Cleared out the concrete from the old patio. Note the extended roof overhang (was just plywood with no roofing material on it, totally rotting), got rid of that March 2011. The potholes are from digging out cemented in metal posts. And garden wall tetris continued, with the planters around the yard done, and a little patio from the broken cement under the swing. The swing I fell in love with at the store and bought full retail. Totally worth it.
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| Finished walls on the left |
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| More posts, and where I started digging back yard to have more flat ground |
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| That tree branch used to be dragging on ground, I kept trimming it back |
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| Entire branch was eventually cut off by trimmers - it was split at the top |
And here's a better look at the swing, and my vegetable garden on the left. In all my healthy eating, I still don't eat many vegetables, blech, bitter green things, but I do like growing them. Love the smell of tomato plants. I remember being a little teeny kid and coloring during General Conference when President Spencer W. Kimball said members should plant a garden. For some reason that always stuck with me. But he never said you had to eat what you grew, haha. My friends and family who actually like to eat veggies get to reap the benefits of my garden.
This was a happy bonus. Found one of my favorite flowers growing out of the gravel pile! Loved it! Quite the hardy lily. Nice to have some spontaneous beauty in the midst of all the hard work.
One day in the middle of working, I thought it was suddenly a good idea to go inside and search Craigslist for a gazebo (I now credit it as inspiration). And found one posted for free! Sans roof. But there was no contact info, so I clicked the button saying no info, and then kept checking back. The next day it was updated and I emailed him - and out of all the requests he picked me to give it to! Talked my friend in to bringing her van and we went up and got it from So San Francisco. It came apart in eight sections, but that's where I learned that my old drill was finally completely toasted. Very embarrassing, couldn't help the dude much with take down. Oh well if he thought I was a useless girl. He was however impressed with the van tetris in getting all the pieces packed in!
And so the gazebo sat in my garage for a few months, until I finally got a patio built in the back corner to put it on. What of? You guessed it, more of the old patio chunks! Amazing how one 20x30 foot patio could spread so far! Here's my miracle free gazebo! And putting it back together did warrant the purchase of a new cordless drill. Best birthday present ever! Liked it so much I bought a second one for Christmas!
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| Yay Gazebo! |
I dug the yard back as far as I could before hitting massive tree roots, and then added another planter box and place for a fruit tree (dwarf bartlett pear) in the middle of the yard. The trees on the left by the fence are lemon, orange, fruit salad (multi fruit), and Granny Smith apple by the gazebo.
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| Massive tainted dirt pile (concrete chunk laden) |
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| There are more walls & fruit trees planted by the back fence |
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| And the gravel pile in the back! |
It was finally time to get rid off all that nasty dirt and gravel (with some included extra trash from the former occupants), and lots of little concrete chunks still hanging around. What better time to take care of it than Thanksgiving 2010! Already had time off, and no big deal to run a few wheelbarrows full of dirt out in between my dinner making, right? Worked off the calories of that dinner pretty quick anyway. And brother-in-law was kind enough to do many loads of his own. And Bubba was a super helper, as always!
Once all the extra yucky dirt was gone, it was time to get serious about leveling the yard. I think I've moved enough dirt around to last a lifetime. Every time I was shoveling it around I'd think this was the last time, and then I'd find some new occasion to move more of it. Argh. Funny thing is I've had many people ask me how I leveled the yard, um... shovel?! Haha, they think it's crazy I did it "by hand." Doesn't seem that big a deal to me.
Anyway, Spring brought some fruit on those trees, and mulch made them look much better!
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| Apricot, plum & nectarine tree |
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| Apricots, needing to be thinned! |
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| Future blackberries |
A note about the thornless blackberry plants - first off, who ever developed the thornless variety - genius! But every winter they die back and I think about ripping them out and replanting. But so far every spring they come back with a vengeance! I guess that makes sense. My dad spent years trying to kill the blackberry bushes at our house when I was little. But those were the mean thorned kind.
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| Another fruit salad tree, cherry tree, and tangerine |
Spring 2011 also meant it was time to build the deck. How did I learn how to do all these things? Well, I taught myself how to read at the age of four. And if you can read, and you possess common sense, you can pretty much teach yourself how to do anything (assuming someone else has written directions). And with the invention of the internet, and the Google, it grants me instant access to a wealth of knowledge - I can search and scan numerous how to sites in just a few short minutes.
Notes on the deck construction: I read many "right" ways to do the foundation for the deck, and then just ended up doing it my way. Sorta jerry-rigging, or mickey-mousing it as the bro-in-law would say. I know, I know, I should have poured concrete footings, dug below the frost line, put up level lines, etc, etc. But here's the thing, I couldn't do that ALONE, and it would take a massive lot of prep work. I hate prep work, and I was feeling more than my usual independence at the time, and I rarely ask people for help. Wanted to do it myself.
Besides, in California (barring some crazy weather shift), we don't really have a frost line. It doesn't freeze here. And I didn't intend to attach the deck to the house anyway. So what foundation could I do alone? Haul massive amounts of concrete bricks from Home Depot for makeshift footings, tons of them, lots more than you would ever need if they were proper footings. So that's what I did.
I did get help the day I put the main part of the frame together, that would have been pretty tough to do solo. And once the frame was on top of my "footings," I re-leveled all the supports. Sure, they shift over time and weather, but there are so many of them under the deck that it hasn't been a problem. I dug down the area for the deck to put in the supports, and then filled it back in with the last of the gravel pile for drainage. And I did hammer in some iron posts in strategic places to discourage it from shifting.
My dad helped me sift through wood at the store for the 60+ deck boards I needed. Which we loaded in my fantastically practical, trusty Aztek. Crazy the amount of stuff I've hauled in it. I decided to use screws on the deck boards, not nails, knew I'd have to be pulling up boards later for the landscapers to connect sprinklers. Turns out I also had to remove boards for the plumbers when they re-piped the drains. Haha, got the same response from both - super surprise when I pulled out the boards for them. "You removed the boards yourself?" Yep. No problem dude. I built it.
Anyway, two drills, one with the drill bit, one with the screwdriver bit. Genius plan. And I read you could use your car jack to force bent boards into straightness - it totally worked!
The deck pics are from a bit later, when I was preparing to finally stain it, so half of it is sanded. Did it by hand with a 5in orbital sander. That was fun, probably still have sawdust in my pores. Also bought my first retail concrete wall blocks (the old patio pieces had to run out at some point), to build the curved retaining wall around the tree, and a rectangle planter box by the deck. Bubba thought it was her personal dirt box! She got hosed off one time after playing in it and totally herself coated in mud!
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| Bossy Bubba! |
And more improvements came along slowly. Finally devised a roof for that gazebo. Bought some redwood fence boards, calculated the angle for the edges and cut all the pieces to make an open slatted look. Not totally rain proof, but it's close enough. And those red flowered plants were spontaneously growing in the other side of the yard, I just relocated them. Someone told me it's ginger... I have no idea. I think they are pretty, and any plants (not weeds) that I didn't have to pick out, pay for, and plant are welcome. But they do obscure my nice garden clock I found on clearance!
You can also see part of the steps I built to go from the level part up to the gazebo.
And to the right, the beginnings of the pergola over the deck. After dumping the rotting overhang, I cut back the extended eaves, and attached the beams to those extensions.The posts for the pergola? Holes dug deep and cemented in, the old fashioned way. I said to my dad as he helped me hold them, "I'd better not live in this house long enough to be digging these out!" Haha, I think I've done more than my fair share of digging things out of this yard. Posts, concrete, garbage, old roof tiles, bones, beads, toys, I should have started a game show - what did I dig up in the yard today!
Anyway, yay for progress!
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