Landscaping

Landscaping has been ongoing for awhile now. It's been quite a process. Lori and I've gone through a walk through with Brian, the landscaper in chief, and set out what we wanted. His bid came in way below others, and we had seen the final product with the neighbors. So far he's exceeded our expectations. We've been making quite a few trips to Lowes and Home Depot. They have quite a bunch of plants for volume discount, and even the landscapers appeared to be impressed with Lori's shopping. We picked up low water requirement plants, and for the most part deer resistant, although we have some concerns with some of the shrubs.
First thing they did was move in the equipment and then scraped off the growth. All those sunflowers had to go.



After that, a lot of things happened at once. Trees were planted, concrete walkways were poured, boulders moved around, and all kinds of holes and trenches for the drip and sprinklers system tubing.




Here's a slideshow of the rest.
Lori and I rounded up a good store of plants. Most have already been put in. We have to be careful where we leave them. If we set them on dirt anywhere in the yard, and aren't paying attention, the workers are very quick to put plant them. Hence everything gets stored on the concrete until we're sure where we want them.



Check here for some of the early results.

Unfortunately, all the digging and scraping has resulted in a few casualties. A rattlesnake had the misfortune of trying to cross the driveway with the landscapers around, and they made sure that he wouldn't bother them later. Another snake got hit by a shovel accidentally. He wasn't a dangerous one. I'd prefer to have those around to help take care of the mice. This guy got caught inside the kitchen nook. I think he crawled up the screen door and got through a handle opening.



I let him go in a grassy area. Hopefully he'll stay away till the work is done.

So after a long stretch working on the computer in the study, we all decided to finish up and take a break, then back to more work.

Lori has a New Formula

We noticed hummingbirds whizzing by frequently, and occasionally hovering in front of the windows looking in. Lori set out a feeder, but they didn't seem to like the strawberry flavored ready mix. Yesterday she changed the formula, and these guys have started making regular stops.
The rainy weather has been a boon for the flowers. Last year I scattered some seed over the front hill, and nothing came of it. The seeds must have stayed viable, with a large variety of flowers now blooming. Bad light today though. Sunflowers have been prolifigate, however, and the driveway is lined by them. More to come.

Somejuan's Got Some Splaining to Do

Two days ago Beth, a long time friend of ours from back in high school, left a message after having looked at the blog. I heard that and felt a bit guilty about not keeping up to date. (Beth, we haven't changed our phone number. Lori is waiting to get for the best time to call. Thanks for the nice message). Today Mom and Dad called and wanted pictures. Yes, I have been busy and haven't taken the camera around as much as I want to.
We've had a wet and cool spring and early summer so far. June was the 2nd wettest on record, and pretty cool temperatures were the norm as well. That darned global warming is sure tricky to understand. Good thing we have the government around to keep us on track and really fix things.
Anyways, yesterday was very rainy and we decided it would rain out the firework shows. We got that wrong. We did stay home, and the surprising thing is we had 4 different pretty good shows viewable from a distance. Close enough to hear the booms, like medium distance thunder.





Max and Teddy have been having a blast. The horses are out back most mornings, so the dogs figure we're interested and they bark just to let us know and wake us up to see. With the rain, the mud has been prevalent in hte mornings (landscaping guys are next), and the dogwash is coming in handy in getting their feet rinsed off and clean.











Is it just me or does Max have a smug look of pride at his brave barking at the horses?


It's been raining a lot, with clouds forming and rolling in in the early afternoons. By sunset, the clouds pass, and there is some spectacular lighting of the clouding looking to the east.




With all the green, the scenery has been wonderful.








We had a delivery of the furniture for the great room with stools for the island and the pass through bar. The colors and style go great with the feel for the house. We got 2 paws up from the dogs. Works for us too.






A new coffee table is on the agenda. We still like this one, but there are about 7 remotes lying around for all the various things that need controlled, and we decided we want drawers.

Today, after talking to Mom and Dad, I decided I better get some pictures whenever I could. I took the dogs for a stroll down the driveway, and got some nice shots of the wildflower and grasses. Even the cacti are blooming. Here's a slideshow.

skywatch #3 Moonrise over the Bluffs

Check out Skywatch Friday for more skies.

Hopefully, some regular posts coming up

Sky watch Friday #2

Busy week and not much time to post. Took the dogs in to the vet today. Max had a growth on his gum removed and Teddy got "fixed", and his claws were trimmed. He's been destroying the floors. He also got his rattlesnake vaccine, as that's a real problem out here.
Here's a view of the next door horseranch at sunset. Check out Skywatch Friday for more skies.

Skywatch Friday

My contribution to Skywatch Friday. Hopefully, this will help me focus on taking improved pictures.

Max and Teddy Explore

I had an all day conference today. When I got home, the dogs were eager to explore. Unfortunately, they need supervision as they have discovered the joys of rolling in horse poop. Baths 3 days in a row now.

We're In!

We are finally in and actually sleeping in the new house! What an odyssey! We had moved some furniture in for preliminaries. On Easter eve, the movers came again and we had most of the remaining large stuff transported. It took nine hours and we filled the truck, which is amazing to me since there is still a lot of stuff in the old house. I've been stopping by after work and loading up the SUV. I've also had to begin maintenance yard work at the old place to keep it up for when we finally get it back on the market. There has been continued work, and we had to do additional appliance and cabinet install. Lori and I have been doing a lot of dust up and clean up.
Mom and Dad came and stayed for a week and sure kept busy. Dad took some of the scrap pine we had for the ceiling and made a floor for a downstairs basement closet where the concrete wasn't finished. We worked on a gutter that was knocked down (already) by a very heavy snow that we had. It was very heavy snow and there was a large drift over the gutter so I'm not too concerned about the others giving out.
So far, no major failures and things seem to be working the way that they are supposed to. I haven't been able to keep up with this site given the new and old house maintenance and work. A few photos for now at Flickr.

March goes out Like a Lion

On Thursday we had one of our great spring snowstorms, with a foot of snow falling through the day. We closed the office at noon. I had the morning off due to a late cancellation of a Hearing I was to attend, which worked out well in view of the storm. I scheduled a meeting with Doug to do a walk through on the heating system. The air handlers/exchangers finally got up and running and we went through the house to review any troubleshooting I might have to do and went over the controls for the handlers. He was impressed with them, indicating that they can turn over the air in the house every couple of hours, and they work pretty well getting the varnish smell that is still present out of the house. The filters on the units are very thorough and will keep the air inside "super clean" as they cycle in from outside. They are very efficient as well, and the heat loss is minimal.
I had to drive to the office after that, and although it was blizzard conditions it didn't take that long because most people were smart enough to get off the roads by then. Unfortunately, I had a report deadline and had to get in to review a file and get it done. The office was already closed by the time I was done and the roads were empty for the return trip, so even though there was already 8-9 inches of snow on the ground the trip was easy. I even drove back to the new house to drop off some lights I had loaded in the landcruiser. They filled the cargo area and I wanted to clear them out. Move in should be coming up.
Today, we went furniture shopping to price a bedroom set and a few other pieces. Tomorrow we have to go and take some measurements to be sure everything will fit.



Our next door neighbor had the opportunity to get out the snowblower and for the first time all season really needed it, sort of. He did the sidewalks up and down the street and did the drive across the street as they were out of town. Fortunately for me, all the snow has melted from the paved surfaces already and I didn't have to bother.