Front Yard Landscape, Installment 2

After a week more of work I have documented additional progress with these pictures. The flagstone patio and walkway are in, the front porch is expanded, and the curbing which separates various elements of the landscape--rock, grass, planting beds--is installed. They also got started on the storage shed in the back yard, which is part of this project and will hopefully free up the garage for use to park cars this winter. Enjoy! Hopefully the end of this week will bring more of the finishing touches.

Front Yard - at long last

Apologies for no posts for forever. No excuses. At some point, in desparation, after 7+ years of dirt and weeds, I took some graph paper and pasted it together, took rough measurements, and put some ideas down for a front yard. David was very concerned about drainage, so I started with dry creekbeds to control the runoff, kept budget in mind, and found someone to make it happen. We are about 3-4 days into the transformation, which consists of river rock, crushed rock, grass, planting beds, a flagstone patio with pathways, a place under the tree for a bench, a 5-foot curved bridge, 7 new trees, and desert plants nestled among the rocks. Here are some pictures of progress thus far. If you haven't seen the Summit house, it might not mean anything to you, but it promises to be a substantial transformation in the end.

Update

OK, my blueberry bushes aren't doing so well. I discovered huge black bugs crawling all over them. Checked the internet, and they are "weevils." I think of weevils as small white grubs that get into food, so it was a disconnect for me, but they target berry plants and the little ones eat the roots and around the base of the plant and kill them. So, there really isn't any insecticide for these critters. David and I were out there yesterday trying to capture them. They don't like water and they move slowly. With a small kitchen sieve we scooped them up as they floated in the water we flooded the plants with and put them in an empty food carton and stashed them in the trash. Time will tell whether or not the bushes survive, and I suppose we'll have to do another inspection next week to make sure we got them all. This is the yucky part of trying to grow things.

Much to my relief, the solar eclipse in May of 2012 is only a partial eclipse viewable in part of North America. The big one (full eclipse) is in November 2012, I believe, and the party will be in Australia. I will rest well tonight knowing that the small eclipse will be eclipsed by the large eclipse.

I still don't have a solution for my inability to post on a few select blogs. Yes, Julianne, I still love you--your blog just won't allow me to comment.

Internet Housekeeping, etc.

Just for your information, I am unable to post comments on the following blogs: Suzanne, Julianne, Scott and MaryAnn. There might be a couple of others that I don't remember. I have written many comments which have not posted as I keep thinking it might work this time, but it never does. I used to be able to post, so I don't know what happened except that Tyler did some stuff to my laptop which was supposed to make it work faster and that might have affected it. If anyone knows how to fix it, I am open to suggestions.

And, it is very windy in Southern Utah today. Everything is still so green! My big trees I planted last fall have apples and peaches on them; my little trees I planted this spring have leaves on them; and my blueberry bushes are thriving. I had to pick off all the blossoms from the blueberries as the instructions said they need to spend this first year developing a good root system which can't happen if they produce fruit. The weeds are also growing apace. I'm so tired of the dirt and weeds; I want a yard with a garden, and plants, and maybe even some grass.

I am almost reluctant to publicize it, but I heard today that Sunday, May 20, 2012, there is a complete eclipse of the sun which will last 3 hours, and will be best viewed from Cedar City. I would prefer Cedar City to be hidden from the world, not exposed to it; but I suppose an eclipse is something I really have no control over.

And that is all for today.

Spring!! And It's Really Green This Year

Cherries coming along.
By the church. The deer got to them.
House to the West.
Kitty corner house.
Maybe if I did this more often I would learn how to make my posts more attractive and it would be easier and less traumatic. However, I persist and do it in my clumsy and inefficient way. Everything is growing like crazy this year. It probably has something to do with the moisture. And, it stayed cold for a long time; then after it started to warm up there was only one cold snap which pretty much did in the apricots, but everything else survived. We will even have cherries this year. But this weekend I especially noticed the lilacs. I love lilacs! I always have. They are so unassuming and hardy and prolific. I can't smell them very well since I have loss of sense of smell as a result of last year's bout with the flu; but they evoke memories of childhood and a general feeling of well-being. So I spent the weekend alone in Summit and enjoyed lilacs everywhere. There are some by the vacant house kitty-corner from us, some directly across the street, some by Uncle Alma's which bloom only up high because the deer browse the lower branches, and some in the lovely yard of the Wilson's next to the Church meeting house. I have enjoyed this spring weekend, and I hope you did too.

I'm Baaaack!!

Good news from the tax accountant precipitated the purchase of a car. Because we are on the road so much, we decided to maximize our potential gas mileage by buying a Prius--used--2008 with 18,000 miles on it. We drove it to Summit this weekend, and it was a new driving exerience for us. David admonished me I should drive the car, not let it drive me. If that is your philosophy, you probably shouldn't buy a Prius. You have to watch the fuel consumption to learn how to maximize your potential mileage. That suits my style of driving. Anyway, here's a photo.

Redemption and New Floors

I am finally ready to redeem myself from the bottom of the blog post list. (Eat your heart out, Janet!) Over the last few weeks we have had a new floor installed in the "great room" area of our Summit house. I bought the flooring last summer/fall when Leslie and Cameron installed the same floor in their new home, and I liked it a lot. After realizing that kids with their own houses are never going to have time to install flooring in my house, we hired a contractor. I won't go into the details, but we had planned to buy a rug for the living room, and I ordered a bigger one than I might otherwise have purchased because of some unaesthetic "regularities" in the installation. So I have taken some pictures of the floor (and the new rug) for your viewing pleasure. I now will need to paint the walls, and perhaps the ceiling, because there is too much "yellow" in the rug--so much for ordering on line. All in all, though, we are pleased with the new floor, and I think the wall color is due for a change after 7 years with the original paint.