Well Side-Project Conclusion

Woah, no real posts since August?! You probably figured that we lost our motivation in our various projects, or moved out, or were eaten by trolls. Well you figured wrong. We ate one of the trolls.

Actually, we have had a wild ride during the last month or two. This was the last leg of the headlong race to finish the nursery before the birth of our first child. There has been much productive work in the last few weeks; however, our sweet daughter Avonlea won the prize. Not really a photo finish, as she was born two weeks early and our 'completion' status is about a month or two away. In reality, Avonlea is sleeping (sometimes) in a bassinet in our bedroom, and our projects are in pretty decent shape.

The day before Avonlea was born, my family came over for a working party. While Mom, Dad, Amanda and I were painting upstairs, two of my brothers Andy and Tom worked together to finish our well side-project. As you may recall, our well was way overgrown and needed some serious help. In one afternoon, my brothers spread out twenty 40lb bags of chipped granite around the well. The area around the well looks really super great, and I am thankful that I won't have to pick up 800lbs of stones on my own.

 

See how great it looks now, thanks Tom and Andy!

 

 Mom and Dad purchased all the granite, then Tom and Andy installed it as a belated birthday present for me. To think, I would request bags of rocks for my birthday!

As if it wasn't cruel enough to make my out-of-state brothers, who I don't get to see but once or twice a year, move around a bunch of stones; once they had finished, I asked them to walk around our yard and pick up rocks. Here is a photo of our incredibly strong and resilient outdoor workforce. 

 Thanks guys, you're amazing!

Weeds Be Gone!

We have continued our work on the well weed deforestation project.

These are pictures of what the area looked like after we finished pulling up the weeds and raking up the lava rocks.

 Looking better already!

And here is the area after putting down the weed barrier.

The next step is buying the gravel to put on top of the barrier.  So far, we've only checked out Lowe's.  Who knew rocks could be so expensive?  Maybe we're just frugal.  LOL!

We've also been working on the upstairs.  This past week, we've measured the rooms and hallway for trim (baseboards, window and door trim).  We've ordered it from Galehouse Lumber and it should be delivered in about 2 weeks.  We'll hopefully be ready for it by then.  We still have a little bit of mudding to finish in the hallway, but then we can start the priming and painting process.  I can't wait!  I think my subconscious is waiting for paint to be on the walls before it will let my pregnancy nesting drive kick into gear.  We decided to go with the same style baseboards that we used in my craftroom.

Let the Weed Deforestation Begin!

Our poor yard.  It is a bit neglected because we have been concentrating on the inside of the house so much.  Plus, because of the new septic installation, it already looks battered.  We decided to take a weekend and give the yard some much needed attention.

Our first task was to remove the weeds from around the water well area.  The weeds were so bad that it looked like we were purposefully growing a weed garden...NOT that kind of weed!  LOL!

This is what it looked like.

 I drew an arrow so you could see the well amongst the weeds.

Once the weeds were removed, we raked up all the red gravel in the area.  We plan to put a weed barrier down to try to prevent the weeds from returning.  Since I didn't like the look of the red gravel against the blue of the house, we transported all the gravel to the back of the yard to surround the firepit.  It looks a lot nicer back there.  We'll probably put grey or white gravel over the weed barrier.  I'll make sure to take a picture of it once the project is complete.

Our Snowball Bush might not have survived this spring and summer, but our Mimosa Bush is thriving in this heat and rain.

In fact, it is doing a little too well.  We need to restrain some of the heavier branches so that they don't break off.  Hmmm...I wonder when we'll have time to do that!

Another task we did that weekend was to cut down some of the webworm webs in our trees.  They especially seem to love our black walnut tree.  Some of the webs were too high for us to reach, but we did get all the lower ones.

Here is what they looked like.

 Ick!  Creepy looking, aren't they?  They remind me too much of spider webs, and I'm afraid of spiders. :(

Since I'm on the topic of bugs, here are some more for you to see.

Some Type of Fuzzy Caterpillar

 Isn't he cute?!

Red and Black Insect

He wouldn't stay still for the camera, little bugger!

Extra service during septic installation

I forgot all about the extra service agreement that we signed with the contractor who installed our septic tank. During the day when our new system was installed, and while our yard was churned-up, a third guy came to our property in order to assess the soil. Most of the time, he was digging holes and trenches around the back yard; although, I did see him with a bicycle pump once or twice. He told me afterwards that we had a few pookas and a fire breathing dragon underground. He was able to get rid of the infestation by inflating them until they burst! Shown below is a photo during that work day.

I can't believe I nearly forgot about good old Dug.

Outdoor Projects Besides Septic

On Memorial Day weekend, my dad came up and helped us with some of the yard work that included removing the hedge stumps along the west side of the house, pruning lilac bushes, and placing weed barrier where the stumps used to be.

The West Side

On Independence Day weekend, Jim's parents came up and helped us with a couple outdoor projects as well.  While Jim and his Dad worked on the upstairs hallway, Jim's mom and I worked outside in the flower bed.  We first spread mulch on the weed barrier. We then ended up going to a local nursery, Lowe's, Home Depot, then back to the local nursery before we had everything we wanted.  The cement urns were way too heavy for me to handle, so the guys helped us out with that.  Here are the end results of our afternoon hard labor.

My New Planters

 These look so much better than the over-grown hedges that were there when we first moved in.

 The planters really bring out the side door entry.  Too bad we don't really use it yet.  We'll see if I end up having to put a sign on the door directing people to the back door.  :)

A close-up of one of the planters.

The plants inside are Coleus, Confetti Purple Cleopatra Petunias, and Potato Plants

We also created a little oasis in the small bed by the back door.

Unfortunately, I've already had to move the 2 planters since it was too much sun for the Coleus to handle.  I have since placed them on the front door stoop where they will get more shade.

My father-in-law replaced our old back door entry light with this more appropriate one.

I didn't like the old one since the bulb stuck out the bottom.  This one is a little small for the space, but it will due for now.  We originally had bought it to use as a second light outside on the upstairs balcony, but have since changed our minds.

This chipmunk looks guilty already of destroying my flowers.

Flower Power Part 2

Vibrant Violets

Primrose Party

Forever Forget-Me-Nots

Dandy Dandelion

Posing Purple Vine

Plush Pussy Willow

My Bleeding Hearts

Bouquets

Yard Decor That Came With The House

Rusty Star

Jabba the Frog

Gregarious Grasshopper

Various Pics of Us

I'm not fat, I'm pregnant!

Better mow the lawn before it rains again!

Jim installing a new flagpole.  He broke the previous one when he was beating a dusty cot mattress outside.

That's all the photos!

Tree removal time-lapse

Here is a cool time-lapse of the removal of our large silver maple. This is a good illustration of the day long progress at fifteen minutes per frame.

 

Tree Removal (Finally!)

Hooray!  I have finally photo-shopped some of the tree removal photos!  I managed to get through Day 1.  I will keep working to get through Day 2.  There are a lot of pictures.  They are mostly pics taken by my MIL since I only had my camera phone to use.  You'll probably have to click on the pics so you can see them better.  This tree was a silver maple estimated to be between 100-150 yr old.  It had a circumference of 14 feet.  It was easily twice as tall as our house.  4 out of 5 arborists recommended removing it because it showed signs of rot in the base and was right next to our house and garage.  Silver maples are also known for their weak wood and the carpenter ants' fondness for them.  It had to go.  It was deemed a hazardous tree, and I wasn't about to risk it falling on our house, our garage, or our neighbor's house.

James and myself in front of the tree

Davey Tree Service arrives.

The guy I'm talking to in the last pic is the arborist who was the tree consultant for the White House.

Starting...

Close ups.

I had just had my 4 wisdom teeth removed the day before, so I was trying to take it easy.

Loading the logs onto the truck

Ride 'em cowboy!

Watch out below!

The Chipper

I wouldn't want to mess around with this thing!  It'd eat you for breakfast.

Using the crane

Cutting a large branch

Removal of a main branch

View from the front of the house

The last bit of foliage

Bye Bye, Shade!

I bet the tree is feeling a bit naked.

Coming to the end...

Now for the big guys

What was left after Day 1

Have you noticed the clouds getting darker as the afternoon progressed?

The tree looks a little befuddled that we cut it down.

Can you see the face?

When the rains came!

The rest of the pics were from my phone's camera.

Cool action shots of the branches falling.

Taking the final piece off for the day

View from master bedroom

Whew!   Now I have to chug my way through Day 2.

Toodles!