Yesterday I raked the leaves from my front yard. It is a live oak and the leaves are no more than a half inch wide and one and a half to two inches long, yet I managed to fill twelve 33 gallon trash bags with leaves. That is a lot of leaves! It will need to be raked again in a few weeks, but I could not wait for the tree to stop shedding because the depth of leaves already there was killing my grass. I do not have the money to re-sod, so I have to do what I can to protect the grass I have. After the next raking I will re-seed.

My next big exterior job will be to pressure wash my house (day one) and then my decks out back (another day). The home-owners association has me on notice about the mold on the side of my house, and personally, I thought it was a petty complaint.


What they really want is for me to repaint my house but I cannot afford it. One year recently I was cited for a stained roof so I had to pay someone to come out and pressure wash the roof. All of this is intended to protect home values, and yet with the housing bust, the homes in my neighborhood have declined a whopping 56%! There are several foreclosures on my street including one next door to me. Those homes are abandoned and in a terrible state of disrepair. At least the HOA sued the banks holding those properties and just last week, someone was out cleaning up the front yard of the house next door. It looks so much better! I wish they would sell it so that I can have neighbors again.


BTW: At the very bottom of my house is not mold or dirt. That is where the stucco ends. The 'mold' I was cited for is the stain in the paint further up.