I'm back :o)

We've been staying kind of busy around these here parts, and I wanted to update all the work we've been doing. First off, Jim has been trimming up our little forest (aka - our backyard hehe). Man, I don't think the people before us ever pruned those trees! The pine tree Jim worked on last Saturday was dead, so it needed to come down. It wasn't nearly as tall as the other trees, and it's branches took up the whole left corner of the yard! There were a ton of vines tangled all around it (which Ryan and I didn't know), so when he notched it and then cut through it, it just stood there! He gave it a little nudge and it slid onto the ground next to the trunk - but still standing up!! I wish I would've gotten a picture of it, it was really funny to Ryan and I. Jim just shot us the look that means, "What is so funny?" and said "This is SO not good!", as all of our neighbor's park in their back yards. So I went over and we pushed on it until it finally came down. So, for Father's Day, I made him a card (we prefer homemade here) with a pic of the tree 'standing' next to the trunk and wrote "You forgot to yell "TIMBER" so it didn't know to fall over" on it. The kids and I thought it was hilarious, Jim just grinned. I did however get a picture of the trunk afterwards - Jim says this is definitely why the tree is dead. I don't know if it was ants or termites (hoping it was ants), but something has carved out the inside of the trunk.









Really neat to look at, not so neat when you think about what they're eating now!! Jim sprayed the whole area good, so hopefully that's the end of that problem!

~NEXT~

When we bought this house they left the stove. It was disgusting, but since we didn't have one, or the money to go buy one, we threw in a bunch of elbow grease and cleaned it up. It cleaned up really nice too I might add. The oven doesn't work right!! Every time we'd bake something it was any one's guess as to whether it would come out burnt, or still gooey - but never right! I bought an oven thermometer to watch it and when I'd put something in the oven the thermometer would say 350*, but as I'd check it throughout the baking period, it would range from 350* to 450*! UGH! Anyways, I decided we'd do as little baking as possible. Yesterday morning, Jim called and said he passed a yard sale in a ritzy subdivision that had a stove! Needless to say, we were on our way!! It was SOO gross and disgusting (even worse than the one we had already cleaned), I wanted to ask the man if I could meet his wife, (just because I was curious as to what kind of person would feed their family from a stove like this), then I thought I was probably better off not knowing. What made it even worse is this is a self-cleaning oven! Anyhow, after thinking how clean we got the other stove, I bought it for $35! I thought that was a GREAT deal, but it is costing us big in time and effort. I just hope it works right and that will make it all worth it!! I scrubbed it all day yesterday, Jim came home from work and scrubbed on it last night, I was out there first thing this morning scrubbing on it, and Jim is heading out there now to hopefully finish it up. Everyone keep your fingers crossed!