[speaker001:] [Hum] [NOISE] [TV or radio heard faintly in background.] Okay. I, I guess first of all I'll just say we haven't done much, uh, gardening. We do lawn work all the time. But, uh, our gardening we lost, remember the last two freezes, I don't know how long you've been here [NOISE].
[speaker002:] Yeah I do [children].
[speaker001:] But we lost our bushes in those and have been waiting to plant new ones. And so, as far as our bushes, we don't have any but we do have some blackberry bushes. And
[speaker002:] Oh, really.
[speaker001:] and they were really hearty and stayed on and we've done really well with them.
[speaker002:] Did you plant those yourself?
[speaker001:] Uh-huh. Yeah.
[speaker002:] Oh.
[speaker001:] And so they've been really good and the kids, I [LAUGHTER] had to,
[speaker002:] [Children].
[speaker001:] the first year I had to tell the kids not to pick them when they were red because they were supposed to be blackberries. But, uh, we go out, it, it's hard to go out when it's this hot.
[speaker002:] Uh-huh.
[speaker001:] And, uh, but, uh, keep the weeds out of them and, and keep them off the ground so the ants don't eat them. And they're okay.
[speaker002:] Oh.
[speaker001:] Yeah, uh, [lipsmack],
[speaker002:] That's nice. I, I love blackberries and we, uh, when I was smaller, we, my family lived in Tennessee
[speaker001:] Uh-huh.
[speaker002:] and there used to be wild blackberries that we'd go out and pick, my brother and I. But, I don't have any down here.
[speaker001:] Yeah. Yeah, uh, we have some flowers that have, they're just are real hearty also, and they're bold and they come up every year but, uh, they're getting too thick, I need to go thin them out. And, uh,
[speaker002:] [Noise].
[speaker001:] there's a, I don't know what kind of flowers they are. They're real common around here. They're, they're orange and they look like a lily, sort of. Uh,
[speaker002:] [Children] Oh, I think I know what they,
[speaker001:] Yeah.
[speaker002:] I can't remember what the name of them are either.
[speaker001:] No, but I think they're real pretty when it rains because their petals don't soak the rain in. They, they keep the, the rain on the outside, little rain
[speaker002:] Oh.
[speaker001:] drops and, and they look real pretty after the rain. And so I really like them but I need to get out and, and, um, [lipsmack] do that. Now as far as our grass, it grows crazy [LAUGHTER] here. It just keeps growing and growing and,
[speaker002:] [Breathing].
[speaker001:] uh, sometimes my husband does it and sometimes my son does it. But it just is, I don't, I don't know. I've lived in Utah my whole life and we can't seem to get ours green. I don't know.
[speaker002:] Down here, the grass?
[speaker001:] Yeah [Lipsmack].
[speaker002:] Well, I'm, we've had problems with our yard. We, it was one big weed is what it was.
[speaker001:] Uh-huh.
[speaker002:] It was just horrible. And my neighbors on either side of me have beautiful lawns and we have this God awful ugly thing. And
[speaker001:] Crappy [LAUGHTER] I know, we have that too.
[speaker002:] and I know they must think, [sigh] you know, I wish those people would do something about their yard. But my husband got some new fertilizer and stuff, that, [breathing] that seems to be helping and he put it on the front yard
[speaker001:] Uh-huh.
[speaker002:] to see how, you know, it would do and stuff before he put it on the backyard. But we've got a Great Dane in the back
[speaker001:] Uh-huh.
[speaker002:] and she has eaten everything I have put out there. She's eaten my crepe myrtle trees.
[speaker001:] Oh dear.
[speaker002:] I know, and she's eaten the bushes. I've tried to, I spent like eight hours planting this nice garden out there
[speaker001:] [Breathing] No.
[speaker002:] and I barricaded it up,
[speaker001:] [Breathing].
[speaker002:] so she couldn't get into it.
[speaker001:] Uh-huh.
[speaker002:] And I went and took a shower and looked back out there and she was already in it. And I was so mad.
[speaker001:] Had somehow gotten in. [Lipsmack] [breathing].
[speaker002:] So I can't do anything back
[speaker001:] Yeah.
[speaker002:] there.
[speaker001:] Yeah.
[speaker002:] Because she just, she destroys it. But I've tried out in the front but like you said that, that freeze that came.
[speaker001:] Uh-huh.
[speaker002:] I had some bushes that, uh, some shrubs I pu-, put out front and it killed those too. So, I'm just real discouraged with the whole thing. I just don't even want to do anything.
[speaker001:] The, the other problem that we have, well it's funny because the one, the two bushes on the ends of the house that I think are ugly, they lived [LAUGHTER] and so I, I don't know.
[speaker002:] [LAUGHTER] Yeah, that, that happened to us. We have these,
[speaker001:] So like I wanted to go out and kill them too.
[speaker002:] I know.
[speaker001:] They had no right to live. But anyway, [LAUGHTER] uh, under our trees we get a, a north sun and, uh, the, it looks like our trees don't have any grass under them.
[speaker002:] Oh, I know. Ours don't.
[speaker001:] And we just can't grow, uh, grass underneath there.
[speaker002:] I know, we can't either. But I've got pre-, two good size cottonwood trees out in my front yard. Uh, you know one on either side of the yard.
[speaker001:] Uh-huh.
[speaker002:] And, and they're big and they're real full and everything, you know, in the summer time but it, it's killing everything underneath
[speaker001:] Yeah.
[speaker002:] where the leaves are shading the tree but toward the end of the summer, you know, when everything starts dying off and whatnot and then the light can get through the tree, then the grass starts growing. But, by then it's so late then the winter comes and it stops. You know, it's, it's
[speaker001:] Right.
[speaker002:] it's a never ending cycle.
[speaker001:] It's a vicious cycle,
[speaker002:] [Child].
[speaker001:] isn't it?
[speaker002:] Yeah, it really is.
[speaker001:] It just really,
[speaker002:] So we've been trying to get something or to pull some grass underneath there and, and whatnot. So,
[speaker001:] Well, I don't, we've never done anything like this but we've been thinking, you know, if we built up, uh, [lipsmack] you know, either a wood, wooden like trench thing around where our bushes were and filled it like with a nice dirt
[speaker002:] Uh-huh.
[speaker001:] then maybe we could plant some either flowers,
[speaker002:] [Noise] [metal].
[speaker001:] or, or some new bushes in there that would live. And so I think that we're going to try that.
[speaker002:] Huh.
[speaker001:] I, I think the [pause], I think that's pretty much what we have decided. Now I have two long windows and I'm trying to decide whether to put like bushes in front of them or not.
[speaker002:] Yeah.
[speaker001:] You know, maybe just halfway up the window or something like that. So people can't see and hear too much [LAUGHTER].
[speaker002:] [LAUGHTER] Really [child]. C-, well I don't really have to worry about that that much because my sons' bedrooms are in the front and they've got mini-blinds and stuff.
[speaker001:] Yeah.
[speaker002:] But only, only one is really like [NOISE] in the flower bed part and the other one is out on the porch.
[speaker001:] Yeah.
[speaker002:] So there's not really much I can do about that.
[speaker001:] That's what our two rooms are on the front, too, with these long windows. One is a bedroom for our, our oldest son and one is, uh, [lipsmack] an office that my husband and I work in. And so, I, I really [children talking] don't like it too much because then the back of our house faces that, well, the flowers are out by the back of the house, so, and that's why the front room is. So that's not too bad.
[speaker002:] Yeah.
[speaker001:] But, I like to look at the flowers. They're pretty.
[speaker002:] I do too, that's why I look at my neighbors yard [LAUGHTER].
[speaker001:] [LAUGHTER] Yeah.
[speaker002:] I don't have anything to look at so I look at theirs.
[speaker001:] But it's funny because, uh, you try so hard I think sometimes to, to, anyway I do, to do our yard
[speaker002:] Uh-huh [NOISE].
[speaker001:] and then it's like the wind blows [pause] everything whether the weeds from your yard to your neighbors or yours
[speaker002:] Yeah [Noise].
[speaker001:] to them or and so even if you did get it under control, it seems like in just a few [lipsmack] months it would all be back and [sigh],
[speaker002:] Yeah. It, it's really [NOISE] a pain. My husband works a lot so, um, a lot,
[speaker001:] It's hard to get out a lot and do that yard work.
[speaker002:] Yeah [breathing]. I'm, it's usually me and the kids that go out and mow the yard and
[speaker001:] Uh-huh.
[speaker002:] [Pause] and I just [sigh] I really do not appreciate [LAUGHTER] having to go out there and do it. I hate to mow the yard, more than anything else. I hate to mow that yard.
[speaker001:] I know. It is, it's not my favorite,
[speaker002:] [Children].
[speaker001:] thing in the world either. I'm glad I have an old enough son to do it for me now.
[speaker002:] Yeah, well mine's getting there. He helps, [NOISE] he does half and I do half, so.
[speaker001:] Uh-huh.
[speaker002:] Pretty soon, though, by next year he should be able to do it all by himself.
[speaker001:] Yeah.
[speaker002:] Whether he likes it or not.
[speaker001:] Yeah [LAUGHTER]. Well that is one chore that we will pay him for, if he'll go do the yard work out, outside, so,
[speaker002:] [Child] Oh sure I'll be more then glad to pay him
[speaker001:] Yeah.
[speaker002:] if he'd just go out there and do it [LAUGHTER].
[speaker001:] [LAUGHTER].
[speaker002:] and, and do it to where I don't have to go back out and redo it.
[speaker001:] Right. Exactly.
[speaker002:] That, that's my only thing with him.
[speaker001:] Exactly. [Noise] [humming sound].
[speaker002:] That's why I'm help, having him help me now [children] [voices fade at end of tape].