Yardworkalopnik

"JRapp: now as good as new again" (jrapp) 08/07/2016 at 00:19 • Filed to: None

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I was out of the country for a month. This is what I came back to.

And none of this crap is mine. It’s all my neighbors blackberries. I’ve been at it for 5 hours and this is where I’m leaving off for tonight as it’s getting dark:

Most of the stuff is going back over the fence as I have my own grass and clippings that need to go into my yard debris. This BS is getting rediculous. The blackberries in their back yard are now officially higher than their house. At this point, after 5 hours, I’m down a rake and probably quarter a pint of blood. But at least I’m making progress. At some point here I’m probably gonna complain to the city. The messed up part is the it’s a mom with two college aged boys that live there. They’re all really nice people if you talk to them, but nobody lifts a finger outside the house. And I have other things I need to do around the house as well after a month away, except I have to spend 5 hours on a Saturday and a few more on a Sunday dealing with these bloodthirsty weeds.

On the plus side, I did get a car wash. And picked up my wifes Monte Carlo from the shop (to the tune of $1020.51) to get its oil leaks taken care of - recall for the front valve cover gasket, paid for the rear one, oil pan gasket, oil pressure sensor and few other bits.

Have a diesel stick shift Mercedes Vito for your time. It’s a piece of crap, but it served us well for a month in Estonia so it deserves some recognition.

I need some food and a stiff drink now.

Birddog > JRapp: now as good as new again 08/07/2016 at 00:38

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That is the definition of a bad neighbor! You don’t happen to live next to David Tracy do you?

JRapp: now as good as new again > Birddog 08/07/2016 at 00:47

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Not that I know of.. It’s some pretty much Americanized Brazilians that have lived there for the last 15 years or so. At one point, like 10 years ago they paid a boatload of money to have the entire houses landscaping professionally re-done. Now, the ENTIRE back yard is covered in blackberries. I can see it from my master bedroom window and it’s scary. You just know there are all sort of rodents and forest creatures living in there too...

Also, up until a couple of years ago, they owned a couple of dogs that they only let out into the ~20 square feet of back yard that was not covered in blackberries yet. And they never picked up the poo. All they did was put down some hay over it for a new “clean” ground. It was bad. As sad as it was that their dogs passed away, it really was for the best.

Birddog > JRapp: now as good as new again 08/07/2016 at 00:56

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You’re killing me here. Killing!

Even Rednecks like me have rules. #1 is a well groomed yard. (Yeah, I’m tapping my inner Hank Hill.)

It probably is for the best that they lost their dogs. Sadly.

sonicgabe > JRapp: now as good as new again 08/07/2016 at 01:12

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I feel your pain, but our pain is of our own doing. We’re doing a complete overhaul of the backyard, which includes getting rid of a busted up above-ground pool and replacing it with a bigger, better one. We had five overgrown bougainvilleas, which have massive thorns that are coated in the same irritant that is on poison ivy and oak (makes dealing with them so much fun!), plus a bunch of other plants that needed trimming. Between the pool, yard waste, other crap, and flooring (we just ripped up and replaced 7o% of the flooring in the house, too) we’ve taken at least 3000lbs of crap to the dump. It’s gonna look great when it’s done. I think we’ve got about two more truckloads of yard waste to remove, then we have to prep the ground for the new pool.

On the plus side, we have bananas that are coming in, should be ready to pick in a few weeks!

That’s half of the old pool. Some of the structural supports that ran from one side to the other under the pool were buried two feet down. Had to dig a trench to get each one out, six in total. Fun. But at least it was put together properly!

JRapp: now as good as new again > sonicgabe 08/07/2016 at 01:22

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Yea I know your pain in getting rid of an above ground pool. I tore ours up about 2 years ago. I still have the sand base left and I’m not entirely sure what do do with all that sand and the grown-through weed cloth around the edges. At this pount the kids still play in it as if it was a sandbox, but another few years and I have no excuse to leave it around.

I figured I don’t need the above-ground since my parents have a nice in-ground. It was turning into a frog-paradise so it had to go. I still also have all the pump and filter equipment sitting in the garage that I need to put up on craigslist or something.

Dr. Zoidberg - RIP Oppo > JRapp: now as good as new again 08/07/2016 at 01:35

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My neighbors have an apple tree that drops delicious fruit all over our yard. Your circumstances are not ideal!

JRapp: now as good as new again > Dr. Zoidberg - RIP Oppo 08/07/2016 at 01:57

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Well, technically these things do grow blackberries. But I’d rather not let it get to the point where it’s dropping berries because berries = seeds = more blackberry bushes.

Speaking of apples though, for the longest time we had this bush growing that my dog liked to pee on. We trimmed it, kept it small in a corner. No idea what bush it was. One year we kind of let it get a bit out of hand. Next spring, we were getting the yard in order and I trimmed the bush to look more like a tree. So the bush lived its happy life as a tree, it grew and bloomed but never grew any fruit. Until one summer day I’m sitting on my patio, looking at my garden, and notice that my dogs pee bush is growing apples.. So now we have an apple tree too...

FTTOHG Has Moved to https://opposite-lock.com > JRapp: now as good as new again 08/07/2016 at 01:58

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I just replaced a 27' above ground pool. Was a pain in the ass. Filled the entire bed of my friend’s Ram 2500 with the metal parts of old one. He actually got like $15 for it in scrap at the recyclers. My wife and I cut apart the vinyl liner with box cutters and filled like 5 of those 39 gallon trash bags. After that I just paid someone to put in the new one. It was like $900 but they actually used surveying equipment to properly level the sand and got it set up in under 4 hours. I wanted to just get rid of the thing since our neighborhood has a community pool, but it has a big deck on a slab around it so I figured it would actually cost more to get that all removed than just replace the pool. Of course it didn’t line up quite the same so I still need to do some work on the deck. You can probably sell the filtration stuff on CL if it is decent. I’m always looking for spare pool parts on CL so others probably are too. If nothing else, list it for super cheap just so someone else can get it off your property - that crap can be heavy!

Here’s my stupid dog stuck on the railing after he hopped on from the deck and tried to make a full circle only to be foiled by a skimmer adapter I left up there.

Deck needs a little TLC this fall, but I really didn't want to deal with a complete tear out.

JRapp: now as good as new again > FTTOHG Has Moved to https://opposite-lock.com 08/07/2016 at 02:02

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That’s a nice yard you got there.

FTTOHG Has Moved to https://opposite-lock.com > JRapp: now as good as new again 08/07/2016 at 02:09

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Thanks. The previous owners of the house laid it out pretty well so I just try to maintain it. Right now I’m fighting a war with ivy in the Junipers on the other end of the yard.

sonicgabe > JRapp: now as good as new again 08/07/2016 at 02:16

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Nice. The old pool was a 12x24 foot oval, the new one is a 25 foot circle. The deck we have was built for the old pool, but the circle will be fine even thought it won’t be all snug up against it. I’d love to redo the deck; rip it all out and fit it to the new pool, but that’s not in the budget right now.

Urambo Tauro > JRapp: now as good as new again 08/07/2016 at 10:28

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When life hands you blackberries, make blackberry cobbler.

Mmm... blackberry cobbler...