A BIG JOB!!

One of the big jobs we had to get done before we headed north was to tame our wild Oleanders down a  little. They sure had pretty blooms on them, mostly white, with several red and pink ones mixed in. Above is a picture of how wild they looked. We just couldn’t leave with them looking like that.  They would really be out of control if we left them like that all Summer.

Now that’s better. Wow, do they look a lot different or what? It cut down on our "privacy" a little but we're going to be gone anyway.  They'll grow a foot or two while we're gone.

Another project we had to get done was on this tree in our front yard. It took a real hard hit in our “Big Freeze” this winter. We have been watching it very closely since February and the limbs from about 6’ up appeared to be dead. So we called the Tree Man out and after inspection by an expert, we were told it was a "goner".  It does have a lot of new growth below the dead limbs so we don't think it is totally dead.  All we could do was cut off the dead limbs and let it start all over again.   Ugh, we hated to hear that as we didn't  want to lose the shade this little tree provides,  But such is the story all over North Ranch. Folks are having to replace all kinds of trees, shrubs and plants...even some of the native Cacti..

So, this is what we had to do......it sure looks sad but all we can do now is wait and see what it does and how well the new limbs develop.  We may have to totally remove it and start over completely but we wanted to try it this way first.  It sure changes the look of the front of our house but when Mother Nature deals, you have to contend with what she wants.  We are much luckier than those folks back in tornado country with all their storms.  So we count our blessing again.  


This is how it looked back in early December when we had to trim some branches from it caused by a summer wind storm.We'll be anxious to see what it looks like when we get back next Fall.

We even got so far as to put a few things in the Motorhome this week but next week we have to get real serious about getting it loaded up. We will probably even move into it a few days before we leave so we can give the house a good cleaning and cover the furniture with dust covers.

Meanwhile I even found time to go out in the desert and have a little “shoot out”. Yep, got a little target practice in.  Boy I'm getting a little rusty and my “aim” sure isn’t what it used to be. I really had to discipline myself to concentrate enough to get my accuracy anywhere near what it was when I used to shoot for qualification. However, I finally got my “pattern” down to the inside of a paper plate at 20 yards. Not expert, but a good average. I’ll get a couple more practice sessions in before we go....I hope!

It is a GREAT WEEK!!!!

We continue to thank Our Father for all his many Blessings and all he provides for us. God Bless you all and please travel Safe!!

Thanks for stopping by.

Mike

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