Monday, August 27, 2007
More Stitching, life and stuff
I am definitely feeling my age after 4 hours of heavy gardening. I did have a couple of pretty flower beds, but with John's new shed due to arrive within a few weeks I am now in the process of moving my beds. Of course, not one to do things by halves, I decided to remodel the entire back yard. So far I have cleared a wasted space at the side of the house. It once held a huge rainwater tank, but that had rusted with age and sprung leaks, so we had it removed. Then the area needed clearing, the tank had been resting on big redwood sleepers so they were unearthed along with about 30 house bricks buried there too. Now I just need to level the area. It will house a new small garden shed and the dog house. Level and gravelled it will look nice and be useful.
The wasted space at the side of the driveway has also been cleared, that was my 4 hours this weekend, plus a few more hours I spent on it during the week. Unfortunately the boys are allergic to gardening, although Simon and Shane did put in a little effort to help. We shifted about 30 wheelbarrows full of soil. Nothing grows at that side of the driveway, so I plan to gravel it too and put some pretty planter pots there for decoration with some hardy bushes in them.
The new garden bed is taking shape along with a path to the mailbox. Once I get the new bed finished I'll transfer the plants from my original beds and replant the 300 bulbs that I had to dig up. Hopefully they survive the trauma.
John isn't getting any healthier and I am wearing out LOL so the aim is to make everything as low maintenance as possible.
Tuesday, August 14, 2007
Long time between posts
We all started clearing the backyard on Saturday and Simon and I did some more on Sunday, everyone else was too tired. Though John had a good day on Saturday, he was pretty wiped out Sunday, which is one of the big frustrations. Hopefully his energy level and muscle tone will improve as time goes on for now it is a big frustration for him.
The backyard is a huge undertaking. We have cleared what was a mess at the side of the house. Originally there was a big old water tank there, but it rusted through and was leaking. We got that out and taken away by a scrap metal collector. The original owners of the house had used the area to bury all the old left over bricks and there were 6 big redwood sleepers under the water tank. Now everything is dug out, weeded and clear. Next step is to remove some of the top soil, level it all out and put down weed mat and gravel. Nothing will ever grow there, but we plan to put a small garden shed and a new dog house down that side of the house.
Next I have to tackle my lovely flower beds. I am digging new ones at the back of the house. Moving my original ones as John's new shed will sit where the flower beds are at the moment.
Another small area at the side of the driveway will be cleared and then weed matted and gravelled. The aim is to make things as low maintenance as possible.
Sunday we had to take some time out and go to buy Justin a new bed base as his old one broke in half!! It was old and his new bed is much nicer. While we were out we went to a local market and bought fruit and vegetables for the week.
I have managed to stitch a little between jobs LOL. I started a new project, a little Tigger for John. I'll probably finish that today and then I can get back to my big projects again.
One more big job this week, clearing the lounge room and shampooing the carpet - YUCK! Will have to check the weather first so I can be sure it will dry properly.
Saturday, August 04, 2007
Progress
