Sunday, May 29, 2011

The Back of The House

A year ago, we had the foundation replaced on the back end of the house. At the time, I had big plans to immediately fix it all up and replant the bushes and flowers that I had to uproot so they wouldn't get destroyed in the construction.

Fast forward a year later, and the plants I had taken out are still in planters looking fairly worse for wear, if not dead. Since I knew I'd have a little more free time on my hands in the evening, I figured I better kick my ass into gear and do something.


Last weekend, I weeded and removed stones from the side garden. Matt had picked up flowers we buy from Kiwanis every year for their fundraiser and I still had some succulent plants my mom had given to me last year that I hadn't managed to kill over the winter.

Lucky for us, one of our neighbors was getting a load of mulch delivered at a very cheap price, so we were able to have a yard of it dropped off on the corner of our lawn. Matt covered the side garden with mulch and we have plenty leftover for the next big project which is....


Attacking and hacking up the soil on the back of the house so I can at least plant some annuals with hopes for hosta at some point. The process is a bitch because when we had the foundation replaced, they filled back in with whatever soil and loose stones were around. Plus, our soil is pretty rocky to begin with.






Here's a shot after working for nearly 3 hours. Most of what you see on the sidewalk is loose stones.


I really don't have that far to go. If you look at the white pipe that comes down next to the house (gutter), that's where I stop. You can also get an idea of how big some of the rocks are by the pile on the flagstones at the bottom of the picture.

Wednesday, May 25, 2011

A Top Ten List of Things I'll Miss About Doing the News for WRFA

Over the years, I've had people question my sanity in providing a volunteer service that involves me leaving my house in the later night hours 5 nights a week to record a news cast. Truthfully, I don't think I'll miss the late nights that much, especially after being sick so much of this past winter. That said, here's a top ten list of things I will miss about doing the news for WRFA these last four years:

1. Catching the phases of the moon every night that had a clear sky
2. Waving at the people in Forte and getting to see friendly faces just before going upstairs to record
3. "I'm Julia Harrison..."
4. The excitement of waiting for local election returns
5. The satisfaction of recording the perfect 2-minute newscast
6. The feeling that comes from rewriting a lengthy story into a concise 4 sentence story
7. The actual delivery part of the newscast, especially nights when I could get through the whole newscast with no mistakes
8. The pride of knowing that the local news was being provided consistently every Monday through Friday on our community radio station.
9. Scaring various people in the Arts Council building who don't expect anyone else to be around at night
10. I will especially miss that feeling that I was still a news reporter on some level, even though Cable 8 provided the bulk of my scripts. I've always loved radio and while I plan to still be involved at WRFA, I will miss being able to define myself as a radio news anchor.

You can still catch my news cast through this Friday morning on 107.9 WRFA-LP, or streaming online at wrfalp.com, at 6am, 7am, 8am, and 9am.

Wednesday, May 18, 2011

Ending One Thing...

Next week Friday, May 27, 2011 will be the last day that my newscast airs during "Small Things Considered" on WRFA-LP.

I have enjoyed volunteering my time to read the news for WRFA these past 4 years and also enjoyed my time with WKZA, which started in August 2005. Unfortunately, the demands on my time plus changes in local media have led to me deciding to end the partnership for now.

I'm grateful to everyone who has tuned in to listen to WRFA over the years. At this point, I know they are working to fill the time slot my news was in with some other news feature. There's a good shot it will be local stuff, so please continue to tune in every day.

I don't intend to stay away from radio. Matt and I are already discussing possibilities for programming we can create together for WRFA. I'll be sure to report anything that develops!

Cutting to the Scene with the Pixie

Ten years ago, I decided to do one of the most drastic things I had ever done to my hair. I went from a long style (below collarbone) to a p...