Yard Clean up

When we moved into our home, the back yard was cluttered with 15 years of underbrush, leaves, dead trees, stumps, vines, etc. I didn't take "before" pictures but this is after a full weekend of cleaning up yard debris which resulted in over 30 bags of leaves and huge piles of branches. But the results were exactly what we were looking for. We have big plans to hang a hammock and have a shade garden, bird feeders and bird houses, and just a shaded serene place to relax.

The pictures below are the one corner of the yard we cleaned up. There is plenty more to be pruned in other parts of the yard, so this is just the beginning.

This is the back corner of the yard looking up to the house which is slightly off to the right. Before we cleaned it out, you couldn't walk through it.

Our property is nearly 0.8 acres, and only a small part of it is fenced off, so the picture below shows the rest of the property beyond the fence that we plan leaving natural.


This is the debris we still have left to take to the curb for the garbage men. we are trying to place it out there in stages so they don't get completely overwhelmed. We have met more neighbors with all our clean up b/c they keep commenting on all our trash! It has become the common conversation piece.


Dad- this is for you... Matt has been chopping wood and even seeking out more dead trees on our property in order for us to build fires and stay warm while our heat is getting fixed. He even tried to stack it like you although I don't think I ever saw the measuring stick and not sure the dimensions are quite right for making a proper cord, but none the less, we are working hard to make you proud :)

And we even have kindling...and a few pencils- my specialty when chopping wood into splinters instead of logs.

Autumn colors and another Hike!

The fall colors are starting to appear here in North Carolina and so we took a hike over the weekend to check it out!! Matt came home this past weekend to surprise me and our friend Thomas is staying with us- so the three of us spent Saturday afternoon enjoying the beautiful autumn weather.
Matt and Thomas took time standing a top the giant rock for the ultimate view. My lack of grace is enough of an excuse to keep me from climbing too high upon rocks in which the only thing between me and and the ground is a couple thousand feet.

Thomas is deep meditation or maybe just trying to find the easiest way back down!

It was awesome to have Matt home this past weekend. WHAT an awesome surprise. We enjoyed our time outdoors and can't wait until his traveling slows down a little.

As you can see from all our pictures on our blog- our favorite past time is hiking the mountains in NC.