Labor Day Means "Labor"

A "holiday" weekend just means more time to get projects done before winter around our house!! 

 

Jim finished up the side fence along the shed (still needs a picket on the corner so you won't be able to peek in).  This is the final enclosed fence from the earlier posting.  Look how close our neighbors house is on the left!  We even set the fence 6 inches INSIDE the property line on our side.  Building setbacks and codes were never really enforced back when this neighborhood was built.

 

This is the view from our deck.

Jim is starting the demolition of the old fence to again access to the "new" yard.

 

Peeking past his "de-struction" project you can see the "new" yard area behind the shed.

 

So, it's rather hard from the pictures to fully comprehend what we "added" to the yard.  Here's a map explaining it all.  We have added nearly 360 square feet to our backyard.  We are currently working on the other side yard, which will also add more space.

 

More updates to come... after another cup of tea and another day of "Labor".

 

Happy Labor Day!!

Home Improvements Projects

Well, this summer seems to have flown by in the blink of an eye.  Here's just a few before, after and still works in progress pictures of what we've been up to around the house....

An old dilapidated garden box at the bottom of the stairs.

 

Three planters and another old garden box in the middle of the yard.

 

Viola! 

I replaced the boxes and containers with retaining wall pavers that I scored a really great deal on from someone who purchased them and then decided not to use them.  I even had enough to build a new bed in the corner of the sidewalk!  I relocated the canoe from the side of the house to the front.  Nothing was planted yet, just some chives leftover in the canoe (oh, and my kitchen herbs at the bottom of the stairs if you look close).  Now everything is bursting with plants - corn, pumpkins, squash and strawberries.

 

Next came a big new BBQ.

But where to put it?

TaDa!

I picked up FREE flagstone from yet another person that didn't want it in their yard!  A little sweat and a couple days later I had a beautiful new patio area for my "outdoor kitchen".

Another Project?!

This time it's the fence.  Our existing fence is over 25 years old and barely standing.  So we finally bit the bullet and started replacing it.  This time around though, we are expanding our fence to the property lines.  This will give us a larger enclosed backyard.

 

I thought we would never get those holes dug! 

Hardened clay and rocks do not make for easy digging.

We took the easy way out and purchased pre-made fence panels.  This forced us to terrace the fence line but I am sure it has saved us a ton of construction time.

 

At the time of this posting we are about to close off this side of the yard (putting the last panel right where this photo was taken from).  I have started preparing the other side of the house for the next stage.  The longest stretch of fencing (all the way across the back yard) will be the biggest and longest part of this project. 

 

More pictures as we progress!

 

 

 

Dirt Work

Before

After

I spent most of the day yesterday crippling my back and shoulders in order to widen our walk way and install a small retaining barrier. Not really a retaining wall because it's only one railroad tie high, but enough to stop the dirt from washing across our walk way. (I had removed the rocks along the side walk before I took the picture.) It seems every winter our walk dwindles down to the width of the snow shovel. I thought that if we started with a wider walk we could prevent this from happening. Considering our snow banks will soon be over our heads, it makes it challenging to bring anything of substantial size down this narrow walk and into our house during the winter.

I did this while Jim was at work as to surprise him when he got home. He was surprised and loved how wide and straight I managed to get it. I used stakes and twine to mark a line. Then I grabbed the pick mattock and went to pickin'! I had to chop out quite a bit of the existing slope to make it level across the walk. The last half, being dirt already, I used some of the chopped slope to level it out further. The dirt portion leads around the corner to our main shed, so we keep it cleared during the winter as well. (Earlier this month, I shoveled out earthen steps to the small brown shed in the trees on the left. Before it was just a slope which I would slide down in the winter with whatever I had in my arms, trying not to crash and injure myself.) Once everything was picked and shoveled level I needed to set the railroad ties in place. However, I was home alone and those things are HEAVY. Now I consider myself a strong woman but lifting an entire one by myself wasn't going to happen. I could lift one end, though. Do I drag it? Do I roll it? Roll? Idea! So, I started looking around.

My Back Saving Device

I found my garden scooter with the removable seat and removed the seat. Yet there was the post hole for the seat sticking up in the middle making it uneven. I tied some scrap wood to the frame to level out the top creating a small platform and Voila! ... a railroad tie mover! Since the ties where up hill of where I needed them I simply lifted on end, scooted the scooter underneath and guided them down the walk way. The scooter has fixed wheels which was great because it didn't try to turn on it's own. In the middle of all this the Amerigas man showed up to fill our propane tank. He was quite impressed with my "scootering." Finally, with the ties in place I back filled against them and spread composted pine needles over the dirt walk way. That will help cut down on mud when the rain and snow comes. It also helps cut down on any weed growth on the path due to the acidity of the needles.

While digging up the slope I rescued as many worms as I saw and added them to my outside compost pile. Slightly displaced, hopefully the abundance of food will make up for their relocation. The railroad ties were another "Freebie" that Jim had brought home. So all in all it only cost me an aspirin in the end to create our new wider walk way.

Walk On!!