Livin La Vida Loca Backyard

After getting a massive case of poison sumac and poison ivy, two doctor visits, antibiotics, steroids, two trees removed, a visit from Alabama Power to cut all the trees around our power lines, 7 bruises, a broken chair, 52 mosquito bites, a hurt dog toenail and three spousal fights, the backyard is finally up to speed for the summer!  We have a three-tiered backyard.  Coming from Oklahoma, where everything is flat, we were super excited about our layered yard when we first moved here.  We loved the fact that is made us feel like we were sitting on top of a mountain like royalty…because royalty sits on top of mountains in our minds.  At any rate, I’d so love to have a flat yard again.  This is solely for the amount of work it takes to maintain this yard.  We’d obviously fell a little short on that end, but now it is looking good!  I can once again hold a beer and survey the neighbors like the queen of Siam.  They can only look up and see me sitting on my mountain or floating in my inflatable pool and be jealous.  I took a few pictures for you, like I do.

The good thing is once I clean the bathroom, finish the last load of laundry and make some mac and cheese, I’m done for the day.  This means I have a date with my hammock and a book.  I just finished reading Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children.  It was an odd and interesting read.  I really enjoyed it.  I’ll start on Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter today.  I’ve got high hopes so I hope the book lives up to the hype.

Oh one more thing!  I had a coupon for Kraft Fresh Takes.  This is basically a package of cheeses and seasonings you can add to meat.  I usually do all this myself, but a good coupon is hard to pass.  I got the Savory Four Cheese blend and a pound of ground turkey.  I mixed it all together and made turkey burgers.  They were quite good!  Plus, it seems you can always find coupons for this new Kraft product.  I plan to try some of the other flavors, too.  It is really good for a quick, easy and inexpensive dinner.

This is the view from my back door.  This give you an idea of the height we have going for us on our mountain.  You can also see my new inflatable pool!  It has an inflatable seat and cup holders!

My Mommie Dearest rose garden is blooming!  CHRISTINA, BRING ME THE AXE!

This is the chair I broke.  I fell over it and nearly knocked my front teeth out.  The dog head in the picture is Celie's.  She is still deeply concerned about that chair.

You can see my garden is coming along nicely!  I planted tomatoes, potatoes, onions, asparagus, red pepper and cucumbers.

This is the view from the other side.  You can see the hammock I'm about to place  my ass on for the rest of the day.

It was really scary to see that bear falling into my pool when I took this picture.