Weekend report

As the photos show, I had another busy weekend. Friday night I called it an early night since planned to have an early morning the next day so I really did not do much except finish reading a book (Hood – a re-telling of the Robin Hood story) and watch a movie (The Night Listener – good flick).

Saturday morning I got up around 6:30 and was on the road a little before 7:00. Over the next few hours I got two pick-up loads of topsoil/compost (80/20 blend) and piled those in the backyard. After that I got a load of compost/topsoil (50/50) which I unloaded into the garage. Except for the fact that the traffic was backed up on northbound 44 due to road construction, I would have been able to stay on schedule and would not have been running a bit late meeting a friend at the house at noon so we could spend the afternoon running around. I wasn’t horribly late but I still felt bad.

Anyway, I quickly got ready and we ran out to Macy’s so we could see Dave Lieberman from the Food Network. After that we had a late lunch at a Steak & Shake before doing some furniture shopping (no buying – just looking). Saturday night we went to a birthday party in Soulard and then some co-workers had a Halloween costume party in Kirkwood (I went as a short-order cook). Got home around midnight or so.

Sunday morning I got up a little after 7:00 and started placing the “stepping stones” which are actually pieces from the sidewalk that we removed in the spring. They were quite heavy and don’t have even bottoms which made placing them such that they do not move about a little complicated. After I got those placed I racked and leveled the soil and finished unloading the dirt out of the truck (I had only removed half of it on Saturday since I was running late). Next I went to Starbucks and then to the garden center where I bought the sod. I then came home and “installed” the sod and then had to run to Home Depot to get a sprinkler. While the sprinkler was running I took a short nap – which I think was a bad idea as my shoulders/neck started bothering me after that. After that I ran to Target for some stuff, did some laundry, bathed Jack (the dog), fixed dinner, and then settled in to watch TV.

Tonight I am being lazy, using the ice pack, taking a hot bath in the rock star tub, and generally trying to recover from the weekend…

What I did this weekend

I would provide a narrative but I really can't move my right arm/shoulder that well. Hopefully the Advil kicks in over night.

Busy weekend

I had a busy weekend doing yard work. Saturday morning I got a truck load of dirt and unloaded it, a 5 gallon bucket at a time, into the backyard. After that I planted several things I had bought recently including a pink butterfly bush and a wisteria vine plus I transplanted the Amur maple tree into its new location. I also went by Missouri Botanical where I bought some daffodil bulbs at the Daffodil Society bulb sale and then went to a local garden center to buy some more. This morning I planted those bulbs along with some I had ordered plus some more I picked up at Home Depot this morning. All told I planted about 50 tulips (yellow in one area & pink-ish in another), around 100 daffodil bulbs (4 kinds in different areas) and about 70 allium bulbs (a mix of species in a bed I dug this morning in front). I also planted pansies above the tulip bulbs (white w the yellow and yellow with the pink), a flat of lirope with the alliums, some English ivy with some of the daffodils, and some sedum with a different patch of daffidils. I also planted some mums with the alliums and lirope – the mums are a sort of placeholder for another plant (Seven Sons Tree) I hope to find & plant in the spring.

This afternoon I went to my friend Kelly’s and we (along with her son Sam) shopped for Halloween costumes and bought pumpkins which we carved. I also baked up the pumpkin seeds and she fixed a wonderful “lunner” (lunch/dinner – like brunch). The photo above is my pumpkin – I am using a LCD light instead of a candle. I think if I can find some red colored Saran wrap it might look cooler – instead I put the light in a Ziploc bag to protect it from the pumpkin innards.

It is supposed to cool off and rain some more this week – sounds lovely to me. I am planning/hoping to get two more loads of dirt this coming weekend and I hope that is enough so I can either buy some sod or plant some grass. I am leaning towards buying sod as Jack will be able to run around on that without getting overly dirty – if it rains the backyard is off-limits to him until it dries out.

Evolution of the back of the house & backyard

Backyard

Over the past few weeks I put in some retaining walls. The biggest one crosses the backyard and allows the level of the yard to be raised so it slopes away from the house. My brother & dad helped with this one. Previously the yard sloped directly to the house - especially to the stairs to the basement. I don't have all the dirt hauled in to fill in behind the wall yet.

I also put in a smaller retaining wall next to the back of the house to create a slightly raised planting bed where I have planted crepe myrtles (all by myself). There will be some smaller things - groundcover mostly - added later. Not only did I have to built the wall, I also had to dig out a lot of the dirt that was between the wall and the house as it was a lot of rubble and crap-dirt. Then I brought in new dirt - 24 five gallon buckets. I did all this yesterday in the 90+ degree temps...

Yet to be done is the "patio" between the two walls - this will require a couple of layers of dirt/rubble to be dug out and then I will put down some pavers and steps from the higher level (bigger wall). Hopefully the weather will stay cooler from here on out...

Front steps & flower bed

About a month ago I painted the front steps and porch - looks much better. You can also see how the flowers turned out.