Dear Mr. & Mrs. Cardinal,

I am so sorry for our outdoor home renovations this weekend, which in turn caused you to become homeless. We will be putting up a brand new birdhouse with complete relocation possibilities, and perhaps even a bird feeder, in the big tree out front, as soon as possible. I am heartbroken over your loss, but my Dad says it's all part of the Circle of Life and that you'll persevere, make a new home, new babies, and new friends. I am deeply saddened by your loss, but hope that you'll continue to grace our doorstep with your beautiful presence once in a while.


Your friend,
Melissa

_________________________

The above letter is in reference to the hours upon hours of yard work that Todd, my parents and I did on Saturday. We started the day by ripping out all of the bushes in the front yard.














See all of those giant bushes, the huge "fir" tree (I actually don't know the species) in the corner, and the giant tree limb sticking out in front of our beautiful abode? GONE -- ALL OF IT! Dad took his chainsaw to the bottom of all of the bushes...then the "fir" tree...and finally sawed of some of the obnoxious branches on the big tree in the middle. Now the house looks 10 times bigger...AND we can see out of the bay window!

We landscaped the front, put in some new azaleas, hostas, and a few cute perennials that start with the letter O but I can't remember it's full name to save my life. We mulched the surrounding areas, and everything just overall looks 1000% better. Sadly we don't really have any grass now...but we'll put some seed down, and with all of the sunlight our front yard gets, we should have grass in no time.

The unfortunate event was that in tearing out the bushes from the front yard, we damaged the nest of a family of cardinals. It was completely unintentional -- none of us saw the nest, nor heard any baby birds, when we took out the bush. But the two baby birds did not survive, and Mr. & Mrs. Cardinal spent the entire day flying around our house wondering where their home had gone. I was completely heartbroken. As in crying, heartbroken. But my Gramma reassured me that the birds most likely did not have emotion (just motherly instincts) and that they would make more baby birds.

The upside to the entire day was that our front yard is now beautifully landscaped, and Todd and my Dad spent 4 or 5 hours ripping out the awful moldy shed that was built under the deck in our back yard. Now we have double the back yard square footage!! Can't wait to landscape the back and fence it in so that Whinnie has a new place to go potty...besides the bathmats!

I'll post pics of the landscaping adventures as soon as my mom sends them my way. It might have been frustrating to have your picture taken while you're sweating like a pig, ripping out weeds, tearing apart boards with a crowbar, sawing off branches, and generally dying in the 90+ degree heat that was last Saturday, but man is mom good paparazzi! We have tons of photos to document the whole thing! So, to both of my parents -- THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!! We are more grateful than you know for all of the hard work you did for us last weekend! You're the best (free) hired help in town!! :)