Yard Work

 It's already been 6 weeks since David did all the yardwork...so mom, the pictures are finally getting put up. Something about CEF Summer Ministry has been keeping us a little busy. =] Also our internet is being super finicky and not really working a lot these days.

 I'm very impressed at how good David has gotten with the maneuvering the machinery. It helps that he's had several chances to use them over the last year and a half. We rented the excavator for the week so he could dig the trench for the power lines to the solar panels as well as clean up the yard.

This is the same spot where the excavator is, before David began cleaning it up. It's been unbelievable how quickly the shoots of the trees came back up, so he scraped things down, exposing the bedrock in a lot of places and leveling it in others.

The front patch that was seeded two years ago, finally got mowed for the first time! (We didn't have a lawn mower before.)

 This is the very beginning of my rock garden. David brought rocks from around the yard that he'd uncovered and partially buried them for the garden.

 This is what the garden looks like now! I think it looks amazing! David did a great job!

 Things are growing in my garden too!! Radishes, beans, peas, tomatoes, broccoli, spinach, chives and peppers! I had my first garden spinach salad yesterday...yum! You feel so much healthier when you know there's fresh dirt on it.

 This is our "patio" for now. It's lovely to have a place to eat outside sometimes. I have to remind David to look at the beautiful trees and not all the dirt and work he still has to do. We did some raking yesterday and planted a patch of grass, as big as our two sprinklers will reach. Hopefully we'll have time to plant some more next week. We're also waiting for them to fill in the trench for the solar panels before we can plant a lot of it.

 David uncovered the rest of this bedrock and put some rocks in front for what we're planning to eventually, someday going to turn in to a little waterfall. The rock is shaped perfectly for it. The picture doesn't really show it up very well.

This is what the rock looks like after it's power-sprayed and cleaned off. At first I wasn't sure if I'd like the look but I really do now. A few hours of raking dirt to plant grass also convinced me to David's thinking...more rock, less grass.

Here's one of my front flower containers to greet you by the door.

It sure felt this hot some of these days...the sun helped it a little but it sure can get warm. Everyone seems to be experiencing the heat this year. I grew up with air conditioning and wondered how people did it without...well now I'm one of "those people". Thankfully your body seems to adapt somewhat. Lots of water and being aware of the crabbies seem to be key.

These were the first radish shoots in my garden just 3 days after planting...amazing! Radishes must be the gardeners encouraging plant to let you know that yes, something is coming even if everyone else is slower.