Weekending at the Holt House

My big weekend project.
Getting this bit of ugliness under control.
I haven't been able to put my mucho wanto path in until now because I didn't know where everything else was gonna go and I sure didn't want to have to undo it. The cardboard is the lazy woman's way of getting rid of the grass underneath. Instead of spending hours digging up every weed and bit of grass, you just lay down cardboard or lawn bags or newspaper and wait and wait and wait. Then, when your two big dogs and your one small son and his million small friends destroy it, you go out and lay them back down again. I've done this, oh, about 400 times, at least. I shall not do it again though. The cardboard destroyers have been defeated as the path is DONE.

Guess which one of these tools I did not use this weekend? If you look carefully at the pictures you'll know without a doubt. Yep, the weed eater. SO need to weed eat. I've gotten rid of almost every bit of grass in my yard and I still can't make myself get out there and weed eat the tiny bit that's left. I hate that noisy thing. The cord comes unplugged every 13 seconds and I'm always afraid I'm gonna weed eat my feet or a toad. Ugh, just hate to do it. I know you're wondering ... I know you are. No, Jackdaddy does not do yard work. He builds the house and the yard and I do the upkeep. I got the easy end of the deal, trust me.

Things would have gone much quicker had I not been ambushed repeatedly by these two hornswagglers. Course, it wouldn't have been nearly as much fun and I'll take fun over expediency any day.

Finally, my beauuuuuutiful crushed granite path. It looks like it would be tough on the feet, doesn't it? It's not at all! It's quite soft and squishy. Oooo, I just love it. Every time I looked out in my backyard I would see that gnarly path-in-the-works with the cardboard sticking up here and there and it just irked me to no end. No mas, comprades! I am really, really this close to being semi-finished with the backyard. Well, other than the STBBBFO and the outdoor shower/hot tub area and the berm and the other bed that goes against the patio and the carport and the foot washing area. But, other than that, almost done!

Last, but not least, Friday night's monsoon was the best ever!
The only thing better than a monsoon after a drought is being caught at a pizza joint with good friends during a monsoon after a drought. Man, that storm rocked. We were forced to stay and eat and eat and eat and then, after the pizza was gone, we "had" to eat some chocolate cake. We were sitting outside watching the storm brew, but didn't think much of it. We've been tricked one too many times this summer, thank you very much. We all just sat there feeling smug and cynical until we got utterly lambasted by the thing. The next thing I knew there were screaming kids and gale force winds and electrical wires falling and walls of driving rain. Dang, man, it was crazy. Some cuteashell old-timer pulled his truck up to the live electrical wire and parked there waiting for the fire department. He said he didn't want anyone to get hurt. Isn't that just so sweet and Texany? Texanish?
Poor Jackdaddy was home sick, but he rallied and got some good footage of the flooding arroyo and streets.
I'm really glad the storm hit before I got the new granite path in. There was a bit of a gully-washing thing happening in the backyard after this downpour. I would have been one unhappy mama if my new path had ended up in my front yard. Everybody knows that
"if mama 'aint happy, 'aint nobody happy."