Front Yard Planning

We spent a lot of time this weekend cleaning up the front yard, and by a lot I mean I have a sunburn in April and very sore muscles. The destruction of the previous weekend was, by yesterday afternoon, in the backyard and most of the brush was burnt.  Sunday we cleared a planting bed in the front yard that we've never seen before.

Monday, at work, during lunch (doesn't everyone make landscaping plans on their lunch break) I made this very elaborate plan for the planting bed in the front yard.

I've already started on it, it's looking great.  But then again something is usually better than nothing and I'm hoping that our neighbors will stop giving us the stink eye when they are mowing their front yard.

Missed Calling

Sunday morning we got up early to watch the Bahrain Grand Prix, then planned on spending most of the day on the couch.  Then I decided we needed to do something Ok he says I'll do a little raking out front.  I went to the garden to plant the lettuce and compost the asparagus row.  Next thing I know Hey come out here I'm going to take that dead tree down.

View from the porch.

Next thing I know it's sure take that one down, go ahead those cedar trees are scraggaly looking. There go seven trees from the front yard.  Hey look there are a bunch of peonies coming up by the front wall.

View from the road.

He's mad I didn't take any action shots and was out there all day not on the couch.  I'm pretty sure he missed his calling to be a lumberjack. I spent an hour last night searching the archives for a before photo, I'm sure there is one somewhere but I can't find it.

Lumberjack

We just purchased a wood chipper/leaf vacuum.  Bruce had Columbus day off and was planning on breaking it in.  I left the camera and asked him to take a few progress photos.  When I came home I couldn't really tell the difference accept the the wood rack was full, there is just so much brush and lumber on the ground!

This pile was left-over from last fall. Plus three new stumps.  Maybe next year the garden will have enough sunlight.

 This is the pile from Hurricane Irene it's three times as big as last years pile plus there are still some random branches all over the place.

 This is woodrack number two, there is no photo of number one but it's equally as large. Yes that is a pile of trees.  Some of them we've pulled from our neighbors yards who are too old/don't care to deal with half-down trees.  We don't want to look at them so we're doing them as we go.

 Another pile of tree trunks, some already pieced up.

Lumberjack Dog.

Logs to be split.  Bruce splits everything with a maul and wedge.  Look for the "How to Split Wood" tutorial coming soon!

Cont: The Tree Adventure

Bruce spent most of Saturday breaking up the tree, check here and here to see where we've been so far with it.  I helped with a little splitting and stacking, we also added another pile in the back near the truck. 

Its pretty amazing to see how the colors in the yard have changed in just one week!

The Tree Adventure Continues

So we are slowly making our way through the massive tree down in our back yard.  And by we I mean Bruce and his brother Tim.  Bruce took this photo Wednesday, it's a good scale for how big the tree is.

 That's Tim, Me and Kenny.

This is the progress that was made over the weekend, it's getting there.  Hopefully after this coming weekend we'll have a yard again!

Weekend Warriors: Lumberjacks

We had a very busy weekend "dialing up our doing dials"; we took down five trees in our backyard which were standing dead or very close to dead. We started by going out Friday night and picking up a new bar and chain for the chain saw and for me, work gloves that fit. They are also pretty.

Even on the working side.

Now, Bruce has been cutting down trees with his dad for a very long time and I would never recommend that anyone do this if they've never done it before. Bad things can happen the tree can fall on your house or your neighbor's house, ditto for cars, or you. Scary, I had the phone in the breezeway just in case. That's the main reason we have a land line (so 911 can find us). Call a professional to bring the trees down, don't get hurt, this isn't a step-by-step DIY guide. If you click on the photo below it will take you to the Picassa slide show.

Sometimes, the tree is disagreeable to be taken down. In this case the tree got stuck on a neighboring tree, Bruce cut sections out of the bottom until it dislodged and we were able to pull it over.

Our backyard looks like we've been through a hurricane!

Sunday we headed to Home Depot for some lumber to build a wood rack.  It's pretty sturdy and should hold almost a cord of split wood.

After the rain Bruce split one all the wood from one of the trees then we stacked it.

Backyard Adventure

     Our latest and greatest adventure has been planning, prepping and planting the garden.  I've had the spot in the backyard picked out since before we owned the house, those long months in limbo . . . I was plotting.  The first step was to till the soil, now we had an idea (after burying poor PeanutButter) that we would have a lot of rocks to contend with and would need some mechanical assistance.  So after much deliberation, Bruce purchased a Boylens tractor, circa late 1970's, that he found on Craig's List.  It has attachments to mow, roto-till and blow snow.  He adventured a few Sundays ago, in the big red truck, to pick it up and the next day after work he was ready to go!

Notice he's still wearing dress socks from work. "It's working, it's working, wait what's it hitting?"

"Oh it's a rock" Notice the tree in front of Bruce and the beginning of the rock pile.

It took us a week (with the weather and mechanical delays) to till roughly an 8' x 19' plot.

This is the rock pile after one pass with the tiller.

My job while Bruce was operating the machinery was to follow behind him, remove rocks and notice where the "big ones" were so that we could excavate them with the pick. We did two passes with the tiller to even everything out and to get as many of the rocks as possible, looks pretty nice right?

After the tilling was complete I got to work planting, the very next day, which happened to be the hottest day so far! Each row had to be raked into place, more rocks and roots removed, raked again to even out, then planted.  I had started tomatoes, zucchini, peppers and summer squash in the house and they were ready to go!I also planted lettuce, spinach, radishes, carrots, watermelon, cantaloupe, beans, peas, broccoli and cucumbers.

Last weekend we got the fence up to keep the Chipmunks out. More on those guys later. I still have a few tomato and pepper supports to go in, but now that everything has been in the ground for a week it's looking promising, I have shoots popping up everywhere and have already thinned a few rows.

Check out that final rock pile, way more than we expected!

I also love that I can spin around in my desk chair and the garden takes up the entire view out the window!

April Showers . . .

bring May flowers

This is the first peony to bloom, I love the pink veins.

and it looks like there will be a few more. Its like a happy little friend welcoming us home, surrounded by all my potted herbs (and some weeds). There is another plant it the back of the house, I can't wait for the rest to bloom.

Spring has Sprung!!

I waited so long to take these pictures that our daffodiles are already gone, both outside and the ones I cut and arranged inside, not to worry we have lots of other things blooming!

We have so many colors of tulips.

I was sad to not see any pink though.

These are my favorite, both red and yellow!

I love how pretty this looks every time I pull up the driveway, granted it is the only spot with good grass.

These are down by the driveway, I spot yet to be raked.

We spread some grass seed in the back yard last week so hopefully we'll have some grass by the time my graduation party rolls around!

A Break For Some Spring

I've been super busy with thesis stuff now that my "spring break" is over, getting ready to submit, defend and attend conferences. But the biggest news is . . . . drum roll please . . . The A4 is FIXED!!!!! I'm so happy to sleep until 8 with the shades down and to putz around making dinner in the late afternoon. It's so exciting to wonder around our yard to see what things are springing out of the ground . . .

I'm a little disappointed that this is the only bunch of crocuses in our yard

While wandering I always pause at the front door, a little hidden and needs to be repainted black, if the ladder is still up in the garage I might go look for the shudders that are supposed to be on the house.

Daffodils are by far my favorite part of spring, their resiliency blows my mind, they seem to say "I don't care what's in my way I am moving up." This particular bunch is on the inside of the front wall, probably the second most neglected area of our yard.

"Cute" little run-off stream the runs through our yard pretty much only our yard, our adjoining neighbors are either dry or flooded, I have this weird obsession with trying to get the leaves out of it to make it go faster, I'm sure the neighbors love that . . .

Last, the beginnings of the garden, tomatoes, peppers, summer squash, zucchini, herbs and flowers all getting ready to go outside, I started them last week and its so excited to watch them sprout!