Own it

Most of the time, I love owning a home. 

On a 95 degree day, with high humidity and higher bermuda grass, not so much.  Today wasn't that bad.  It was overcast and not very humid. 

Either that, or the Depakote gives me better heat tolerance.  Fat lady + medications + feels like 100 = not a good idea. 

I forgot my hat, and gloves, but I got out there. 

I was pretty pleased with myself. 

Since I have a pretty big (about 7 thousand square feet, minus one thousand for the house) yard, I have a lot of yardwork.  That wasn't much of a problem before my illness got bad. 

Now, it can be, especially with a pending inspection.  Our insurance company sends an inspector every year.  Last year, they found some problems. 

I'm fine with that.  I think it's a great idea to inspect the properties and keep the liability down.  For instance, years ago, Metrolift made a pickup at a home.  We had a "tropical thing" in the Gulf of Mexico, and the home was overshadowed by a huge, dead, pine tree.  It was clear anything above 50 mph would bring the tree down on the house, and maybe the neighboring house as well.  I have no problem with the insurance company saying "Get rid of that or we'll drop you". 

However, I was chided for "overgrown vegetation" - a nice way of saying an overgrown yard.  I want to clean up the yard as much as possible. 

I know I'm not a normal person, and years ago I threw out the normal stick.  I have been ducking this for about a week.  I knew I needed to get started. 

Today, I told myself "I'll go for one hour, or until I fill up the trash can".  The trash can is 95 gallons, the "hide a body in it" size. 

I went out with my clippers.  It could only happen in Houston: weed trees.  I kid you not, if I turn around, I will have a 5 foot aspen in my yard.  Or a mulberry.  I have two mulberry trees I really don't want, but they keep coming back when I cut them down.  Besides, the birds and all seem to love the berries. 

I had weed trees, weed shrubs, and a nice assortment of thorny blackberry vines, crawling around on the ground.  I need to wear my gloves!  The blackberries like to wrap around my ankles and trip me.  I wore longer pants and a t-shirt to do the work.  I drank hydration stuff, I think that helped (I really do feel fine).  I went out with my long handled clippers and started snipping. 

Pretty soon I had cleared a corner of the yard, and filled up the trash can.  Now, it's garbage eve.  I need to take them out.  So I did that.  The cats, by the way, "helped' by smelling everything and dancing around my feet.  Pretty came in with me, tired of the heat. 

All done!  Yay!  I can do that again tomorrow! 

I can't go out and do the all-day yardwork fest.  I would run out of trash can, anyway.  But I can commit to making small steps towards getting it done. 

I love my house, I want to "own" it, chores and all.