DESCRIBE YOUR YARD AS A CHILD. DID YOU HELP WITH THE YARD WORK? WHAT ARE YOUR MEMORIES?

The front yard in Santa Barbara was basically a small postage stamp. There was a young tree-about 15 feet tall in the parkway. There was a huge pampas grass plant by the master bedroom window-closest to the driveway. Dad had put up a trellis with a magenta bouganvilla plant growing up it. This gave privacy to the front door. We could leave it open in the summer evenings and let the coastal breeze blow through the front room.

The back yard had a small cement patio. The dog was tied up in the corner nearest the back garage door. The garden was in the farthest corner at the same side of the yard as the dog. It seemed like a huge garden when I was little and weeding it, but it was definitely small when I looked at it as an adult. The opposite far corner had the chicken coop. Between the garden and chicken coop across the back fence was where the pet guinea pig cages were. Later, when dad started breeding guinea pigs and selling the offspring to the pet store, the guinea pig cages were put up between the dog and the garden. After he had proved to himself he could make a profit with them he gave up the idea of raising guinea pigs-wasn’t making him rich-and decided to put a pond in with koi carp in it. It was a beautiful pond.

The clothes lines ran from the corner of the yard where the back kitchen door was to half way out to the pet guinea pig cages, just about 10’ short of the dwarf fig tree.

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