#12 - The next 5 pictures are taken from the top of my 6'+ retaining wall, built over 10 years ago by myself and someone I knew at the time. When I had reno work done here Fall 1997, parts of the old sundeck ended up down there. The tires you see here are another long story.

#11 - Neighbor to the east, Swan Lake in the background.

#10 - My Italian Prune Plum trees and all the new ones growing from fallen fruit, as well as garbage, some left by fence company when they put in the chain link for neighbor to the north. I gave them permission to come on my land to do the job, but not to leave all their garbage behind.... guess they thought it blended in.

#9 - Moving up the driveway, here's a look at what used to be the orchard.

#8 - Zoom in a bit for a closer look. Part of my cherry tree fell this winter, top of the other one fell too. Need friend with chain saw.

#7 - The more I look the more I decide to add, haha, so more from the road. Here's looking at the neighbor to the south. This fence used to run all the way up to my tire retaining wall until the neighbor drove into it and left it laying on the ground.

#6 - Okay, so a 6th one at the highway too... my sad old sign, leaning and about to fall down. {That's the neighbors hill in the background.}

#5 - At the top of the driveway, wrapped in plastic for the winter, is my chicken house. Against it is a storm door recently given to me that will soon be on the house. In summer the plastic is off the chicken house and there is a beautiful vine that grows wildly and covers it all up. You can also see the fence posts on the hill behind. A friend helped put them in a couple years ago for my chicken run, but unfortunately, by myself I am not able to get the wire up to finish the project.

#4 - Laying by the saw horse are 2 antique steel wheels that were given to me a couple years ago. I plan to use them as a "front gate ornament".

#3 - ... and plum trees from fallen fruit

#2 - Over grown with wild roses...

#1 - These first 5 pictures are of my home from the highway (1 March 2006)

YIKES!!!

Due to some of life's unhappy experiences, I let my yard go and have done nothing with it for years now. This year I am wanting and planning to work at reclaiming my yard from the "weed monsters". I'm sure my neighbors will be very happy to see at least something done here, and I know I'll feel much better about it all. I know I can only do little bits at a time, but better that than nothing.

I'm starting this blog with "before pictures" of my yard. I know that somewhere I have some pictures of what it was like when I was keeping it mowed and looking nice, but I don't know where they have gotten to, or even if they matter at all here. I will start with the pictures I took a couple days ago with my digital camera. I knew the yard was bad, but looking at these pictures it’s even worse than I thought. I really need help here.

WARNING: The following pictures are not pretty.