. How goes the fires?

still there..... strangely enough. there's still maybe two to three new ones still popping up every day. We saw another tonight just as we were going home, the sun had already gone down so it would have been difficult to call in. but we're at the state where unless it's a roaring fire, it doesn't matter if we know or not since we don't have anyone to put on it! (never thought that I would see the day when dispatch would tell us not to call in a fire!) So, this one was tiny (single branch maybe) so we'll call it in in the morning. All of the reinforcements (people, equipment, helicoptors, etc.) that we ordered have arrived though! 300 more people running around outside of oakridge now. So, the woods are getting calmer but the logistical end is crazy (which is normal). Anyhow, that's how it's going. Thanks for asking. Probably more than you wanted to know!! It sounds as though your construction projects are coming along very well and maybe ready to start being useful!!

Zhinu, the picture of that house is great! I think that more yards should look like that!!!

Portland..what is the name of this school that you were talking about? It sounds like it has the sort of philosophy that I think most schools should have!!.

Geez, it's been raining here hard with no break since about 1:00. No kidding. Truly October weather. So much for August.

RC, wish you were having some of this. It would definitely bring relief.

So, the question of the month..... is there still time for summer? and will it show up?

Katie, makes you wonder what fall and winter are going to look like doesn't it?

haha... yeah, they say that we may get some tomorrow! Last week it rained anywhere from 1/2 in to an 1 in., depending on where you were standing, and I thought for sure that we would be missing at least half of the fires by the time the rain let up two days later.. Those are some tenacious little turkeys!!

Summer is still here. Its just raining. Why should that stop anybody. What do you do the other 9 months then?

I agree we could use the rain, it's too dry out there. But at least we're not like some of those places in the South that are having a drought.

It drizzled while I was working that rock bed and I enjoyed every drop LOL. The only thing that needed leveling when the shed got here was the path in the middle that is slopped for drainage. Hurrah, I can still do it! Yes, all the hard work will pay off. I can see my garden shed coming together already.

I hope fall doesn't get here too early, I still have more to do. Of course the stores are getting holiday stuff in already.
And Costco switched from shorts and tee shirts to flannel shirts and sweat pants. It always amazes me when they put in winter coats in the middle of a heat wave.

Red, sounds like a mess. I never heard about fires unless they were big and threatening property, or really close, until I got on here. I’m fascinated so talk all you want.

I agree with you on the house, felt weird stopping and taking a picture, but I thought it was so cool. I want to do the edible front yard http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/871006/ I think it would be great to “farm” your front yard and allow others to partake.

That is the thousand dollar question if not the million dollar; there is some hope with the “nice” days we’ve been having between the rains.

Katie, same here; It’s been weird, hot weather and rain interspersed.

AnalogDog, well the deal is we have two seasons, summer and rainy, if this is the beginning of fall we had less than two months of summer. Also, think of the farmers, they’ve been hit hard this year and could really use an “Indian summer”.

Sally, lol… I’ve always wondered about when stores put things out as well.

The environmental elementary school is called Sunnyside Elementary. Their website:
www.environmentalschool.org
Very cool and parents fight to get their kids in. I think it is the most in-demand school in Portland. My daughter's boyfriend is a teacher and he would kill to teach there. Many people move to the neighborhood for this school. My kids are grown so that was not a consideration for me but I like being in an area that has this kind of philosophy.

I love the photo of the corn front yard. How great is that!

Glad to know there are places that practice what they preach. I really had to argue to recycle some of the stuff we took down. The neighbor who helped us didn't know anything about recycle or what is allowed as far as trash is concerned. "Just throw the paint cans in the truck" NOT I'm making an appointment with the hazmat people and will take it to them even if I have to pay a few bucks. They didn't know about a lot of things, so I passed on our local recycle paper (tells where to take what) but wouldn't hold my breath waiting for them to use it. It's too easy to just throw it in the trash.