Saturday, May 25, 2013

We are landscaping animals~!

Isn't it funny how much you can accomplish when you're motivated...

I can't believe how much we got finished today...

We started out with this ~ Notice along the left side of the patio, there's nothing. Well, we lined it with railroad ties, filled it with dirt and compost and planted it full of perrenials. Catmint, penstemons, evening primrose and some other invasive desert flower. Then of course, I covered it with hay mulch (my secret)...

First thing this morning...


About 2 hours later...
Another flower bed finished & planted along the patio~!
It is 24' long (3, 8' railroad ties in length - wow)


There's going to be a gravel path along that left side railroad tie...
(shadows in the pics from the trees ~ sorry)

We moved around back and I had to move that previous mound of dirt from the back patio construction. It was 28 wheelbarrow loads with 25 shovel fulls per load. Yes, I was counting~ I'm exhausted & I done it all myself ~ oy' vey!

The man child brought me in 3 rocks to put by the "Bee Tree"... That tree has a huge bee hive in it on the back side and I just want flowers there, so the kids don't get stung. I'm doing my best not to disturb their home. Don't bump the tree with the backhoe bucket - Oh, holy hell hanna them little suckers get pissy (the bees)~! Thankfully, they calm down fast and get back to their business...



We saved so much money doing pavers instead of concrete that there was enough concrete budget money left to have 'insta-grass'. Oh I'm so excited. I've never had sod... The man-child put a roal road tie raised bed along the back wall and all my mounds of dirt went into the planter. It would have been alot easier if the backhoe would have fit ~ lol...

That was ALOT of shoveling~ No complaining though. I knew if I got it moved, the dirt would be green by Monday. Actually, he went and got sod and we got 1/2 of it done this afternoon. Told you we were landscaping animals~!

I have to confess though, we used the backhoe, the loader, a huge trailer to move the bundles of rail road ties & we used our rhino (UTV). He went and got a 30' end dump full of crushed gravel for the pathways from a friends gravel pit, so that's here too. We used the rhino to move hay bales around. And, we can still go get a little mini-excavator if we need it from another friend who needs to borrow our backhoe for a day. This kind of landscaping would take years if we didn't have the heavy equipment and alot of friends who own gravel pits and stuff . =)

Before...
Ya, I got that heaping mountain of dirt moved with the shovel and wheelbarrow, thank heavens.


After...

You can hardly tell, but along that back wall is the raised, railroad tie planter.
I'm going to plant choke cherries along the wall, I'll order bare root plants this fall and get them in before winter comes... Right now, I'll just put down some hay mulch to keep the weeds down.

We got about 340' of sod layed out of 600' total~
Yay!


We'll be up bright and early in the morning to roll out the rest of the grass & maybe get the hottub drained and here. It's still at my house, but I want it here. I miss my hottub~!

Heck, the way we move, we might get the whole back yard and the south side finished tomorrow, including the railroad tie and gravel paths ~!

I have a whole bunch of old lintels from an old rock schoolhouse. Lintels are chisseled out flat rocks that were under the old schoolhouse windows. I'm going to use them up the hottub side of the house to make different elevations and use the lintels for stone steps. Plus, lots more 'Big' rocks. You know, they charge $500 to $2,500 per rock in some areas - crazy... I have acres of them. Now, the County will probably jack our property taxes. I hope they don't jack it $2,500 in value per rock... I'm kind of worried???

The hottub side yard will be really neat when its finished. And, that's all backhoe and loader work ~ thank the lord. That will go fast once it gets started. I'm so excited to shovel gravel in the paths~ NOT ~ But, it will be worth it in the end. I'm so tired I was on my last few shovel fulls of dirt and stopped and bent over because I could see something shiny. It was the shovel shining in the dirt <emberassing>... Yep, I get distracted by shiny stuff after a long day of hard labor. That's how I knew it was time to quit tonight...

We'll get it done... It's a 'time-study' thing...

Ability is what you're capable of doing.

Motivation determines what you do.

Attitude determines how well you do it~!

5 comments:

  1. It looks Awesome!!! Now there ya go being a NORTHERN girl With having soft grass between your toes.....Nothing like walking across the grass in the the morning barefoot with a cup of warm coffee.. TRY IT today, you will love it..
    ~Pam~

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    Replies
    1. I admit it - sod is AWESOME!
      It sure solved the dilemma of the clothesline. We're on propane up here and it is so expensive. To add to that, there's a gas dryer in the house and it eats the propane faster than any other appliance. Sod was cheaper than using the propane dryer too much... lol -There's no plug for an electric one, or I would go to my house and get mine. I'm going to see if the electrician can solve that dilemma on Wednesday when he comes to hook the hot tub up...
      So, it was either dirt, gravel, or sod under the clothesline - lol
      I did it this morning. I drank coffee on the patio looking at my new grass... I'm actually contemplating plugging my extra coffee pot in on the back porch and enjoying the whole pot on that patio, every morning. It's heaven~!
      =D

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  2. It looks fabulous! My house next? :)

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    Replies
    1. Oh wow Ashley... I'm not sure I'll live through this house~!
      What do you want to do at your place? Let me recover from this for a week, or so and we'll plot a plan & scheme.
      We still have to finish the South side and the South side of the front yard. I think we'll do the North side and out by the highway this fall... This is ALOT OF WORK~!
      =D

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  3. Oh, my. It is looking good.Have I mentioned I love the turquoise on your house?

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=)