ROCK WALL COMPLETED!

Friday, June 7 – Paul's been sent to the rock pile. No, not for bad behavior, but to gather rocks for the wall and fence along the rear property line. If you recall, Paul had the driveway installers pile the unused dirt along the rear line for this wall. He's now into building the wall in preparation for the fence.

Look who is playing King on the Mount.

He found a good supply of reasonably priced boulders at a local sand and gravel yard. The only catch is he has to select them from huge piles at the gravel yard and haul them home. That means he'll be handling every rock at least three or four times.....jeesh!

He ended up making 3 trips to the rock pit picking up 335 boulders, weighing 8,920 pounds. Now that's a bunch or rocks!

He actually enjoys the wall building process. Doesn't enjoy the shoveling of the dirt in preparation, but the wall building is rewarding work.

It's nice to see the progress as he places the rocks and dirt and advances down the line. It's a pretty good workout too! A little toooo good of a workout. After working all day....OUCH! (That's his back talking.)

End of Day 1.

Paul originally told Marsha that his job for June was to build the rock wall. Marsha knew better than to believe him. It took him only two days to build a 70' wall. She just smiled and thought…I knew you would get it done in a few days.

Look who thinks the grass is greener over the wall.

Now for the fence building along the top of the wall. He's going to put some vinyl fence like you see at Home Depot. A little expensive in the beginning but no upkeep and no painting in the future. Can't have Marsha adding “Paint Fence” to his "honey do" list, now can we... :-)

With the wonderful warm weather and a little bit of rain now and then, the garden is coming along great. The zucchini are growing like weeds. The banana pepper plants have flowers and small peppers already. Marsha pulled a few of the flowers off to get more strength to the plant. Not too far in the future, we will have tasty tomatoes also.

We have lots of grapes growing along the fence at the side of the house. Looks like we may get some good eating grapes this year.

So the “Summer of Work” continues for us. That's okay! We actually enjoy the work after four years of full-time relaxation. We keep making and then changing travel plans for this winter. We decide on exploring Florida, then changed to Arizona and the Southwest. We still haven't made up our minds. We do know we'll be in the Houston area for Thanksgiving and visit our daughter, Carrie. After the Christmas Holidays, we'll either continue West or head East. Time will tell.

Side note: The guys came and finished the driveway. After the initial widening of the apron at the street, we decided we should have had them widen the drive by about five feet. So the guys were willing to come back and make the change. It really looks much better and will be nice for backing in the 5^th wheel. They even gave Paul a discount because he did the prep work by digging out the sod and spreading gravel for the base.

This was just a little to close to Marsha's flowers for her liking.

The driver promised her that he would not hurt one of her flowers. She still stood and watched. He kept his word. In August, Paul will fill in the cracks and seal the rest of the driveway. It will look like new.

Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see y'all back real soon. Have a great day!

BELLA IS HARD AT WORK TOO!

Wednesday, May 29 – Paul took a few minutes to remove a metal awning from over the front porch – another eye soar taken care of. He was surprised it didn't blow-off because it was only held on by four screws. Pretty flimsy ordeal to say the least.

Before

After

Today is our 31^st wedding anniversary! Last year we dined on the Oregon Coast to celebrate. This year we visited beautiful downtown Canton, Ohio. We had drinks at a new place recommended by Marsha's hair dresser called Basil's. The drinks were delicious, and the price just right. We moved on to another new place, Sheri's at Shears. Marsha was texting with Carrie when we arrived and told her where we were. By the time we got into the lounge area, took a seat and began to order our first drink, the bartender asked us what we were having for diner. We said only drinks, but the waitress came up and said, "No, you Weavers are going to have diner." We just looked at her like she was nuts! And how did she know our name? Putting two and two together we were told Carrie had called in, and she and Kelly were treating us to dinner and drinks. WOW…jackpot. We had some wonderful appetizers, drinks and great conversation with the new owner. Thanks again girls for a great evening. Wonder where we'll be next year?

What the heck has Bella been up to while we are making all these improvements around the house? She has decided she wants to be a hunter when she grows up…sort of. We think she has more fun playing with her catch.

When it runs off, she can't figure out why?

Oh no, she is at it again.  Don't worry Judy, she always lets them go! 

The End.

Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see y'all back real soon. Have a great day!

 

 

DRIVEWAY COMPLETED

Friday, May 24 - The guys came to do the driveway improvements today. Paul wants to widen the apron where the driveway meets the road, widen the driveway to the rear of the house, and add a gravel parking area for the 5^th wheel and his truck.

Before

He also is having the guys tear out and old cement pad in the backyard. He's not sure what the purpose of this pad was for previous owners. Why did they have it poured in the middle of no where?

The topsoil and other dirt that was removed for the driveway base Paul is having dumped along the rear property line to create a hill. He plans on adding a fence along the top creating a private garden area for Marsha to do her landscaping. She had a similar rock garden at our last house and just loved it!

Backyard work.

There is that gray-haired foreman again.

Need some work done along the garage.

They will be back to pave this area in two weeks.

The driveway turned out as planned and Paul is delighted. He has to wait awhile for the asphalt to cure and get harder before trying out the 5^th wheel on the new apron. He doesn't want to dig it up and ruin it quite yet. The parking area is wonderful (even room for a visitor or two – but there's only 120 volt electric for now), and the mound of dirt for the fence is in place.

New driveway…so much easier to back in the 5th wheel.

Nice big parking area.

This area will be a flower garden…one day.

Paul got busy hauling dirt and placing it along the edge of the new asphalt for planting grass. Marsha was so happy to start planting flowers around the house. We did some adjustments of the planting beds in front of the house. For some unknown reason, the previous owners had a 20' wide bed along the front. We cut that back to a more reasonable size and planted grass.

Before

What a difference a little landscaping makes. Notice the front awning is missing also. So much nicer.

We also planted a vegetable garden with just a few plants. Several tomatoes, some sweet peppers, and some zucchini. Paul put a wire fence around it because we've seen raccoons, rabbits and ground hogs hanging around, and they'll tear a garden down in no time.

The End.

Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see y'all back real soon. Have a great day!