Boss asked me to cover 2nd shift today as the help desk. 2nd shift is from 1:30pm to 9pm. Wonder if he knows that since it is a 3 day weekend everyone goes home at 3:30pm.

OKC is the land of horse shows. I bet there are 40 horse shows in the city each year. Add in the Rodeos and FFA events there is always something going on at the local fairgrounds. The parking lot is full of horse trailers and large pickups. The barns are full of high dollar horses.

Of course we have likely 25 or more gun shows at the fairgrounds each year. It is never empty at the fairgrounds.

One of the neighborhoods just south of ours is a gated edition. The lots are required to be be at least a full acre. Most are bigger. The average house in there is 5,000 square feet and up. Many mega million dollar houses in a city where a million dollar house is impressive. In some parts of the country a million just gets a tiny run down hovel.

Guy I know that lives in a gated community has not only attached garages larger than my home has a detached garage as big as my home. He had a CD showing a house for sale in another newer gated community he was looking at. The houses looked similar to me...The house on the CD was $4,000,000 USD.

He is building a new house in an exclusive area where each house is gated. Think that is called an Estate, technically.

My FIL taught junior how to use his ZeroTurn mower yesterday. He earned $15 for doing their yard. It was gone in less than 24 hours. He insisted on buying a model of the Titanic but didn't have enough so he owes me $10.

It's Friday!

Traffic heading up north is already a frikkin' nightmare. Glad we are not going that way!

Pulling out a few stumps today. Our backyard has no plants now. It looks like hell, but we do have a plan. Muhahaha!!!

My whole yard needs relandscaped got some way overgrown shrubs and some city butchered trees under power lines removed. Have no idea what to do besides just removing the trees though.

Had a couple of landscapers out to help, but never heard back from them. Need both of those shows to pick me, curb appeal and yard crashers.

When mowing yards my Dad took over a lawn he wanted to do. Took 2 hours on our riding mower for $35. In 2 hours did 5 of regular lawns with push mower for $10 a piece. Still did our yard which was also 2 hours on our rider. It was one of those big 12 hp tractors that did more than just mowing. The mower deck had 3 blades. Later I sold it and got a riding mower instead of tractor. It had a 39" single blade deck. My lawn that took two hours went down to just 45 minutes because the single blade cut so much better I could mow as fast as it would go. With the tractor you had to go a lot slower or it looked like you used a brush hog even with freshly sharpened blades.

I have one stump left. It's a big mofo that's only in the way if we do two retaining walls on our backyard slope. I'm leaning towards one wall so I think I'll leave the stump alone. Man, this yard looks ugly!.

Don't get stumped!

When growing up the little girl my age on the corner, Wendy had a pet raccoon. It pretty much had free run of the neighborhood. It's tail was only 2 inches long. His name was Stubby and followed her and the rest of us kids around like a puppy.

For living in the big city, Wendy and I had pretty countryfied pets. She had stubby, and I had my great horned owl, Herbert. A neighbor raised rabbits, and around the corner was a dairy. I remember a lot of the neighbors getting their milk from the dairy. We never did, but I never even thought about it. Guess my parents had their reasons. Maybe they didn't want to mess with separating and doing something with the cream.

No wonder you son was so anxious to learn to use the zero turn mower...

https://thechive.files.wordpress.com...rip=info&w=460

Commuted to work today on the 888. First time almost a year. Holy scheiss is it fun to ride! I really need to take it out more often.

888?

An older Ducati. Friggin cool bikes.

Sup homies?

Wassuuuuuuup?!

July 2nd 7:22am 79°F winds S 12mph 70% humidity.

Good Morning

Richard- funny pic but doubtful as my in-laws don't drink alcohol. Besides, junior is only 12.

We are forecast to have perfect weather for the weekend and holiday. I shined up the van and my t-ruck and with no rain they should stay clean for a few days.

Hope eryone is habin a goot weekend.

Started mowing our lawn when I was 8 years old. Could barely push the mower thru the thick bermuda in the back yard.

Our house was the first one facing the street on our side of the block but wasn't a corner lot so there was alley between us and the corner house that faced the cross street. There was alley between our house and the houses on the end of the block. We also had alley behind our house that went all the way down the block connecting to the other cross street. The alley's did not have any roads, they were just grass where the utilities ran. All of the back yards of all the houses on our block except ours were fenced with chain link except for the alley. The lots behind our house and the next three were vacant.

By the time I turned 8 my Dad had bought two of the lots behind our house. Of the 4 lots 3 had been plowed into garden from where the front of a house would be all the way to the alley. Dad also planted fruit trees starting in our back yard and filling the lot behind our house. We had apples, plums, cherries, apricots, peaches, pears, and apricot plums. At least 2 of each fruit.

Dad also bought a lawn tractor that I got to use to mow the 4 lots AND ALL of the alleys. He put a license plate on the back with my name on it. The garden area took up the space of a complete house lot so was mowing 3 vacant lots and ALL of the Alley on the block. Dad wouldn't let me mow our front or back yard with the tractor, had to use the push mower. All total took a little over 2 hours.

Of course I also got to do all the pruning on the fruit trees and and the tilling, planting, and weeding of the garden too.

When 11 got 1/3 of the garden for me to use and planted dwarf okra. It was 6 rows 100ft long. Picked and sold the okra. My Dad proudly sold some where he worked and neighbors bought quite a bit. Anything left the local Safeway grocery store bought. Made enough money that first summer to buy myself a really nice 10 speed racing bike. I still hate okra.

Okra? ewwww


So the boy is working off his debt to me by mowing the yard behind us. I'm not positive he understands a STRAIGHT LINE. ugh

I hate to micro-manage but my OCD is kicking in big time.

ugh

My Dad told me to always mow straight and from one side of the yard to the other because you could see anywhere you went with the mower. Probably why he didn't let me use the tractor for the front and back yard, only the lots.

My okra profits is pretty much all I got paid. The neighbor that owned the other lots did give me the trimmings from when he butchered his rabbits to feed my owl. And when I went to college he gave me an antique coke machine that made an excellent ice cold beer dispenser after I fixed the refrigeration unit on it. Later sold it for $1500 so I wouldn't have to move it. Now it would be worth over $5000.

Okra sucks!