Longtime readers have heard me complain often about certain crazy next-door neighbors on the west. There was a time my only complaint was the way they so often sneaked onto my property and stole my morel mushrooms.
That was back before their house burned in the middle of a December night. I guess you could say that's when things started going downhill.
Their house was left a burned-out shell. They received insurance money afterward, although it was less than $100,000; still, had they rebuilt on the site of the old house, it would probably have been sufficient. However, they were waiting on a settlement; the man of the house had been hurt on a construction job, and they were expecting a sizable sum. There were many sad stories told by the lady of the house while they waited on that settlement, but at last it came. Horses and diamond rings were purchased (and certain substances), and a monstrosity of a house began to be erected. It was a do-it-yourself-with-all-your-partying-friends sort of project. It was never quite finished; the lawn was never mowed; the whole place deteriorated and was finally more or less deserted. I could say so much more, but I won't. Today, I glanced toward the driveway of the abandoned property and saw...
Wait... is that a cop car?
It is! It's a cop car!
The other car belongs to the banker who was unfortunate enough to have loaned somebody the money to build this mess. The patrolman came over and told me the bank has taken possession of the place, and they'd like us to report it if we see anybody carrying things off. You see, the house has been stripped of a lot of things while it sat "empty", most especially anything that might have copper in it. The house wasn't exactly empty, since the original owner of the house squatted in the basement for months. (Hmmm, I wonder who stripped all the goodies from the house?) Folks, this unfortunate scenario has nothing to do with the economy. It's all about a bank loaning money to someone who was never a good risk for anything. These people had, at one point, plenty of money to build the house without getting a loan. They just had other things they wanted to spend that money on. But at least now I can look forward to different neighbors. And trust me, anybody will be an improvement!
My astilbe roots arrived by mail, so I planted those. This is my first experience with this lovely flower, which I'd never heard of until this past winter. I'm going to have to stop opening any and all mail I get from Breck's; every time I look at their flowers and bulbs, I'm tempted to buy something else. And I've never really been that much on growing flowers!
While I was puttering in the flowerbed, I noticed one of the neighbors' horses was loose, and thought how glad I was that we put electric fence around our garden, because ever time he's gotten out he invariably walks over the garden; I do have a lot of things up and growing now. While that thought was still being formed, the horse came trotting briskly onto our property till he was between Cliff's shop and the electric fence, a space perhaps eight feet in width. I could see him gathering energy to bound across the garden, but just in time, he saw the wire. He knew what it was because we also have to put electric fence along the top of our barbed wire fence between us and the neighbors, or their horses tear the fence down trying to get some grass (because there's precious little on their side). It's up to us to do all this maintenance for their horses, because Lord knows, they aren't going to lift a finger. Anyhow, he saw the wire, jumped back almost against Cliff's shop, suddenly decided it was a trap, and turned and went running home at racehorse speed.
It made my day. Our efforts have been rewarded.
We never seem to be able to get enough straw at an affordable price. Seems like small square bales run $4 each these days. Cliff has watched an ad on Craigslist for some big straw bales for quite a while. The guy first asked $30 a bale; then $25, and finally $20. Cliff decided that sounded good. In case you've never see big bales like this, I took a quick video of the farmer loading them onto the trailer. We brought home five bales I'll be able to mulch my tomatoes this year! We'll use it for bedding in the horse stall, too.
