One of the things we love the most about where we live is our backyard. We have a lot of woods and have been blessed with visits from all kinds of wildlife. The woods area, though, wasn't too friendly to yours truly as it had a lot of over growth, which included its share of poison ivy. We decided to hire someone to come and clean a lot of it out, including some dead trees. We figured it would expand the usability of our backyard, eliminate some bugs, dangerous dead trees, and the dreaded poison ivy. Here is a "before" picture:
Here is a video of a 40-50 foot tree (dead) being taken down. It survived Hurricane Ike and plenty of pretty bad storms, but it was no match for this small backhoe.
We also found a new friend when we were checking out the final product. He was about 3-4 feet long and we think it might be a black rat snake (not yet an adult). If you know it is something else, let us know:
Here is the "after" picture (much nicer and more noticeable in person). Now we need to plant some grass seed.
Livvi started swim lessons about two years ago. She took Level 1 three times, though I could argue the first go around was a waste of time from a teaching perspective. We were so proud of her for sticking with it and passing it this past fall. We enrolled her in Level 2 this spring and after watching her the first two classes (there were six in all, one per week), there was little doubt in my mind she would not pass. However, the last three classes, Liv turned it on. She really started doing really well and I thought there might be a chance she could pass. Well, on Tuesday evening, Livvi passed Level 2! We are so proud of her for listening to her teacher and working on her skills (we actually practiced a little while at Great Wolf Lodge..."ironically" about three weeks ago). Bring on Level 3!
We like to start 'em young 'round here!
By the way, that one foot by one foot area was REALLY clean when she was done.
All afternoon, Joie kept saying "Happy Muvers Day". We went to Red Lobster for dinner and tried to record her saying it while we waited for our food (poor video quality as we were using a cell phone). Here is what resulted:
We regrouped and tried it again:
Happy Muvers Day, Heather! We love you!!
Overheard in the car this morning:
Liv: Knock Knock
Jo: Who's there?
Liv: Orange
Jo: Orange who?
Liv: Orange you glad I didn't say banana?
Jo: Banana who?
