"JNJ" wrote in message
...
Thankfully, he'll never get a bulldozer back there -- our properties are
50x200 and 75x200 (mine/his respectively). There's just not enough room
on
either side of either house to get any large equipment back there -- he'd
have to drop it in by chopper and we live in a neighborhood where anyone
who
could afford that sort of thing wouldn't live.

well good thing for small favors then...............

I think he's just clearing it for lawn space of all things. I've no idea
what he's thinking in the long run -- he has no kids, is in his late 50's
and soon to be divorced, and he's not selling it any time soon by his own
admission (he's held on to it for years even though he hasn't lived in it
for nearly a decade). As far as yards go around here, it has plenty of
space. I just don't get it -- he's not a gardener so that's not it
either.
Who knows. :-(

maybe he's going to take up lawn bowling...................lol


And if I were you, I'd build myself a berm on your side now while you
have
the time to direct the flow away from your property...........

I don't know that we can do that here and I'm SURE that would trigger a
lawsuit if I did do it!

honey, a berm is a rise of soil like a little hill. It's not against the law
to do that. Imagine an upward sloping hill with something backing it. It
wouldn't be any different than if you decided to take full advantage of
gardening by gardening UPWARDS as well as outwards and piled up the soil.
Same thing. And a berm also has the wonderful attributes of being not only a
deterrment of water coming downwards, but of buffering sound.............


Our plot has about 40 or so feet at the front and about 125 feet of length
in the back -- the house sits in between of course. I've planted a
crabapple and redbud in the front yard, and in the back I've planted a
weeping willow, redbud, sunburst locust, sycamore, and some sort of pear
(non-fruiting evidently -- not so much as a flower in 7 years). We have a
couple of maples in the front as well as a big ole black walnut that I
planted as a child when we got our trees on Arbor Day from school (I'm
dating myself now I suppose!). The back is littered with a few mulberry
trees, some walnuts ("volunteers" courtesy of the squirrels that have been
harvesting the front!), a couple of cedars (one intertwined with a
mulberry -- that's bad) and assorted other trees that I've never
identified
(I've a name for them, but I'll refrain Grin). The rest of the space is
cleared and/or landscaped (lilacs in the front for example, new planting
beds, etc.). Even with all that, there's still PLENTY of space for me to
plant up. :-P

Good lord you have a small piece of woods yerself!! You need to come down
to Eastern Tennessee and buy some of the still cheap land on the south side
of English Mountain (on the North Carolina side) where it's ALL woods and
chunk you out a clearing with a loooooooooooong driveway and mailbox to
indicate yer there, (or take out a post office box at yer local postal
office.......) then get yerself a double wide modular home (if you own the
property you're sitting it up on, it's cheaper) and Bob's yer uncle.

It's a real shame to lose all that old growth back there
but, being the optimist, I'm looking at it as an opportunity to plant what
*I* want back there. When I'm done, the loss of his space will be
minimized.

It already sounds like you have quite a little mini-woods going on for you
there...........

A mimosa is definitely one on the list, as well as a couple of more
mulberries, some fruit, and shrubbery.

I will see if any baby mimosa's pop up this spring and gently lift them and
transplant them into a small pot and if they take, ship them to you later
on.

With the rather drastic changes he's
made and is likely to continue making, we really need to wait until spring
to see what we're up against -- it's a tough call on sunlight and water
until I've seen a little more. I'm hoping that way it's opened up will
add
significant light to the far back so I can plant a wildflower area -- I
have
a bunch of poppy seeds I bought late in the season that would be perfect
back there.

Quick, while you have the cold in your favor you need to sow those poppy
seeds on the ground so they'll chill and sprout for you and bloom. If you
wait until spring, they won't have the stratification or chill time to
germinate in time to give you a good blossoming.

Yup. We have some walnuts here already and we've been looking at trees
for
some time now to fill other areas that need some shade and such. Since
taking the trees out from in front of the driveway, I REALLY want to get
another in front of the cars -- the sun out there is deadly to them.

Once I locate a willing person to come and remove those walnuts, I'll be one
happy person. I have at least a bushel of walnuts I need picking up at the
back ledge of my house now that have blackened. If I was smart, I'd just
put them in the driveway and run over them, but I don't want all the tanic
acid washing into my flowerbeds near the driveway I share with the
bendejo....


Our front yard is a mess -- I haven't gotten out to clean up in a solid
month, what with the cold and wet weather, and they've trampled the yard
pretty badly. I'm heading out there now to work on it. On the plus side,
my worms will be happy with what I'm about to wash into the soil as will
the
plants. :P

Well I never got to the washing of doggie lumps, but on the plus side, I was
able to pour another bag over the wires I laid down in the perennial box
Sugar destroyed to cover the root ball of the Mystic Merlin malvacea I
summered over in the pot sitting on a pine trunk stump. I still need to
pour the remaining two bags into the other bed she destroyed. Maybe if it's
not pouring too bad I will do that tomorrow. Rain is predicted. It was so
beautiful today. I didn't even have to wear my jacket! I was also able to
chunk out a little more forsythia root, but it appears that I will need
something more insidious than a pick ax to get it out of the soil. More like
a tractor or a chain with my truck pulling it...............
Right now I have to run some enchilada
casserole over to a couple of bottomless co-workers. I never know how to
make less
than a restaurant steam pan full of it when I make it...............

Run some up here to SW Ohio, will ya? :P

I have plenty, that's for sure.................I cook each cornmeal tortilla
in hot oil for seconds to get them limp, use Spanish rice-roni mix, fresh
sweet onions, green chili's, tomatillo salsa verde, ground round or sirloin
depending on the reduced bin at the local store (or ground pork which is
even better), diced tomato's with chili's, make my own enchilada sauce with
tomato paste and chili powder, garlic and cilantro, and use Monteray Jack
with jalapeno's and sharp cheddar cheeses with the sauces on top of the
cheeses so the melted cheese doesn't slip off. When I make the spanish
rice, I sautee it in butter, but use enough butter so that I can cook the
onions down first, then the rice-roni until it's golden brown. The most
tedious part is the tortilla's as they have to be placed quickly into the
hot oil and lifted immediately with a thin spatula and drained draped over
the spat and put on a saucer until I have 38 of them stacked up. Once I get
them done, it's the rice and later the meat and such. I usually have to let
the mixture cool once I've folded the meat into the rice and semolina
mixture.

Last night I had my kitchen hands because I was making enchilada's while the
rice and meat mixture was still steaming hot, rolling them to make a rice
and meat tube and laying them on their seams. (I also pour some enchilada
sauce in the bottom of the pan to provide moisture and keep the tortillas
from sticking). Bake at 350o until bubbly and the smell drives Squire
nutzoid and he comes up from the dragon cave..........

I had so much left over I decided that Tracy and Randy deserved a little
knosch from me gBSEG I just wish I had had more cheese. Sometimes I blend
cheeses in with the rice and meat and stuff as well as putting it on top. I
adore cheese. g And being the critical chef I am, my enchilada sauce was
a little thick last night.............When this stuff bakes (I pack the
enchilada's tightly in the pan, even putting some in the sides running the
opposite side and use any leftover filling as topping on those) and cools
off, you cut it like meatloaf almost. In fact, both of them thought it WAS
meatloaf until I told them it was like a huge hunk of enchilada
casserole.........You get all the food groups in one slice G(yeppers, even
fruit, as tomato's are fruit, not vegetables!)


I swear I'm gonna look at buying some land down there, build me a little
house and hide away from the world.

well co'mon then while the land in some places is still affordable. So many
people are relocating here that land prices are going up, but there's still
affordable places and it'll take hundreds upon thousands of people to ever
fill up these hills and hollers and ridges........................

madgardener

James