the past few weeks have involved lots of hole digging. many new trees and also trimmed or removed a few cedar that were close to the house or choking oaks. a bare area was an ideal location for this handsome rosemary. we sold our other house that had a rosemary that was larger than a volkswagen. we now have a nice view of our new rosemary from the kitchen.
I've written before on how well the invisible fence works. the dogs can roam freely over most of our one acre lot. but there is a fence that seperates most of the front yard from the back. they found that they could use the doggie door to get into the screen room, then push out the screen on the front door to the entry and get to the front yard (behind the bird of paradise is where they kept punching out the screen)
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this is the door they were pushing the screen out of. the door itself is a POS and rescreening it today did not remedy that.
My son and I went to petsmart to buy an additional doggie door so they can go through the screen room to access the front yard without going THROUGH the screen. Prices were more than I was willing to pay so we went to home depot. there a large doggie door was $70! since it's a screen room I only need a mosquito barrier and it doesn't need to be weather tight. I just needed a flap. then I found some rubber sheeting used as carpet runner. things strated to get ugly at HD as I found four guys leaning in the appliance dept who were unwilling to cut me some of the material. they sent me to speak to a woman who was on the phone. I waited for her to get off the phone and she tried to page somebody else to help me. 15 minutes later I was still waiting. I again asked the lady for assistance and she again tried to call somebody. again, 10 minutes of us standing there waiting. the lady was back on the phone. I went to the service desk to complain. I found a line. I put all the other items I had intended to purchase down and left.
I found the flooring dept attendant at lowes on the phone. he quickly ended his conversation, jumped up and cut the material we needed.
below is my $2 doggie door. I used two different flaps of contrasting rubber. I don't know why, I just like it better that way.
the inside flap is clear with translucent stripes. the top edge is folded and held in place by aluminum L with screws through it.
outside is a black ribbed material. the dogs quickly learned this new access route to the front.
across from our house is 13 acres of land that is zoned residential. it was recently sold and we were looking forward to 13 new neighbors. then we got word that it was purchased by a developer from Houston (land of NO ZONING).
I can see this sign from my front door. they are asking for a zoning change to put up an eighty three thousand square foot office park with a free standing deli. you can bet this hasn't sat well with the neighbors. a petition has been signed by almost if not all the people that own property within 200 ft of the land.
I spoke with the developer as he pounded his sign post into the ground. he assured me that his commercial project left a wide green belt across from my house and I wouldn't even see the office park. I went down to the West Lake Hills municipal office to view his proposed site plan. I was not satisfied with what he called a green belt. it looked more like a 75 ft set-back with parking and deli on the other side. so it looks like there is a strong opposition to his plans. I think most everybody on this street has signed petitions and written personal appeal letters to the zoning committe and council. I will attend the zoning meeting in person next week. We had hoped for a trip to Big Bend this turkey holiday but things have gotten complicated.
I would rather see residential land used for residences. vacant lots are as rare as hen's teeth in this small community. this past summer a mid century ranch home up the street came on the market for mid 600's. it was sold and work on the house started right away. I had feared it would be an unsympathetic mcmansion makeover. but... I was completely blown away this past week when I drove by and found no trace the house ever existed! bare dirt with not a single scrap of material left, cleanest scrape I ever saw. the builder has a sign up on the lot. (builder linked) I can't say I'm impressed as I thought the existing home had loads of potential for an addition or sympathetic remodel. now it's in a land fill.
my daughter's school sells gift wrap and high end chocolates from a catalog to raise $. they don't allow door to door or selling to strangers. the products are nice and who doesn't need gift wrap or chocolate? the kids get cheap trinkets as a reward.
the gift wrap order came in today. when I picked her up from school today I offered to carry the big box of gift wrap rolls. She insisted I carry her back pack instead (it rolls on wheels). I then noticed how proud she was to be one of the kids who had sold to help raise funds, even if her box wasn't one of the largest ones.
we got home and she upacked her rewards. what is surely a ten cent made in china trinket is a valuable symbol of achievement to her. she beamed with pride as she admired her LED light....thingy. she also got a 8 ft ballon that really made her brother envious.
speaking of turkey day. my son is very insistent that he does not want us eating turkey and he will refuse to eat a turkey. he explained to me that he really likes turkeys. I had asked him about his appetite for chickens to which he replied, "chickens! I DON'T like chickens so I DO want to eat them, I DO like turkeys and DO NOT EAT THEM!" with the exception of Rudy's bbq and my dad's cajun fried turkey, I don't usually care for it myself. He gave me the green light to cook a duck, he doesn't like them either.
