We Have Been Working on Outdoor Projects

   Despite the hot and humid weather, (still very little rain over the last couple of months as well) we are getting outdoors very early and working on projects. We are so hot and humid with-high 90's F so we are up at day break to put in a couple hours before it's too hot for us to be outdoors.

   Larry has been working on getting his skid steer working again-changing parts and a major tune up, and a new seat -quite the job. He used to be a heavy equipment mechanic as well as working in construction and road projects. He does enjoy his "toys"  He also brought over a back hoe, the bull dozer is still at the woods house.

  The first couple months after we moved to the lake, he had rented a jack hammer, hired a couple guys we knew to get rid of all the concrete that ran in front of the house, and replace the walkway with bricks. The people before us knew nothing about directing water away from the house-we live on a hill, so they ended up making things worse with loads of concrete.  Those pieces have been piled up along the stone wall just in front of our door and front of the house.

   You may remember that I had carried allot of it to make those rock hills, and plant the perennial garden to the right of our front door and steps. To the left of that area we still had large piles of the concrete pieces.

  We got right to work this week, and I totally forgot about taking a before photo. Larry also dug out two large horrible bushes that just made no sense for this area. They are gone now and will be sunk in the lake, around our dock for fish breeding.

  Here is an after photo, and we also got the 8 large bags of garden soil down here too. In the back there behind the bags of soil is a lilac bush-I love lilacs so wanted to save it. This gives a clear view now, so we won't feel so cramped with those horrible bushes gone-they were just the wrong species for this space.

   Tomorrow morning early if I am not too sore, I will rake this area out and add the garden soil. For now I will scatter a bunch of zinnia, cosmos and marigold seeds to fill the space. To the right of this photo is a large pallet full of bricks to make my outdoor cast iron cooking area, we are pushing to achieve that this summer as well-still working on getting that large tree stump and roots dug out.

   Leaving the small pieces of rock and concrete will add some drainage to the soil, I did that on the other side as well. To the left and behind the lilac bush is a little garden shed-and behind that is a steep hill to the lake. Larry worked on scraping off the grass in that area this morning-getting it ready to put down the landscape fabric (my job) and rock-this will be easier for me to maintain with less grass cutting. 

  So we are making allot of progress which feels good-we both just have to really pace ourselves especially Larry with his heart condition. Those bags were soooo heavy-I had quite the time getting them into the skid steer bucket.

 I have needed to water almost every day, do to no rain. Everything is blooming well though and I am so happy with everything-there will be plenty of perennials to split up in the fall or early spring to plant in this new area.

My echinacea is still producing flowers and I have many butterflies that are enjoying all of the different flower blooms They really make me smile. We are attracting the bees as well.

For a treat late yesterday I made up a root beer float with my homemade ice cream, In the back is an empty bottle of wine waiting for me to remove and save the label.

   I am still making progress with my spinning-will post about that soon.

Enjoy your July and Summer