Landscape Maintenance


Just because we are retired does not exempt us from chores. There are plenty of little maintenance jobs around our retirement home to keep us busy.

The creosote bush above needed to be trimmed. This particular bush grows faster than the others on the property since it is located near the irrigation for the citrus trees directly behind it. It also got a couple of deep watering events during monsoon season; it is located next to the drainage ditch west of the house.

Thick creosotes attract small desert mammals that need a place to nest. That, in turn, attracts predators like rattlesnakes. You can understand why we needed this bush to be cleaned up.

The image above is a Flash™ slideshow. Click the image to advance the show from before to after and your humble landscape worker.

Keep The Change

Keep The Change

As should be painfully obvious, an awful lot of people pulled the lever for Obama in 2008 because they were tired of Republicans; because they were bored by the wars; because they didn’t like McCain or Palin, or both; because Obama seemed optimistic and reasonable; because the financial crisis hit in September; because they didn’t listen to a word the Democratic candidate said but were nonetheless convinced by the vapid ‘hope and change’ stuff and the (always empty) promise to rise above ‘politics’; and, yes, because he was black. … One of Obama’s biggest mistakes — perhaps his biggest mistake — was to conclude that he had a mandate for his brand of progressive change. He did not. The Obama campaign was always, in fact was deliberately, divorced from his politics. A smarter, less egotistical man would have realized as much. Obama did not. … [T]he Left likes to explain away the failure of the last four years with vague charges of ‘Republican obstructionism,’ but this explains neither the continuing liability of the still-unpopular Obamacare nor the real damage to himself that the president did while he enjoyed majorities in both the House and the Senate. Republican ‘obstructionism,’ remember, was only made possible by the 2010 ‘shellacking,’ which was the product of the Democrats’ running riot for two years.

–columnist Charles C. W. Cooke

Via The Patriot Post

Silhouette Dog

Silhouette Dog

We had an amazing day today. The temperatures were in the high 70’s to low 80’s with blue skies and slight breezes. Our second spring is in progress and Beethoven, our little min pin likes to sit in the open window sunning and protecting us from anything outside that he deems to be a danger to the household. Click on the image to enlarge.

Good Snowbird

Good Snowbird

Damsel snapped this photo of one of our “snowbirds” cars in the parking lot today with a hopeful bumper sticker urging the electorate to defeat the POtuS next Tuesday. Please get out the vote! Click on the image to enlarge.

Gerbera Daisies

Gerbera Daisies

Today was grocery shopping day and, as usual, I bought some flowers for the vase in the great room. These colorful Gerbera daisies bring home some of the fall flower colors to the house. Click on the image to enlarge.