Tag Archives: yard

LIVE

bird shit

feeder

Adventuresome weekend.

Grocery time again… Sunday morning I got up early and took dad to Costco and was back home in time to whip up brunch.

Bypassed my ritual Sunday egg-coma to hit the road with the guys who were on a mission… FIND A BIRDBATH.

You’d think this would be an easy task given the PURE GLUT of nurseries and garden stores out in these parts… Think again.

Oh sure – if you want a faux-concrete bunny rabbit holding a dish or characters that look like they were on the cast cut list for Strawberry Shortcakeâ„¢ – then you’re in luck.

Try asking for something minimal.

There’s a great little mom and pop nursery and garden store nearby that’s been around forever. In fact – I have vivid memories of going there as a child with my grandma…. The place still smells the same.

We found one we could all agree on and a bird feeder to boot. Honestly – I’m more crazy about the bird feeder. The bath is Kevin’s obsession – I’m just thankful we don’t have a 3 foot bunny in our front yard now.

Wandering between nurseries turned into an impromptu shopping trip in an outlying city called Fenton… I remember the area being a not much more than a collection of trailer-parks and a lot of wooded bluffs. Not so anymore.. Megaplex outdoor malls, including a Starbucks, now sit dug into the bluffs.

Checked out a store called “Garden Ridge” – It was ok but nothing earth shattering. Picked up a new shower curtain and bathroom rug for cheap.

While we were there we went into Circuit City to wander and look at toys.

Chad and I have been wanting to get a Satellite Radio – but apparently there’s two competing networks out there. XM and SIRIUS.

XM’s hardware is prettier and more intuitive – but the kids at the store agreed that the content is better, (and un-bleeped), on SIRIUS.

If store employees actually knew how to SELL anymore – we were willing to slip the couple of hundred dollars onto the Amex to get set up… But I wound up just getting confused between the two choices and left with brochures in hand instead.

Anybody know anything about this?

Anybody think I’m blogging?

design, LIVE, WORK

treemonkey

surgery

One of Chad’s co-workers’ brothers is in the tree biz and considering the last bid we got to address our tree issues came in at over $1000 – we asked them to give us a bid.

“Friend of the family” discounts included – they came in at a smidge over 25% of what the other guys were asking. Hired!

The crew… The father and his son – arrived first thing in the morning and before I had the rest of my coffee, chain-saws were growling outside our windows.

On their first break we started chatting I heard the whole history about how the dad, a machinist, had been trimming trees as a sideline for twenty five years… After getting laid off and going through a financially devastating divorce, it was his son who encouraged him to go into business with the trees full-time.

When the conversation turned to what the hell do I do for a living that I can sit around on a Monday at 10am in my sweatpants and a ratty dead t-shirt, I explained the business of graphic design, corporate identity development and visual branding.

I assured them my vocation wasn’t the glamourous gravy it was before the Great Economic Correction of 2001, and showed them my portfolio.

They got wide eyed and by the end of their brake the dad was interested in what I could do for them based on a barter. The dad ran out to the truck and brought in some flyers they made on their home printer and sheepishly presented them to me.

I told him I could work up a pitch and see if he liked it and if he got the “whole package” concept I spoke of. He told me to sketch some things out and call him later.

I threw another pot of coffee on, went right to work and had a pitch for them to look at before they left. mock flyer for tree trimmer

The dad was a little iffy about the name I came up with because tree-trimmin’ men are generally slurred as “dumb monkeys”. I explained about the power of banking on humor and preconceived notions and by the end of the presentation he was sold.

He’s sleeping on it but it looks like we’re going to get an identity’s worth of some improvements around the house. (the dad’s sort of a jack-of-all-trades).

Yesterday, for the first time in quite a while I had “fun” working on something. I’m sure it’s a combination of, well.. DUH – the “monkey thing”, but also helping out two hard working guys trying to make a go at it who normally wouldn’t be able to afford something like an identity and marketing campaign.

I’ve got more work to do to refine the quickies I worked up for them… but I’m looking forward to it.

Now I’m wondering what can we do to get more fun projects with equal amounts of freedom.

Maybe we should create a pricing schedule for small companies and go after that market.

Maybe I should stop acting like I’m blogging and find a better logoface for TreeMonkey.

LIVE

the sky is falling

I’m afraid the 50 year old pine may have to go… It could have been topped incorrectly 20 years ago or it’s just genetically confused. It’s upper branches are too thick and every bad storm that comes along, a living-room sized chunk of it comes falling to earth.

I’m neurotic about getting rid of it. Without it – the site will seem naked. We’ll need to replace it with something. Anyone have any recommendations for fast-growing tall trees?

I’d blog about this but I need to look up tree surgeons in the yellow-pages and find the chain-saw.

LIVE

elmo… not emo.

juice-box

Home-centric weekend. The nine day road trip had left a lot of things neglected.

Tackled the compact-car size pile of limbs we cut out of bushes and trees in September and pulled out fireplace suitable fuel and burned the rest off in the outdoor pit. Flannel drag, work boots, saw in hand… My lumberjack facade was nearly perfect except for the NPR blaring on the portable kinda blew it… *You just can’t appear hyper-masculine with The Prairie Home Companion cranking in the background.

Babybear’s been down with a head cold since Friday night. I hate it when he gets sick. While I may have the “provider bear” role down pat, I suck at “care giver” role. Kevin on the other hand must have teen a triage nurse in another life.

Kevin and I ran to pick up some soup and juice after returning movies to Hollywood and I spied these tiny-scaled Elmoâ„¢ juice boxes at the dollar store. Knowing full well that Chad LOVES Elmo, I picked up a pack of them.

Now what’s more ridiculous? A 30 year old man being fascinated by a little red furred, bug-eyed muppet or a 32 year old who enables this fascination when given the opportunity.

It’s interesting to note that us Xers are the first generation to reach full-adulthood who have been raised on Sesame Street. (For the early 1970’s, the idea of educational children’s programing was still progressive and there were only a handful of pioneers). Like anyone in our age bracket, I can do a pretty good impersonation of Kermit The Frog and I know what a Snuffleopagus is. I’m sure that says something on a socio-cultural-anthropological level – but I lack the higher ed to explore this concept.

Muppet-theory aside… Chad let out a little NyQuil slurred giggle when I placed the fruit-juice packs in front of him.

I smiled.

I giggled too.

I didn’t blog about this.