Adventures of Mooch

[jedishampoo]

I have griped about the bad things about living on the southside of Indianapolis... now I'll talk about something good. Being near my parents! If I am going to live in Indiana to be near my family, I figured I'd buy a house in the same township my parents live in, otherwise they'd never visit.

But I have discovered that buying a house means I must spend less money on certain things-- like food. I'm so poor! So I tend to show up at the folks' house for food. I call daily to see what they're doing.

Monday, 2:00 p.m.
Mom: Hello?
Me: Hi. What are you having for dinner?
Mom: Your daddy's getting Chinese carryout.
Me: HOORAY!

Tuesday, 2:oo p.m.
Mom: Hello?
Me: Hi. What are you having for dinner?
Mom: Pork chops.
Me: Awwwwwww....
Mom: But we have baked potatoes and sour cream and cauliflower and broccoli...
Me: HOORAY!

Wednesday:
Mom: Hello?
Me: Spaghetti tonight?
Mom: Yes.
Me: SEE YOU AT 5:30!

And I steal all the leftovers. They won't eat 'em anyway-- they'd just sit in their fridge and go bad. Me, now, I'm a real connoisseur of leftovers. I think I have all my mom's Tupperware at this point.

Oh, and the cicadas!

I tried to take a video of my yard with audio of the very loud cicadas. Sorry for the crappy video! Anyway, aren't they noisy? And also, can you see that crazy hill in my backyard? The previous owners took the drainage ditch and piled it with railroad ties, trying to turn it into some kind of country walk with flower beds and a 'stream.' However, only weeds grow there. I had to pay someone to kill the poison ivy and chop it all down.

On the flat parts we're trying to put down black landscaping fabric and lava rocks, but what do I do with that hill? The rocks would just roll down it. HELP ME.

Comments

[conjure-lass.livejournal.com]

I just laughed out loud so hard. I can just picture someone on the phone throwing up their hands and going "HOORAY!"

Is Wednesday spaghetti night at your house? That's Fridays around these parts. *giggle*

Edit: Do you...not like PORKCHOPS? *GASSSP*

[rachel-reicheru.livejournal.com]

I love the Mooch stories, when i moved out of home my mum got annoyed when i tried that :P your lucky ;)

Love the cicadas i still reckons osakas where louder!

[7veilsphaedra.livejournal.com]

Your situation with food is so similar to the one I had when I was trying to make a go of my property in BC, it's almost eerie. I was exchanging various forms of labour (painting murals and signs, for example) for food. At least the CSA I belonged to allowed for that.

Your property is quite spacious. It does need work, and I can see where the previous owners decided that it might be too much for them.

Tiers are the easiest and least costly means of dealing with slopes, so I can see why the previous owners used them.

I would avoid lava rock like it was demon spawn (and not attractive Gojyo-like demon spawn either.) It traps and radiates heat like a barbeque. You think you had a hot summer this year? Magnify that threefold. You will turn your backyard into a broiler. There are alternatives. Let's look at them:

What's the issue with that space? Why won't anything but weeds grow there? Is it because it gets too much shade? Are you missing a decent outdoor faucet so that watering becomes an expensive proposition? Do you just not have the time?

The first thing I would consider is visualizing how you want your yard to look in five years, then ten years, then twenty. I presume you will want a combination of shade trees and evergreens at different intervals along the perimeter — evergreens for the winter, so that you have something other than brown and barren to look at; shade trees for the summer so that you have a passive cooling system that makes your backyard an attractive place when the heat starts to climb. Given the space, I would suggest planting three assymetrical 'clumps' of trees, vines and shrubs, one along each side of your yard, although in an irregular placement, not exactly midway along the fence on each side.

By clump, I mean a combination, usually an arrangement of three different shapes, sizes and colours. So, for example, you might consider a Colorado Blue Spruce, planted in conjunction with a Golden Elder, and a Virginia Creeper. That would give you a year-round blue-green evergreen, with a brilliant yellow-green (almost chartreuse) deciduous tree, and a dark hooker-green vine covering the fence that turns dazzling red in the fall. So you would have amazing colour, and a variety of shapes. You could keep the evergreen pruned down so that it doesn't grow more than, say, the height of a tall step-ladder.

Another combination might be a Golden Hops vine (bright emerald green) in conjunction with a flowering plum tree (almost violet-burgundy leaves with silvery gray branches and rose-pink blossoms) and a funeral cypress. The plum tree would be nice because then you would be growing your own fruit.

So these sorts of combinations would add visual interest and shade to your yard all year round. (Okay, I've chosen plants that work for my particular temperature zone. I'm sure there are much better selections for your area since you live in a more temperate area.) Plus, trees are not difficult to maintain. Not like flowerbeds or vegetable patches. So it's the easiest way to get the best look.

[sir-pinkleton.livejournal.com]

I applaud you turning away the pork.

[despina-moon.livejournal.com]

Dude -- your yard is huge! It's awesome and I'm glad I finally got to see it.

And yeah, houses make people poor -- I'm very happy you have your parents close by to help feed you! (My parents always saved everything and it would go bad, too. First thing I do when I visit ma? Clean out the fridge!!)

[rroselavy.livejournal.com]

That's totally adorable! ♥