Way Back Machine

I was going through looking at some old photos and came across a bunch of the pictures taken of the property and houses as we were cleaning it/them up. It was sort of fun, so I thought I would post a trip through memory lane.

This is my tree... I love this tree... I think this tree is probably why I bought the property. This photo was in fact that photo I took of it the first day we came to look.

It has been trimmed since then, but I asked that they do as little as possible to just make it safe. It actually makes me a little sad that I live in the big house now, since that means I do not have my tree... lol...

The picture was taken from the side of the big house facing the small one... the leaves in the upper left corner were from the black walnut that grew between the houses. Unfortunately, that tree had to be removed. That was a sad day.

The picture on the right was taken a little while after the first one... it is of the rest of the yard, under the big tree as if you were standing about where the cars are in the first picture.

I thought I would regret the tree(s) once the leaves started falling and I had to do a lot of clean-up, but I actually look forward to fall and get a little impatient when they do not fall off fast enough... I mulch them up and use them to cover the garden for the winter. Along with a layer of spring grass mulch, they make a great erosion control for the rains and add a lot of nutrients to the soil in the spring when I till them in.

The two pictures above are of the front yard for the picture to the left. This picture was also taken the first day we looked at the property. The truck and the shelter are not there now and the garage has been redone.

What is not visible are the old broken windows on the side of the house and the true 'beauty' of the garage just does not shine through. I say that in all humor. The garage actually was leaning significantly to the right (facing) and it was not as solid as it looks in this picture.


As you go around the back of the garage, you get to see a great view of the alien species which has come to earth to take over... they disguise themselves as black berry bushes:

The blackberries in this picture were beaten back but not concored. My tenants did not keep on top of it, so many of these have returned. I have actually been working on them again, but am going slow since they are currently full of berries. I figure I might as well get as much jam out of the evil bastards as I can before I KILL KILL KILL... erm... get rid of them.

A little to the left of that, on the other side of the blackberry mound, is what was originally part of the the horse paddock. I ended up moving the fence to open that section up to the backyard of the little house to use as a garden, but getting through the blackberries was a real trial... for all of us.

Keep going left from this point and you get to the gate into the paddock itself. It was at this gate that we put the new fence across, effectively cutting the paddock in half. Once we got the blackberries knocked back, of course... interestingly enough (at least to me), is that the blackberries actually made sort of a natural line at the logical point to put in the new fence.

If you can squeeze in through that gate, if you turn towards the garage, you get this view from other half of the paddock... what is now the actual paddock, now that the other part was turned into garden.

Turn a little to the left and you are looking straight to the back of the smaller house.
This was where we started clearing this out.

The only thing we could do was wade in with hedge clippers and a scythe. And a couple of youthful helpers... always an appreciated necessity.







Well... enough for tonight, I guess... this has been fun, so I think I will make it a continuing series... heh ...

My tenants need to be evicted... seriously...

Seriously... how can people live their lives entirely on the premise that NOTHING is ever their fault?

Over the past 16 months, my tenants have paid the rent on time (meaning within the 10 day grace period I allow) three times... 3!

Twice they have bounced the rent check... both of those times, they did not even give us the bogus check until after the 15th. Once was the last week of the month.

Then there was the big blow-up when Duffus was kicked out of the house for several months and Dorkus gave us all sorts of reasons why she could not pay the rent on time... he was abusive, he broke in and stole stuff, someone (probably him, according to her) took her ATM card and cleared out the bank acount. Of course, none of these reasons explain why she had not paid the rent the FIRST three weeks of each of the month... and they were interspersed with wailing about how all she wanted was for him to come back... which was ALSO interspersed with stories of the crack whore he left her for. She was buying him minutes for his cell phone so she could leave him messages to come home. We agreed to let her pay the rent in two payments... the first at the first and the second by the 15th. It was supposed to be temporary to let her get her feet back under her.

She paid the first month on the 5th and the 20th... then it was the 10th and the 25th...

So, three or four months ago, he gets fired (for sleeping in his car at his job site) and ends up moving back in ... no job... at home all day... back yard garden area, which they get a 25 dollar per month rent discount to keep care of, has become totally overgrown with massive 10 foot high thistles starting to flower and spread. In the 16 months that they have been getting the $25 discount, they have mowed the front 3 times... the back got mowed so often that no one noticed that the septic was blocked (by them flushing tampons/candy wrappers) so that shit/toilet paper/candy wrappers piled up at the clearance vent for 4 months.

I requested that they please clear the back yard up SOON... four weeks later, nothing has been done. I told them they had a week (until Monday) and then I would hire it done and they would be charged $150. Monday comes and goes... we go out to start cleaning it up and he comes out, TOTALLY sulking... we leave for an hour and he (using the tools I went and got to do the job) was finished by the time we got back.

So, as the progression goes, they did not pay the first check until the 13th (I had to go ask for it) and said they would have the rest by last week... so of course, today being the 27th, we had to go over and ask for it.

"Next month, we will honor the two checks, but the first has to be to us by the 5th and the second, by the 15th or we will charge the late fees as defined in the rental agreement. The month after that, you need to start paying on the first."

His answer?

"I really do not apriciate your attitude!"

If it has been me, my answer would have been:

"Which attitude? The one where we did not charge you late fees for the 13 months you have been late? Or the attitude where we still allow you to write checks for the rent after bouncing 2 of them within 5 months? Or the attitude that still gives you the $25 dollar a month discount when, in 16 months, you have only mowed 3 times and only part of the yard at that?"

He also threw out:

"We are living with you right on top of us and you are on my case"

Right... asking him to clean the weed patch out so that the rodents and other pests would not have as easy access to his house ONCE in 16 months is '... on his case... "

I guess me having Dorkus over to show her how to make grape jelly, using MY equipment, sugar, pectin and jars (since they did not have money for their own) is living on top of them... I guess our ignoring the eggs they steal and when they cleaned off my pea plants is living right on top of them. I guess bending over backwards to accomodate their financial issues is living right on top of them.

Some other little gems:

Duffus is on parole from an assault and battary charge that got him 70-months... (yes... 70!) ... his reason? He dissed the chief of polices son so the chief of police made it so he got sent to jail for 70 months... of COURSE it is not his fault.

Dorkus got tired of him using the rent money to buy his beer and pot and got into a fight with him... he calles her horrible names, scares her daughters (his neices) and then goes out to sabatage her car.... of COURSE it is not his fault.

I have to go over to get the first of the rent checks on the 13th and then we have to go over today (the 27th) to get the one they promised we would have last week. His response? "I do not apriciate your attitude saying you have to track me down to get the rent..." Did I mention it is the 27th of the month and we have to go to THEM to get the rent? ... Of COURSE it is not his fault.

He gets fired for sleeping in his car at a job site.... assuming that is true and it was NOT about sleeping off being stoned or drunk (at the job site), it does make me wonder why his brother kicked him out of the house (which was where he was living when the crack whore he left Dorkus for kicked him out) .... I bet it was, of COURSE, not his fault.

I have even reached the point where I have no sympathy for her... when she kicked him out earlier in the year, her reason was because he had his hands around her neck and scared the girls... "I have to think of the girls first... "

How odd that he is now living in the house again and, within 6-weeks of him moving back in, both of her girls are living with their Dad (his brother).

I need to evict them... seriously...