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Ground
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Lesson
learned on a Saturday walk
Front
flower beds
Troubled
area addressed |
Front Flower Beds
April 2004 - Spring is her (well almost)
and we have a new landscaper this year, Crockett's
GreenLawn Service in Northboro. During the spring clean
up, the landscaper will be edging all of the front beds,
then mulching and trimming and maintaining them throughout
the summer. He will be removing any stones, bricks or
rocks and then giving each bed a neat edge- this is to
make each front bed look more tidy and uniform. You may
still plant flowers in your front bed as long as they are
well back from the edge of the bed and will not be weed
whacked. Any overgrown perennials that hang over the edge
of the bed should be cut back or removed.
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Troubled
Area Addressed
September
2003 - Water flows downhill and always will. As
you head down Lexington Rd. from the top of the hill, you will see, on
your right, a situation where water has been a problem since our
beginning...35-38 Lexington. Due to the way the ground
slopes down in front of this building, water was very much at home right
at 35 Lexington!
According
to unit owner Charlene Leith-Bushy, "On rainy days, the water built up
several inches at least. The water was usually high enough to go
over my shoes AND boots (so I'd go to work with wet feet sometimes).
We had to "sweep" the water on a regular basis. The
runoff from the hill (partially due to an in-ground pipe diverting rain
from the street) was washing out the dirt and backfilling the end of the
driveway, where the water was supposed to flow away. In the
winter, the ice would build up like a dam and icy water would back up to
our garage. So during the winters we had to break the dam every
day it snowed, rained or had melting. We also have a pump to keep
water out of the garage."
The
board recently addressed this drainage situation, and, in the process,
beautified the area at a relatively low cost compared with building a
retaining wall. Water is now encouraged to go elsewhere!
Charlene
goes on to say, "While technically it is a landscaping project, it
isn't elaborate in terms of lots of plants and shrubs. There are
mostly mums (not too many and not too expensive), a couple of other small plants
and a tree that will help with water runoff - that will help prevent
soil erosion. This was definitely a cost effective way to fix the
problem. We haven't had a backup since. "
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Lesson
learned on a Saturday morning walk
What a beautiful morning Saturday
was. Quickly washing my face, slipping jeans, t-shirt,
light jacket, and hiking shoes on, I grabbed my
camera and my dogs and stepped out. Oh, I also grabbed my
cell phone, which turned out to be very fortuitous.
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The morning before I had noticed some
photogenic mushrooms on the island in front of 35
Lexington
. One was actually curled up. I wanted to snap shots in
the early morning sunlight. It was
6:20a.m.
when I took this photo.
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Continuing on around the block, I
decided to walk the path into the woods a bit. I’ve
never gone too far in, but I’m looking for good trails
to hike and wanted to see it a bit more. I had my new
hiking boots on and most of my skin was covered for
mosquitoes, but other than that, I wasn’t prepared for a
hike.
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We ventured in. Roxie and Max were
loving it. The sun was beginning to stream in, very few
bugs out at that point, it was delightful. I took a few
pictures.
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I’d never ventured quite that far
in but I began seeing orange arrows and flags serving as
markers. I thought, "This is a well-marked trail, I
certainly can’t get lost". So, off we went into
unfamiliar territory; me, my two curious little dogs and
my directionally challenged mind.
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Over stone paths, stone walls, muddy
sections, sections almost covered with fern, mossy trees,
rocky hills, even spotting the fluffy backend of some
animal (deer?) It was fun and we were getting a bit of a
workout! When I began to get thirsty and a little
lightheaded I took stock of our situation. I did not bring
water, hadn’t eaten breakfast or even had a glass of
water before we left. Regretfully, I decided we needed to
turn back for the time being. Telling my canines it was
time to go home, we turned back and retraced our steps.
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I thought it odd that the orange
markers had turned yellow, but thought, what the heck,
they still mark the trail! About half an hour later I
admitted we were lost. Still on good trails with lots of
markers, but not our particular trail. Thinking about what
I could learn from this experience, I decided I would not
take a hike unprepared again and in the pack would be pink
(or florescent fuschia or purple or turquoise) ribbon for
me to mark my own trails!
Taking out my cell phone (told you it
was fortuitous that I took it!), I called hubby. He
answered. I said "we’re lost!" I wasn’t too
worried since it was morning and we would have to come out
somewhere with these trails, but I was thirsty and tired.
Bob came to the beginning of the trail and called me on
his cell phone. Then he yelled my name. I couldn’t hear
him! And he can yell pretty loud! He actually thought
about borrowing Lenny’s 4-wheeler to ‘rescue’ me.
Some of you might have heard someone yelling
“MIIICCCCHHHH” and wondered what the heck that was!
We called each other on the cells and
I kept backtracking to try to find something familiar,
even though all the backtracking caused everything to look
familiar! I tried to go downhill since that felt right. I
found a little man-made bridge THREE times and also a
meadow THREE times! Plenty of Lennie tracks too!
Finally, I heard Bob yell my name. Boy, that felt
good. From that point, with him coming in and my using his
voice to navigate, we met up. I said, “Boy, is it good
to see you!” Roxie and Max ran to him, probably
thinking, “Please don’t let mom take us in the woods
again!” No, actually they really loved the adventure.
Bob said he tracked us by looking for their little paw
prints in the mud. We came out of the woods at
9:30a.m.
My little adventure took 3 hours.
Next June, I will be hiking the
Grand Canyon
with my family. Bob said he is going to stand at the ridge
and call “MIIICCCCHHHH” so we can find our way out ;)
Seriously, if you are into hiking,
there are lots of trails and they go on and on and
on…just make sure you mark the one you take ;)
Have you enjoyed our woods? Tell
us your story.
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