I Lost 5 pounds!! YEAH!!

Back Yard Facing The Right Side - Looking at the picture towards the left side of it is where we're working at right now. Then if you were to turn to the left and go straight back is another area we've worked on before and have a LONG LONG way to go!
@CatsandDogs (13963)
United States
April 25, 2009 10:51pm CST
I did!! I did!! I'm sooo proud of myself that I'm dancing in my chair!! I could holler it off the roof tops BUT I couldn't get on the roof right now if I tried because I'm in soooo much pain!! What from? Pulled muscles EVERYWHERE but especially in the front of my thighs! Oh my gosh, I hurt!! No I wasn't exercising but I've been working in our yard, the woods part of our land trying to clean it up and make trails so we can ride our ATV's through there. We've been working really hard for the past two weeks carrying cut up trees and debris out with our modified wagon that's attached to hubby's ATV. We have so much more land than we thought! We had part of it surveyed thanks to our horrible neighbor next door and lo and behold! We have THIS MUCH land?! OMG!! We'll never finish cleaning it up!! We'll be here forever doing this!! lol We want to cut all the pine trees down and cut them up and burn them in our fire pit so that all the other trees will grow and make it beautiful instead of having the pines take over like they're doing. Some of the poor trees are reaching in odd ways to get a peak at the sun so we're going to help them! There's soooo many pine's that it'll be years before we have it all finished. We've tried giving them away but nobody seems to want them. Oh well. In the fire pit they go! Oh and our land has a dry creek bed that gets filled when it rains hard. The same goes for our front yard, down in the gully is another dry creek bed. It is beautiful here and even though we've talked about moving, I don't think we will. At least not any time soon! IF at all!! lol Hubby is going to put up a privacy fence on the rude neighbors side of our property so we won't have to deal with them anymore which will be right nice because then we'll have privacy to swim in our pool! I hate it when they walk their trails which is beside our back yard and see us doing what ever it is we're doing. We so hate being watched and that's exactly how we feel and then to hear them.... ARG!! But anyway, I lost 5 pounds!! LOL I'm taking tomorrow off because I hurt!!
3 people like this
6 responses
@Pigglies (9329)
• United States
3 May 09
Oh wow! Sounds like a huge place and very beautiful. Personally I'd leave the pine trees though because I love those. Out here we have a yard with a few palm trees and that's it. I went to someone's yard that seemed huge to me and it was 1/3 of an acre. So I could only imagine your place must seem like a national park to me!
2 people like this
@Pigglies (9329)
• United States
4 May 09
Almost 5 acres?! Wow! I live in Southern California. So when we were poor growing up, our backyard was a 5 foot by 5 foot patch of grass. Now our yard has a few palm trees and a pool (new place, not the same house, lol). So even 1/3 acre looks very large out here. Like you actually can just go running around the yard! But 5 acres, wow. I would really have a blast with that. I can only hope that some day I can afford so much land. But maybe I can someday, because I don't plan to stay living in this state.
2 people like this
@CatsandDogs (13963)
• United States
4 May 09
Really? Where do you want to move to and when? Hubby and I are from Virginia but we don't live there now. We're in North Carolina and we LOVE it here!! People are so personable and friendly which is a huge change compared to what we're used to! It's awesome here and would not want to move or live in any other state! I can guide you to a certain area, that we wish we knew about before buying this place and hope to move to in the future, if you ever decide to move out here. We've both lived in New York, Texas and Arkansas.... none of them are our places but might be yours but it's just not ours.
1 person likes this
@CatsandDogs (13963)
• United States
4 May 09
You are so silly, ya know! Thanks for the laugh!! It came at a PERFECT time!! I'm soooooo having a bad day!! But the laugh makes the stress go away and I thank you for that!! 1/3 of an acre is huge?? Are you for real?! Wow! Our place WOULD look like a national park to you!! We have almost 5 acres here!! LMBO We love it but we wish we had more and hope to some day. lol
1 person likes this
@ElicBxn (63643)
• United States
26 Apr 09
ya know, maybe you should cut down those pine trees, and stick them in the ground between your place and theirs! then you get rid of trees and privacy at the same time!
1 person likes this
@ElicBxn (63643)
• United States
26 Apr 09
oh, and WTG girl on those 5 pounds!
1 person likes this
@CatsandDogs (13963)
• United States
26 Apr 09
Talk to me Elic!! Talk to me!! lol how do you go about doing that? Hubby wants to see about this guy who has a saw mill and maybe make a deal with him with something like he can have all the pines he wants if he'll cut some, how ever many we need into slats for us for the fence. So if we could use these trees as a privacy fence, how would we do that? Inquiring minds want to know!! lol It would be so much cheaper if we could use the trees as they are and just cut them into the lengths we'd need. And thank you!! I'm so happy about losing the 5 pounds! It took 2 weeks of working in these darned woods that you'd think I'd have lost 20 pounds but hey, 5 is ok because it's a start!! lol
2 people like this
@ElicBxn (63643)
• United States
26 Apr 09
lop off the limbs and stick 'em in the ground.. and remember, muscle weighs more than fat, so you may have lost the equivlent of 20 lbs.
1 person likes this
@Polly1 (12645)
• United States
26 Apr 09
Hot Damm!! YaHoo!! WooHoo!! WTG!! Thats for losing the 5 lbs. I'm sorry Thats for your pain. Thats great about your plans for your yard. See you guys aren't leaving that house. Its your spot of paradise, its home. It does sound beautiful. I would love to put a privacy fence around my yard, just don't have the money right now.
1 person likes this
@CatsandDogs (13963)
• United States
26 Apr 09
Thanks Polly!! I'm so stinking proud of myself!! LOL I was so skinny as a kid till my 30's and then I blew up like a balloon!! Well, I did have a hysterectomy too and I blame it all on that!! LMBO! BUT.... there is an upside to that.... no more painful periods!! LMBO!! YEEEEAH!! LOL Yes those fences ARE expensive!! Gee, just for 200 feet is something like $1500.!! SHAZAM!! is what I said!! You can add a few words here and there if you'd like. LOL I don't think we'll move either. It's too much of a paridise with the exception of our NEXT DOOR neighbor but a fence will take care of that. Elic, above you, has a grand idea of using the pines as a fence instead of buying the wood.... I'm going to talk to hubby about doing that instead of buying the wood. We'll see how it goes!!
1 person likes this
@34momma (13882)
• United States
26 Apr 09
wow congrats to you honey! that's wonderful. not only have you lost 5 pounds but now you have a wonderful back yard that you and your family can be very proud of!! I need to lose 20 pounds, maybe i should come over and give your family a hand
@34momma (13882)
• United States
27 Apr 09
congrats on the new find!!! and again congrats on the weight lost. I needa back yard so drop the pounds!!!
1 person likes this
@CatsandDogs (13963)
• United States
27 Apr 09
Thank you!! We have a long long way to go before we're finished with our back yard. We have so much more property than we first thought! We had one side surveyed thanks to the nasty neighbor on that side and we were astonished to find out "What?! That much is ours?" It'll be years and years before we get it all finished but that's ok because if it helped me to lose 5 pounds.... just think how much it'll help me lose this summer?! lol I need to lose at least 40 pounds and maybe I can do it!! I'm certainly going to try! Sweetie, if you wanna help, I won't stop ya!! Come on over!! lol
2 people like this
@mentalward (14690)
• United States
26 Apr 09
Congrats, Cats!!! It's like a bonus for all your hard work. It's so cool that you have more land than you realized! Aren't you glad you have a horrible neighbor? Without him, you may have never realized how much land you actually own! LOL I understand completely about wanting privacy. We have a communal road that runs straight through our property. I wish it didn't but we're stuck with it. I'm planting cedars around the property. Not entirely, but enough so we'll have SOME privacy when people drive through. Between the cedars, we're building a sort of fence but it will be covered with vines like hummingbird, honeysuckle and silver lace that grow longer and bushier each year. We'll have our privacy, one day! But, still, a part of our property where the road runs closest to the lake we're leaving open. The folks at the top of the hill like to come down and go fishing from that spot. We've let them know it's okay. But, I do want my privacy while they're down there fishing, so I'm growing these cedars, which grow very fast and make a great privacy screen. I've also planted some bamboo that will eventually provide even more privacy. Working with the land has always made me feel good, mentally. I call it my "therapy". But, it's also an excellent way to stay in shape and lose weight if you need to. Not only do you look and feel better, but your land looks better and I'm sure your pretty trees will feel better! We don't have many pines around here... a few... but mostly things like maples and oaks. Some of them are 50 or 60 feet tall! Boy, do they ever sway when it's windy! The thing is, most of them are skinny. We have one huge oak tree in our front yard that is VERY fat, but the majority of trees on our property are very tall and skinny... GREAT for making log fencing!!! I'm trying to get rid of some of them to make more room for my fruit and nut trees. PLEASE take photos when you're ready! I'm sure I'm not the only person here who would LOVE to see the fruits of your labor!
@CatsandDogs (13963)
• United States
27 Apr 09
Thanks Marti! And no I'm not glad for that horrible neighbor because it cost us $350. to have just one side surveyed! We had no idea it would cost so darned much but it had to be done. We should've sent the neighbor half the bill. lol I can see him now, balking at the mere idea! lol Like you, I love to work outside. It is a therapy kind of thing because of the fresh air and laboring in it and seeing the fruits of our labor is amazing! We have so darned many pine trees that it'll be forever and a day before we get them all down. They make such a mess of things with their pine needles and grow so fast that they block the other trees from getting any sun. It's amazing to see these trees reaching in odd positions trying to get a peek all the while, the pines keep on growing and taking over. But not for long! Like you've described, most are very tall and skinny which is more dangerous to our furry friends so we have to be diligent in keeping them away when we're getting ready to drop one. About our house, it has a colorful past. The people who built it had a run down log cabin further back in the yard and one day the wife and kids went to visit with her mother and the father was working in the yard. He smelled smoke and went to check it out and found his house on fire. He called for help but the house was a total loss. The neighbor on the other side said she asked if he had called his wife yet and he said "oh yeah, I better call her." It sounded suspicious so everyone thought something wasn't right but they couldn't prove anything. These people were from Ohio and they wanted to go back but the insurance company wouldn't give them the money unless they built another house which is the one we live in now. They lived in it for about 6 months before selling it and moving to Ohio. Now while or before they built this house, they must've bulldozed the other house straight into the woods and just left it there. The next people who bought it didn't clean it up but left it and vines grew and anything and everything grew all around it. Hubby got poison ivy three times from trying to cut the brush down to get to the wood which had rotted by then because it was close to 20 years later. Well that's finally done but gosh, what a mess the land is!! Trees have grown in all these weird shapes and ways and so on. We want to get my dad's back hoe out here to level out the land some to make it look nice so that when we go to fence it all in, it'll be in perfect shape to use like we want to.... a big yard for our furry friends and for ourselves for nature walks and what not. We've just made a trail for our ATV's to ride on. It'll be years and years more before we get it all done but we're working on it. lol I'll take some pictures of it the next time we're out there so you can see what we've done so far. It is amazingly different than it was!! So hopefully I'll lose the 40 pounds that I've been wanting so desperately to lose!! lol
1 person likes this
@cahyorini (315)
• Indonesia
27 Apr 09
Congrats sis on your 5 pounds, you know I am a little bit jealous with you, because i do a light fitness here but every time i check my weight always fluctuate, you know what i mean first check i lost 2 pounds, 3 days later i check again it was increased up to 6 pounds!!!!, this is happen over and over again, Do god doesn't want me to get slim like everyone (sigh..). Maybe i must try harder. Well, once again congrats to you my friend
1 person likes this
@CatsandDogs (13963)
• United States
27 Apr 09
Come on over to my place and work in the woods with me! I bet you'll lose that weight you've wanted and worked so hard to lose. I used to be skinny as a rail and since I had a hysterectomy, I've gained 40 pounds so if I can lose 5 in two weeks of hard labor then you can too!
1 person likes this