Update: The Ant Crisis

So far the preliminary results are startling. Sugar soaked cotton balls have virtually stopped ants on counter and in cat food bowl. I don't know if that is due to being diverted by peanut butter bait though. When given the choice between sugar/cotton and peanut butter they greatly prefer sugar/cotton. This is good because peanut butter bait seems ineffective, or at least slow acting. They continue to eat it but their numbers aren't diminishing on peanut butter front. Maybe we can declare a truce, peanut butter smeared walls for staying out of my kitchen. No, that will be a last effort resort. For now I'll stick with the cotton balls.

Special Bulletin: The War on Ants

Now that the weather has broken and heat is upon up (...yay) the kitchen has suddenly become infested with ants. They have become annoying very quickly. And not only are they attacking the human food supply, but the food supply of the animals too. And as my poor kitties look upon me with sad eyes asking 'why, oh why food giver is my kibble crawling' I know that it is time to eliminate the insect menace. Point of attack one: poison bait. Boric acid is supposedly a the chief ingredient in home made pesticide. It kills the ants slowly so they take it back to their nest and feed it to their ant babies. Bwah, ha, ha.

Sugar water and boric acid, applied to cotton balls

Tainted peanut butter, not as effective as tainted love, but it'll due

I am experimenting with liquefying some cat food and adding boric acid to that since they can't see to keep their greedy little ant paws off it. Later we are going to apply Ant Shield outside. Die, fuckers.

My experimental traps

Ha, even as I type the ants are gathering around one of the cotton balls. Yes, feast my tiny friends.

Just me and my bucket of death

I mixed up this a little concoction today to get rid of the weeds on the driveway:

1 gallon vinegar
1 cup salt
2 tbsp dish soap

It's too potent to the yard. I think this shit will kill just about anything. We'll see the results.

So this weekend, despite the pitiful amount of work I got done on the yard, I did some research on the cost of a bunch of the work that needs to be done. Tony and I agreed on green siding (when we get the money to get it done) with maroon shutters. Siding costs a mere $1 per sq. foot (not including any supplies for attaching or labor). We have about 1300 sq. feet of siding that needs to be done. We plan on doing the windows at the same time and they cost about $200 a piece. We need ten. A new carport is debatable since they can cost between $1000 to $3000.

I was thinking about doing a brick facade on the lower part of the exterior wall where the foundation was showing. There would be about 510 sq. feet (low estimate) but I've seen estimates that it costs between $5 to $12 per sq. foot. So even at a low end figure it will cost more to do the foundation than to put up new siding. So, I think we'll stick with paint for now. I'm now looking into the feasibility of molding facade bricks on my own. So the plan is seal cracks, paint, put down a new border for the plant beds, then add dirt to the sides.

The yard itself is going to be a lot of work too. I guess I didn't figure that in order to plant seeds I need to loosen the soil, put down some new soil and then plant seeds. That's going to take some work. Go, go mighty muscles! I guess it's all a bit overwhelming. Tony also thinks we should try fixing the fence, for now, and repainting it. I still say knock the thing down.

Anyway, sprayed the last of the weed killer over the weekend. weeds in the front yard are looking very dead. The back isn't looking as good as the front, but it has had less time to work. I am overall pleased with the spray. I didn't get a chance to caulk because Tony was sick and didn't get to show me how. Got part of the front beds tilled.

Sprayed front yard for the second time today. I was scared a little that the weeds were recovering. They are looking like they are drought stressed. The strange thing is that larger plants shrivel up faster than the smaller ones. It makes me wonder how the weed killer actually works. It must have something to do with surface area, not getting sucked up by the roots.

Four weeks until I can plant new grass on the front yard. I'm planning on doing a second coat on the back this weekend.

Weed Update: Day 5

Weed Status: shriveling

Most are pretty withered. Even the tougher weeds are feeling the pain. Catnip is starting to shrink. Clover isn't dying, but isn't getting larger either. Going to douse the backyard Monday and then re-apply next week for good measure.

Die weeds, die!

Healthy catnip plants not sprayed

Sprayed catnip

Healthy dandelion plants not sprayed

Sprayed dandelion

Also I finished hanging the towel rack in the bathroom (yay, minor victory). The wall needs a little sanding, but it looks good.

Weed Status: Day 4

Condition: distressed

Most of the weeds are taking a turn for the worst. The large leafed weeds are curled up and withering. Most of the others have taken a turn for the worst. The only things that haven't shown any real signs of death are clover and dandelions.

I finished spraying the rest of the front yard today. I'll be starting on the back this weekend.

Weed Status: Day 2

Status update on the weeds, condition: slightly wilted

The large leaf weeds are looking like day old salad. The rest are still kicking. I'm not entirely convinced this isn't due to the heat. We'll see.

Choose Your Poison

Well I have been (boring) raking the yard the past couple weeks and pulled out a lot of dead weeds and trash. Wish I'd been more exciting than that. And I got part of the side tiled and weeded to plant the hops. Ooooh! Today I finished screwing the toilet paper holder so that it isn't about to fall off the wall.

Anyway, that most exciting part of the day, buying poison to nukes the yard. Wooooo poison! Let me introduce you to my two new helpers.

Contestant #1!

Ortho Weed B Gone. this product guarantees to kill over 250 different kinds of weeds while not killing grass. I doubt that we have any lawn that isn't weeds, so no big loss if we nukes to whole lot of it.

Directions

Spray, watch weeds die, don't roll in the grass or let any critter roll in the grass until after poison has dried.

I would like to take this time to apologize to any little bun-bun's who happen to eat the grass in my yard. I only hope you have the sense to not eat the grass that tastes like poison. Though I would have to eliminates your furry asses when you started crewing up my garden anyway. Moving on...

Contestant #2!

Stump out. I does, well, what they name implies. It gets stumps out by causing whatever it is that hold the layers of stump together to not connect anymore.

Directions

Step 1: Drill holes in stump

Step 2: Pour Stump out on holes. Wait 4 to 6 weeks.

Step 3: Pour gasoline or kerosene in stump. Wait until it has saturated stump.

Step4: Ignite stump to burn into harmless ash.

*romantic sigh* You had me at pour gasoline in stump. But since we didn't have a drill long enough (the holes have to be 10 inches deep) I can't start until later. No playing with power drills and fire today :( I guess size does matter.

Going back, the Weed B Gone says that you should see results in a few days (though I can't plant new grass for four weeks after application). So stay tuned for updates on how the condition of the weeds.

Before

front of house

front of house (only the left third of the grass here has been treated (due to time) and I'm hoping to get a good comparison shot)

side of house

Exterior, The Walk-Thru

I know I said I wasn't going to start until Spring (which starts officially this weekend, YAY) but it's been so spring-like out recently I decided to get a drop on the whole outside project. I've been combing the yard (raking is a bad word, do you remember when they 'combed' the desert in Spaceballs? Yeah, like that)trying to get up any loose weeds and trash. Over the course of last weekend and this week I've got the front yard done. I would have started earlier if not for the unusual amount of snow we got this winter.

So today I manned up and taken a real look to see what the outside needs.

1) Clean up all the trash

I don't know whether we have our dirty-ass neighbors to thank for this or the former residents, but there is trash, trash, trash everywhere in the back yard. Pictures cannot convey the amount of trash. It's like someone replaced confetti with trash and had a New Years Party and then threw some trash on top of it. I think a good step one would just be to clean the shit up.

2) Fix cracks in basement wall

Yeah, that sounds worse then it actually is. We had a guy look at it last fall. We just need patch it up with some caulk. Which will help immensely with the leaky basement. But, really, we'll get to the basement in The Fix This House Project Three: Basement... something or other.

3) Get rid of the rusty shed
4) Replace pieces of siding that have fallen off

The goal eventually will be to get new siding, but we're broke. The Outside Bugaloo won't be as well funded as the interior. While we're at it we need to clean that shit too.

5) Replace windows

Ideally, this will be done the same time as the siding, but we have those wonderful neighbors to thank again for the BB gun holes in them. At least we can say the windows were old and busted anyway.

6) Replace the fence

You know at first glance the chain-link fence looks like it could be saved with maybe some TCL and some new chain-link stuff, but when you really look at it (especially in back) it'll probably be less of a headache and a much better finished product to scrap it and start anew.

7) Fix the retaining wall

BTW the retaining wall holding up the driveway is getting worse. *sigh* I'm pretty sure all we'll get to this year is killing off the damn stumps. And that bringns us to...

8) Re-pave driveway

And finally (my personal favorite)

9) PLANT SOME PRETTY FLOWERS

The yard desperately needs some landscaping. And as superficial as pretty flowers are, it is the cheapest thing to do and the nicest looking. All of these things aren't going to get done this year (unless some kind soul wants to send us money), but it's something to work towards.

View the entire March 16th album here

Yeah, yeah, I know. I said back in January that I was going to update weekly. And how many times have I updated since then? A big fat zero.

Well, since we aren't really doing any big projects until spring (when we're going to work on the outside) I've decided to postpone the project until then. Then I can start 'The Fix This House Project Two: The Outside Bugaloo'. See ya' in spring.

I've been so busy the past couple of weeks. I forgot to update that we moved in on December 23rd. It's just been a blur of days. We've spent most of the time between now and then moving boxes.

What little we've done on the house has mostly been cleaning the basement. We sealed up the holes in the heater, bought it a shiny new air filter and weather stripped the basement door. I have a laundry list of stuff to be done. I guess you see this stuff better when you live in it. But most of the stuff we've been doing is small. I'll probably just be updating weekly from now on.