Living in the woods is great. It’s beautiful and there are tons of interesting critters around when you least expect it. Small herds of deer sleeping in the front yard, newborns wondering around with their mothers in the back yard, owls, hawks and endless little moles in the mulch beds. But it’s also a lot of work. Despite quarterly sprayings of insecticides to create a kill zone, the wasps still manage to build on the stucco or on the wood in the roof peaks. They build on the stone, they build in the ground. Battling wasps has become a part time job. The backyard is so shady that I have as many mushrooms as I do grass and it takes weeks for the ground to fully dry out. The back of the house has been shaded so long I now have moss growing on parts of it. The roof collects all manner of crap falling out of the trees and the gutter toppers keep this stuff out of the gutters, but help it to collect in little bundles at different points. At the moment there is one place that has an 8″ weed growing out of it. Weeds are growing on my roof! In front of the garage there is a nice collection of crap on the roof that causes the water to spill over the gutter topper and onto the light, creating a nice splash zone on the stucco wall. Over the years (not even 3 yet) the wall around the stucco has started turning green with mold! I realize now that if we ever do put a swimming pool in we’re going to have to push back the wilderness quite a bit otherwise keeping the pool clean will be a loosing battle.