Projects...

As some of you know, Mom has had an orchid cactus for years. I always think it's an ugly plant and that she should get rid of it....However, my opinion has changed. This is the very first time it has ever bloomed and it is huge (About 8 inches across) and gorgeous.

This is a picture of the sewing room. Yesterday, we pulled up the sewing room floor for the 3rd and hopefully last time in 3 years. We originally tore out the carpet and painted and then replaced the floor with vinyl tile. The tile was defective and within 24 hours had peeled itself off the floor by curling itself upward. We replaced that tile with m0re vinyl tile. It looked beautiful, but within a few weeks it was cracking at the edges and then big chunks of it were coming up. So, after dealing with that for the past 3 years, Mom has decided to get it replaced by the professionals. So, here is the empty sewing room and office.

So, where did ALL that stuff go? It went back into the ORIGINAL sewing room in the house which was Sarah's bedroom and which we now refer to as the laundry folding room. Here is what it looks like. This is everything except for a big wardrobe and a dresser that we had to shove into the storage room. The first two pictures show the room half full.

And that's not the only big project we've tackled in the last week. We spent last Friday and Saturday laying sod in the back yard. Here are a few pictures.

This past Wednesday, we had 6 guys from church come over and carry the extremely heavy garden boxes back onto the beach and fill them with dirt. The yard is slowly coming back together. Aren't you so sad that you aren't here to help? You're missing out on all the fun!!!

Haircut and Highlights

It's been 5 months since my last haircut so I decided that it was time to get one. Here are some pictures of the new do....I had to take the pictures through the mirror to get the right angle. The highlights are super subtle, but I think they'll get lighter once I've been out in the sun doing all that yard work....

And while I'm at it, here is the yard in it's mostly finished state. All we need is a lawn chair, a beach umbrella and a kiddie pool :)

A Yard in Chaos

So, we had to take down the tree between the garden and the fire pit. Dad asked the neighbor if he wanted the wood and if he would help cut down the tree. A few minutes later, he was half way up the tree with a chain saw.

Here are Ben and Dad watching from below. I'm so glad he didn't fall. That's a long way down.

About 15 minutes later, the tree looked like this....

Here is John, inspecting the hole he is digging for the septic tank.

Nothing like having a huge hole in your back yard.

This truck was supposed to back down to the end of the tennis court and dump a load of sand. There wasn't enough room between the tree and the hole for the guy to get back there. He tried, but he got this far, jumped out of the truck and looked at the distance between the hole and the tire and said "I'm just not that brave" So he dumped it at the side of the house and they scooped it up and drove it back with the backhoe.

Here is the truck that delivered the tank on Friday morning. That tank looks like a concrete vault. I have a video of the tank being dropped in, but I couldn't get it to load. I'll try to get that up eventually.

Here it sits, waiting to be hooked up to the pipe.

This is the first day of excavating the leech field.

Nice big pile of dirt.

We woke up on Monday morning and it had snowed. Talk about bad timing. They drove backhoes in mud and kept on digging.

Here is the backyard shot from the end of the tennis court. Tha's about 2 feet deep.

Here is the backyard Monday morning, before they started moving dirt out of the back. They didn't want to get trucks stuck in the mud, but they had to move the dirt somewhere so they could keep working.

So, they dumped it here for now. Dad and Mom decided they can level out that part of the back. Some of that dirt will be hauled off to our neighbor's yards.

In an effort to save trucking expenses, we had them dump a bunch of dirt in the front. Those ruts are 18 inches in some places.

Here is the leech field being put down. Those are big plastic domes that connect to make a sort of tunnel. There will be 4 rows like that and they will all be covered with sand.

This is how it looks after 2 rows have gone in. Sand Castle anyone?

Here is the view from the railroad tie garden.

I'll try to put up more tomorrow....

Videos

Here is what the garden looks like after all of our hard work.



Here is the tree removal...


Here's Dad trying to get the rope up in the tree so they can guide it as it falls.




This is the backhoe taking a load of debris from the old tank and dumping it in the truck that will haul it away.

The Continuing Saga

Here are a bunch of pictures of what's been going on in the back yard. As you can see, the garden and tennis court and driveway all look very different......More videos to follow... This is all the dirt that came out of the planter boxes (above)

This is the garden after we moved everything off and took out all the ground cover and carpet.

This is the lawn after i'ts been driven over with the tractor

This is the 8 foot hole that we were required to dig in order for the county to come out and issue a permit. I guess they have to look down 8 feet in the soil to see if there is ground water down there (which there isn't...) They will come look at that tomorrow. As for now, we laid fence over it so no one accidentally falls in... As you can see, it's goodbye to the fire pit!

It turns out that it's a bit expensive to haul dirt away, so it looks like we are going to re-landscape the front yard. That's going to be one big berm. We're giving dirt to the neighbors too for some of their projects.

This tree has to be taken out for the leech field to be installed. So, another tree bites the dust.

Unfortunately, the asphalt driveway isn't quite up to supporting the weight of the heavy equipment that's been driving over it. It's just one thing after another around here.

This is the hole that the septic tank came out of today. They are getting it ready for the replacement tank.