I do NOT appreciate my creativity and my disability being misconstrued as willing deriliction ! I have recieved a notice that MY GRASS GROWTH is IN VIOLATION of the Concord Housing Maintenance Code ... Surely if my neighbor wants to sell HIS house he COULD HAVE spoken with us to find out what is going on with us.
I know it is my next door neighbor that has reported me to the City of Concord Housing Maintenance and Occupancy Code People because on previous years when my boyfriend was outside mowing our lawn this neighbor remarked that our lawn would look better if we mowed the entire lawn. My boyfriend attempted to explain that his partner (me) has some plants and flowers growing in some areas and that we allow some "wild growth" PATCHES to form to protect these flowers and plants.
Wild grass growth patches are free and will not bring termites running like mulch will. (We have termites that have established themselves in the wooden fence on the other side of our home -- that were there before we moved in) We have placed termite traps around the border of our home for this and check the traps at regular intervals.
Okay, so we have termites. We have termite traps. We have a "wall" of lilacs in our back yard, which is my delight and the main reason I decided it was THIS HOUSE that I would purchase. (The lawn was non existant at the time due to snow, but when it melted, AFTER we bought it we found an unpleasant "present" that the previous house owner allowed his dog to leave ... the entire 1/3 of our lawn was littered with dog poop.) There was not very much grass the Spring we moved in. The lawn was not in good shape either because of other issues.
After spending an entire afternoon attempting to cultivate the dirt by hand and getting a backache and exacerbated asthmatic attacks my boyfriend agreed we could (afford to) purchase an electric cultivator. My son and I cultivated not only the thirdof our yard that had been damaged dog misuse but also our entire yard. We took it in sections because, at the time, he and I both held jobs and it was hard work that could not be completed in one day.
That first Spring my son, Michael and I cleaned up the dog poop, took down an unsightly and not necesarry fence, cleaned debris and seeded each newly cultivated area with the appropriate sort of grass seend for each area. Michael and I took turns watering our new lawn throughout the warm and hot weather months. Whe I could afford to I bought a plant or flower to add to our yard. I chose Sage because of its natural abilities to deter mesquitos. There were other plants that I had investigated and wanted to grow that would deter other pests, but New England climate was too cold for those plants, so I did not waste my money attempting to grow them.
I took pictures that year, so that when it came time for us to move on and sell our house we could compile an album for prospective buyers and SHOW WHAT WORK AND CARE WE HAVE BEEN PUTTING INTO THE CARE AND MAINTENANCE OF OUR YARD ... our WHOLE yard, not only the lawn. (side note: some people view dandilions as "weeds" and they are classified as "weeds", however, many people have medicinal purposes ... ie. dandilion tea ... and many find the little yellow fringed top very pretty. To a Scot, they are like a yellow thistle. The thistle might be equally considered a weed, but it is also considered the emblem of Scotland !)
So, I have a few YEARS worth of pictures of diferent areas of our yard. I have "before" and "after" pictures. I have pictures of a wooden platform in one area in our front yard - that the previous owner left. It required much hard work and time to take apart the wooden platform in our front yard and we were not sure what we would find underneath it. We had already heard the roumor that our house had previously been used as a "crack" house. (Oh, great ! I thought. That is just what we need ! NOT !) Sometimes when we heard the helicopters fly by overhead we wondered if the authorites were checking our yard to see if there were signs of continued "crack" production. Even after a year of turning away mail from the previous owner, we continued to recieve mail that was not ours. At least the people who showed up that first year looking for the last owner eventually stopped coming.
One summer I had an argument with my boyfrend that turned into his refusal to mow the lawn at all. I had planted something special OFF THE LAWN that required a second year to bloom. The first year I did not see signs of growth and fogot about it until the following year when I was pleasantly surprised to find that it had survived and was in bloom. There was no grass in the area I planted my special plant, so I felt that it was safe from the lawn mower. I was wrong. While I had fought and lost (to some degree) attemtpting to establish sage plants in our front yard -- they kept getting mowed - I figured I had every right to be especially angry that this special plant become the victim of the lawn mover when it was not even in the grass !
There are only 3 of us and with one person refusing to mow that left my son, Michael and I to the task. My son had since lost his job and had been approved for Social Security Disability. I had been working two jobs in order to continue making mortgage and utilitiy payments during the time when my son had no income at all. Whenever I bought a plant or even went out to water exisitng plants and flowers I was met with harsh words from both house mates, "we cannot afford it", they would say to me. yet I would try to keep my "garden" going as it was what connected me to both my dead mother and dead grandmother. My family always had a garden no matter where they lived, and no matter how small. One of my favorite pictures is of my mom and half sister, Michelle knelling over a small graden. My mom had to import dirt and add a ring of stones because of an ant problem. She did not have much money so in between her finances and the red ant situation that round gardne plot was the best she could do at the time.
My mother, Marcia Anne Keach and my half sister, Michelle Abigail Archambeau died in a house fire on March 22, 1988 and I have desperately wanted to create a memorial garden for them ever since then. Even when I found out that I am allergic to a variety of grasses and weeds and even the act of mowing the lawn can cause me breathing problems I have sought to have some kind of "garden". I continue to trim my lilac bushes when I can (when it is not too humid for my asthma) in their memory. I continue to prefer to eat at the Friendly Kitchen, soup kitchen sometimes and put that food money towards a plant -- so I can remember my family.
When the weather is hot and humid and I cannot leave my air conditioned room I am sad. I am sad that I cannot breathe outside very well on those days. I was sad the whole week that I could not enjoy my own back yard when the smoke from the Canadian fires travelled down to New Hampshire. I "smelled"/ felt it before any of my co-workers ! (Even my boss turned down the a/c for me that Sunday to help her asthmatic employee breathe easier ... it was a valient try, but I needed to go home early ... sick, and be confined to one room in our house with the a/c on and my nebulizer and be still.)
I do not enjoy being still. I used to walk alot when I was younger. When I was high school age I joined the Army National Guard and was in the best health I have ever been. However, one child, much stress, onset of asthma - continued asthma, allergies and anxieties has prevented me from doing much walking. I walk when I can in a controlled environment, so I can breathe. I walk on the treadmill at Planet Fitness. Some years more than others. I have been battling obesity for most of my life and the past 10 years obesity has been winning. Only recently did I resign myself to the difficulties of being unemployed -- surviving ONLY on my own Social Security Disability monies -- because it is clear to me that if I do not loose weight and get my lungs stronger, I will die much earlier than if I were healthier. Since my son, Michael has his own disability issues -- and is currently working with Granite State Independant Living he takes the brunt of most housework (inside and outside) that I cannot do due to my health issues.
That leaves only one other person in the house to do what the other two cannot do .... and he has taken a stand to NOT mow the lawn because he does not want me to yell at him when he mows oven something I value. Not only that, though, he is the only one in our household who maintains full time employment and feels very put upon when asked to do more than what he considers is his "fair share" of house-work. So, after recieving a complant notice this morning that our grass and weed height is in violation of the City of Concord's Housing Maintenance and Occupancy Code (Article 27 of the Municipal Code of Ordinances) I sent my son to dutifully mow ONE AREA of our lawn. I do not know how much gas we have in our mower, but I know that we cannot financially afford to buy more. One area is a start. I have telephoned the Housing Inspector and await her return telephone call. I am going to request that she not wait the 7 days to comply and to come out for a visit as soon as possible, so that she can hear (and hopefully understand) the enire circumstances behind and around our "grass and weed height violation".
I do have pictures I could post, but I have already spent more time on this issue than I really had the time to do, as I need to continue to think of ways to bring more income in, since in two weeks I will ONLY be SELF employed. Does anyone want to buy a bead crochet bracelet, so that I can "maintain" my yard to my neighbors and City of Concord's approval ? Buy 2 bead crochet bracelets and I will be able to eat after having my lawn mowed.
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