Graduation Day

Took a break from our yardwork to watch our last child graduate from high school.
Terry and I have four kids; two his, two mine.
Kevin (mine) graduated in 2008.
Nick (Terry's) graduated in 2009.
Sandy (mine) graduated in 2011.
And finally Lucas (Terry's) graduated today 2014.

Happy, proud, and done... with the natural part of parenting, and the formal societal driven rules of raising of children...
Birthday parties, kindergarten, doctor appointments, imagined (or real) psychological roadblocks, worries and fears, driving like a taxi-cab driver, football, soccer, baseball, sleepovers, drivers-ed, and school pick-ups and drop-offs that never seemed to end.

We've gradually entered a new phase...

Kevin's Asperger's worsenes over time and he stays home, working on computers.
Nick will marry his sweetheart in the fall, and is getting ready to take his dental school entrance exams.
Sandy is taking graphic design courses at the community college, and
Lucas is planning to attend culinary arts school in the fall.

These kids are so busy now...

Tomorrow we'll be back in the yard, working on our own projects, and waiting for them to need us.

Carry on.

We Need More Grass Seed !

 

Spot in the front yard where Terry pulled out the largest stump ever recorded.

 

There was a giant evergreen shrub here, which had to be removed for the privacy fence.

 

More grass seed needed.

 

Now we're working on this section of the yard; front yard, and side yard. Took out two giant old evergreens in the front, and lot's of scrub material in the side yard. Timbers, bricks, asphalt shingles, and rocks !!!

 

So many rocks. We're going to straighten this area up, keep some rocks here (low maintenance), and already planted a Crepe Myrtle in the corner.

 

Then more grass seed...

 

Out in the front yard, we spent the entire evening fighting English Ivy. About a 12 x 12 sq. ft. area of stubborn, deeply rooted ivy. The surface shoots are gone, and now comes the digging out of the root systems.

 

This isn't like on TV, where the magic crew comes out during the commercial, and when they come back, it's all beautifully landscaped... 

 

This is the real, and painful deal.

 

Once we get all of the ivy out, I will small up the garden area, plant a Dappled Willow on the corner, and a Butterfly Bush next to the brick. Then fill in with grass...

 

More grass seed !!! 

You Need to Rest... I'll Make You a Special Lunch

 

Finally took care of a "dead area". City code required the privacy fence to be offset, on an angle, which left a giant (weird) triangle space next to the driveway. We planted some decorative grasses and some perennial flowers, and lots of mulch. Voile'

 

The fireplace screen is done, and ready to be remounted, just a low priority project right now.

 

We're so determined to figure out the leaky basement situation, Terry decided to dig down to the foundation to see what's going on down there.

 

As long as we can't afford to build a patio here, we might as well find other things to amuse ourselves in this area...

 

Well, what we found was dry dirt and proper drainage; which means our leaky basement problem is definitely coming from somewhere else,

 

meaning, THE ROOF. The saga continues...

 

There she is...

 

Project House, looking good.

 

There are so many rocks. Rocks, rocks, and more rocks, all over the property. Might as well make use of them.

 

I love my rocks !!!

 

Thank you, Mr. Schoenherr.

 

Worked on this little corner space, by the fence gait. Collected up all of the flat river rocks I could find, to set into this traffic area.

 

Cleaned up alot of crab grass and trimmed up the bushes. Looks good as new.

 

This morning, I woke up to chopping noises. There's Terry (from the upstairs bedroom window), digging up stumps.

 

This became his mission for the day...

 

Here he is digging out the stump from a giant old Yew, that has plagued him since last Fall.

 

I got tired of his folly...

 

I sat in the backyard, taking pictures of random stuff.

 

Pretty planter...

 

And what do you know ??? He did it, he conquered the biggest stump ever.

 

He needs a special lunch...

Remember When

Sometimes we feel like we aren't getting anything accomplished around here. so I thought I would take a look back at how we transformed a big part of our Project House property.

 

 

This is the east side of the property, running along the side street. Three giant pine trees, rocks, cement chunks, bricks; and a giant cement block planter.

 

Here's another vantage point, lot's railroad ties, chunks of broken concrete, and bricks;  and this is where we have found bucket loads of beautiful beach rocks and Petoskey stones. 

 

This is a good shot of the giant planter, made from broken concrete, with layers of asphalt shingles and bricks thrown in. The Eunonymous plants were pretty, but they had to go...

 

This is the planter taken apart.

 

 What to do with all of this debris??? 

 

The tree guys came in October, and took down three pine trees, that ran along this fence line. They took down the rest of the trees (4 of them) on the property a couple of weeks later.

 

 

We ended up paying a company to come out and remove all of the broken concrete, and level the land...

 

They removed alot of stuff.

 

It looked great, but unfortunately, underneath, was alot more rocks, and many, many, many, roots, which we would not find until later...

 

In late October, the fence guys came in...

 

Out with the old Green cyclone fence and in with the new Cedar privacy fence.

 

*

 

Seven months later...

 

After a long, long, Winter, here we are working on raised garden beds.

 

It has been a lot of work...

 

and sometimes you have to look back, to remind yourself of how far you've come.

No Time For BBQ

 

The garden beds are done, and vegetables, (and seeds), are planted.

 

Also layed mulch walkways and threw out some grass seed.

 

I see a lot of watering in my future.

 

Here's the new Crabapple tree, that the city planted for us, in our front yard.

 

It is doing fine, even bloomed bright Pink blossoms this week.

 

After I cleaned up, and mulched the front flower beds, Terry did some watering.

 

The glass doors to the fireplace are ready to be painted...

 

and the log crib pieces are sanded, painted, and ready to be put back together.

 

This afternoon, we turned our attention to the crumbling brick mortar joints on the back of the house (possibly the cause of basement water leaking). Also broken window ledges...

 

Then there's the caulking...

 

Nothing makes Terry curse, more than caulking.

 

Here, we re-cemented the window sill of the dining room window. This has been a huge leaky spot in the basement. Hope it works... Hi Shorty, in the window.

 

Here, we tried out our hand at tuck pointing... The whole back of the house is in disrepair, cracks, and crumbling, and holes, and we are learning as we go.

 

This is the side of the garage, and Terry used some left over cement to fill in a huge gap, along the wall. Once again, hopefully this will stop some of the water seepage that we have been experiencing inside the garage.

 

Back to the fireplace screen... Terry is cleaning the surface (and roughing it up), so I can paint it.

 

Evident in these pictures, is the fact that we will never run out of projects at Project House.

 

Happy Memorial Day.

 

Oh yea, and we had a microwaved hot dog.

Beautiful Weather

 

This is my favorite spot in the yard, right now. Grandma's old chairs,

a new table (made by Terry), and a cute little lantern light (from Sandy)...

 

This is the light, solar powered.

 It soaks up the sun all day, and lights up the yard all night. Love it !!!

 

There is a field of "Lily of the Valley" in my backyard.

Today, I decided to pick a bunch of them and enjoy the heavenly scent of them in my house.

This is definitely my favorite smelling flower.

 

Terry spent the day building more raised garden beds.

 

I worked in the front yard a little bit, weeding and laying fresh mulch.

 

Tomorrow, we'll work on leveling the ground, adding new soil and nutrients,

 and planting some vegetables.

 

Beautiful weather gives us some energy.

Plenty to Do

 

There are so many things going on here everyday that sometimes the pictures we take seem silly...

 

First watermelon of the season, and it was a good one.

 

Sandy made a Pineapple Angelfood cake, delicious.

 

Still getting estimates on a new deck... Actually, we're just stalling. The piggy bank is empty and me and Terry are so tired; just can't seem to muster up the strength to haul cement, and gravel, and wood, and dig holes, etc.

 

I just sigh, when I look at this mess, and think about spending the summer sitting on the porch stoop.

 

I did plant a couple of flowers...

 

The new grass is coming in nicely...

 

and, lettuce is popping up in the little garden beds.

 

I transplanted some Hostas, from around the yard, into the bed Terry built last Fall.

 

Flower pots... awaiting flowers.

 

Terry working on the fireplace log crib. We redid the fireplace front last month and still have details to finish. Need to repaint the glass door frame and mount it, and clean up the log crib, which is what Terry is doing here.

 

I painted some terra cotta wall hangings.

 

That was fun...

 

There's really so much more going on. Tree trimming, garbage hauling, lawn mowing, weeds, caulking, basement leaking, yard leveling............

 

Carry on.