Spring Clean Up Part 1

Hopefully we won't have any more snow, so I went ahead and rolled up the Heat trak mats. I saved the boxes they came in so packed them in two of the boxes for next year. 

Then I took my new power tool on a little test! Boy does this little guy blow! Cleared off the ramp and some of the residual leaves from alongside the house-it's a little windy today, so not the best day for it!

The violets are popping up in the yard, and the dandelions too. I'll have to get the lawn mower ready next week I guess.

The peony plant is coming up well, it didn't bloom last year but I hope it will this year.

And the rhubarb is coming on strong too!

The tulips in the front yard that the grands planted are coming along. I though the squirrels ate all the bulbs, but there are a few left. And the Lilac bush is coming around. She was almost displaced last summer, but here she is!

There should be a lot more daffodils, but I think the squirrels got most of them. 

We'll see if we get a few more this year!

It's Springing

 

There are some signs of Spring going on now.  See the lonely tulip, and the violets too? 

The real sign of  spring though, is this....the automatic dog water dish is out! 

It's been a tough winter in the backyard, we've got dog holes that you could bury a body in!

It's been pretty dry now for a couple of weeks.

Next thing you know it will be time to mow:-(

SO I got  this little tiller to till up the dog holes!

It's just a little electric tiller. The reviews on line and videos say it will do the trick though.

I put it together-now to wait for a little bit of rain, probably Saturday. Then I'll post how it works out.

We had Affordable Heating & Cooling out to check the AC unit. As they have told us for the last two years, our unit uses the old, bad kind of gas, and can't be readily fixed if it breaks down. We've kind of had it on our "that'll be next" list. But for now it passed all the Maintenance checks.

And there's the burn pile-we need to have the backyard bonfire pretty soon, but it's too dry this weekend. Soon though!

The Wall

 So we are almost done with the important home repairs and have a little bit of insurance money left. Hubs has been pretty unhappy with the state of the North hillside, so he called and got an estimate for a retaining wall last fall. They came last week to install it.

When I got up, they were well underway.

The plan was to have a couple of flower beds up top on the hill and the actual retaining wall would be short enough to make a good sitting spot.

They dug down and started making a good base.

I'm glad they are getting far enough back so the driveway is uncovered. Through the years the hill has been encroaching into the driveway. I was able to get the peony bush out of there, I hope it survives the new hole I made for it around the back yard. It's not the best time to transplant it I don't think. 

Here's the top view. I'm not exactly sold on the way it's shaping up.

It does look like a nice wall.

And here it is all done.

Well it's better than the hill of weeds. But not quite what Hubs was hoping for either. 

They didn't make a 2nd wall to make beds on the top.  And it's still too steep at the top to be mowed. I was hoping my gardener would be able to mow the whole thing. 

It's a nice wall, but I bet there'll be more to come. Ringo likes it ok, but he misses his tall grass!

Home Ownership Part XXXIV or some huge number....

 SO this bit of "landscaping was messed up when the driveway sealer trailer incident occurred. 

The insurance company for the driveway sealer people says they will pay us for the damage, but I need to get an estimate from a landscaping outfit so they know what the cost could be.  I've called 4 different landscaping outfits, and not one of them has even returned my call or email. 

I mean I get it, folks are really busy this time of year, the durecho has made a mess for a lot of folks and I'm just not that big of a deal. But jeepers! Would it be too much to ask for a return call? I don't know if I'll ever get it estimated so the insurance folks can stop calling me!

My next project involves this ramp. I want to run  a heat tape on the underside so it will be ice and maybe snow free all winter. I unwound my long tape measure to estimate how much it will take, I guess about 70 feet for the 35' ramp. I emailed the heat tape company to see what they though about the idea....guess what? Yup, no reply. They say you can use the heat tape on a metal roof, to prevent ice dams, so I'm thinking I should be ok. But it might be nice to have confirmation before using a product.

And of course, in the "there's always something" file, the toilet was not filling well at all-like it took an hour to refill. SO I replaced the guts. It was very easy-no tools were even needed!!

It's the little things, that can just make ones day.  A good flush is rather satisfying. 

Springtime at Last

 I thought I wasn't going to have any lilacs, but POOF! They just popped open this week!

 THe violets...they're so sweet and are all over the yard.I wish they lasted longer!

 And those tulip bulbs my gardener panted are great!

 And the silly beasts have been here in the last few days too....

 Too bad the lawn needs mowed again. Thank goodness for my gardener AKA my Darling Daughter!

It's That TIme of Year AGAIN....

 Yes, it's time to mow the yard again. I really hate to do yard work...so I'm lucky to have DD be my gardener.

 Look, she burned off the hillside and now SIL and DD have it looking good!

 Hard at work-Mitch thought SIL was shoveling snow-he wanted to bite the dirt when it was tossed into the wheelbarrow! Silly Dog!

 Yup-serious work going on here! The supervisor is always leaning on a shovel right?

Thank you to you two for all the hard work!

It's a Dirty Job

Last weekend John & DD came over and tilled up the hill by the driveway. It was a LOT of WORK-I think I have an excellent daughter & Son In Law.

Then they tilled up the holes ig enough to bury a body in that the dogs had dug ...

So now I just have to make the grass grow. I really hate dirty dirt jobs!