If we don’t have anything else to talk about, there’s always the weather. In our neck of the woods it has been the wettest I’ve ever seen over a long, extended period, right smack dab in the middle of summer. My yard looks like it’s part of a golf course and it did it all without my help, using only the wet stuff falling from the sky which comes from God Almighty. In past years we have fertilized and dethatched and watered and worried but this year I guess we never was able to get one of those “round to its”, but it actually looks much better than any year in recent history. It’s reall
y hard to accept compliments for our lush terrain whenever we’ve basically been observers only. By this time of year typically for us even in watering every day, w
e would by this time be seeing brown patches all around. My approach has always been to do what you can prudently and then deal with the results. I have, however, like most folks, spent way too much time trying to keep it green even when you could fry an egg on the mail box. On
e day our most wonderful neighbor for nearly fifteen years, Ellis, an older gentleman, who along with his wife Ruth, were like second parents to us, and grandparents to our boys, gave me some sage advice. He told me, “Now, son, you’ve done about all you can to keep this yard green but keep in mind there’s no livestock going unfed because of what happens to your yard”.
These were neighbors you could depend on. I used to tell folks if you wanted to know the defintion of neighbor, look it up in the dictionary, and there you would also s
ee photos of Ruth and Ellis. Ellis passed away a number of years ago and Ruth now lives out in the hill country. She is in her late 80’s and still going strong. My wife and I were able to visit her last year and
we laughed and laughed and then laughed some more as we thought back on all those wonderful times of being right there together as across the driveway neighbors. Folks, God is good in bringing special people into our lives. We thank Him for this wonderful couple and we will always remember their many contributions to our lives. I have hundreds of stories about these folks especially Ruth who has an earned PhD in stubborness. Stay tuned, you will eventually hear more.
Speaking of neighbors, we had an interesting experience when we purchased on first house. The year was 1971 and we signed up for a brand new 1,300 square foot mansion (to us)
with 3 bedrooms and 1-1/2 baths for the alarming high price of $16,999.99. I think our notes were $168 per month and we wondered how in the world we would be able to meet them. The neighborhood was made up of mostly younger marrieds with small children. We worked hard and had a decent yard but next door we had one of those one-of-a-kind fanatics who was of German descent. His name was Paul and he was the dedicated “tool guy” before Lowe’s and Home Depot became the rage.
Paul set out to build his yard into a showcase. He worked and worked
and worked some more. For some reason he couldn’t get grass to grow in the front yard. They planted, re-planted, and used every kind of method known but the grass would eventually die. He was a decent fellow but very off putting in his perfect garage where every tool had its place with an outline to match. He even had a tennis ball on a string so his wife would park the car in the same place every time. He was the consummate do it yourself and usually it turned out really well. I think I’ve repented of taking some enjoyment out of the time he used a paint sprayer on the outside of his house and
painted several cars in the neighborhood. Fact was, the house didn’t need to be painted and most of the men thought he was doing it just to make us all look bad.
We didn’t do our yard on the same schedule as he did and sometim
es because I worked many overtime hours our grass would get pretty high. They had a toddler who played with our boys and sometimes when he came over to get her he would comment that she might be hiding in some of our brush. We laughed but to tell you the truth I didn’t 
appreciate the insinuation. About two years into his escapades in trying to grow grass in his front yard he dug down deep enough to discover that there was a huge amount of paint cans buried there. I think maybe the builder paid some but he ended up having a backhoe come in to dig it all up, have it treated, and then start over. Sad for the rest of us men on the cul-de-sac because he did eventually get grass started.
I don’t know what ever happened to Paul and his family but if I ever have occasion to run into him I sure have a lot of stuff to applogize for! More later………
y hard to accept compliments for our lush terrain whenever we’ve basically been observers only. By this time of year typically for us even in watering every day, w
e would by this time be seeing brown patches all around. My approach has always been to do what you can prudently and then deal with the results. I have, however, like most folks, spent way too much time trying to keep it green even when you could fry an egg on the mail box. On
e day our most wonderful neighbor for nearly fifteen years, Ellis, an older gentleman, who along with his wife Ruth, were like second parents to us, and grandparents to our boys, gave me some sage advice. He told me, “Now, son, you’ve done about all you can to keep this yard green but keep in mind there’s no livestock going unfed because of what happens to your yard”.These were neighbors you could depend on. I used to tell folks if you wanted to know the defintion of neighbor, look it up in the dictionary, and there you would also s
ee photos of Ruth and Ellis. Ellis passed away a number of years ago and Ruth now lives out in the hill country. She is in her late 80’s and still going strong. My wife and I were able to visit her last year and
we laughed and laughed and then laughed some more as we thought back on all those wonderful times of being right there together as across the driveway neighbors. Folks, God is good in bringing special people into our lives. We thank Him for this wonderful couple and we will always remember their many contributions to our lives. I have hundreds of stories about these folks especially Ruth who has an earned PhD in stubborness. Stay tuned, you will eventually hear more.Speaking of neighbors, we had an interesting experience when we purchased on first house. The year was 1971 and we signed up for a brand new 1,300 square foot mansion (to us)
with 3 bedrooms and 1-1/2 baths for the alarming high price of $16,999.99. I think our notes were $168 per month and we wondered how in the world we would be able to meet them. The neighborhood was made up of mostly younger marrieds with small children. We worked hard and had a decent yard but next door we had one of those one-of-a-kind fanatics who was of German descent. His name was Paul and he was the dedicated “tool guy” before Lowe’s and Home Depot became the rage.Paul set out to build his yard into a showcase. He worked and worked
and worked some more. For some reason he couldn’t get grass to grow in the front yard. They planted, re-planted, and used every kind of method known but the grass would eventually die. He was a decent fellow but very off putting in his perfect garage where every tool had its place with an outline to match. He even had a tennis ball on a string so his wife would park the car in the same place every time. He was the consummate do it yourself and usually it turned out really well. I think I’ve repented of taking some enjoyment out of the time he used a paint sprayer on the outside of his house and
painted several cars in the neighborhood. Fact was, the house didn’t need to be painted and most of the men thought he was doing it just to make us all look bad.We didn’t do our yard on the same schedule as he did and sometim
es because I worked many overtime hours our grass would get pretty high. They had a toddler who played with our boys and sometimes when he came over to get her he would comment that she might be hiding in some of our brush. We laughed but to tell you the truth I didn’t 
appreciate the insinuation. About two years into his escapades in trying to grow grass in his front yard he dug down deep enough to discover that there was a huge amount of paint cans buried there. I think maybe the builder paid some but he ended up having a backhoe come in to dig it all up, have it treated, and then start over. Sad for the rest of us men on the cul-de-sac because he did eventually get grass started.
I don’t know what ever happened to Paul and his family but if I ever have occasion to run into him I sure have a lot of stuff to applogize for! More later………
No comments:
Post a Comment