Out Int Yard

Well hello from the back yard! It was a beautiful day in the East Bay this past Saturday, and we wanted to get outside and enjoy it! The exterior of the house and the yard has been even further down the to-do list than the garage for the past almost three years, but with our living room/fireplace remodel completed ahead of schedule, we've been looking at the outside.

The back yard is actually pretty well established - a mixture of trees and vegetation, and we're quite happy with it....except for one bit at the right side towards the rear. This little patch of trees/vines and the ever-expanding agapanthus had to go!

I put Amy Sheep to work with the spade and the fork while I went to inspect the wood pile. The fireplace has been out of action since immediately after Christmas, so we've hardly burned any wood in the last year. This pile is a mixture of almond and walnut which has been well aired/dried out. This wood comes from California's huge nut growing industry; when the trees age out, the wood is sold on through home centers.

The pile at the back has been drying for about eighteen months. This came from a dead tree our neighbor had cut down. We don't burn much wood, so this will keep us going for 4-5 years. Some of the bigger chunks will need to be split before we can burn them. Splitting logs is tough work that's best done when you run out of smaller pieces.

We have done some projects in the yard over the last couple of years. Amy Sheep built a very impressive swing with an oak seat...

...and Ruby Sheep put up a very fetching hammock...

I went over to see if Amy Sheep needed any help and was relieved to discover that the ground clearing project was almost complete; phew, I did not have to get my hands dirty after all.

This is the pile o' rubbish we hav-ta get shot ov. I'll have tut bread snappers bag that up the next time I see one of 'um messing about wit tut cell phone.

I helped Amy Sheep level out the cleared area - we'll be planting one or more immature tree(s) in this spot once tut garden center reopens.

We downed tools for a quick cuppa tea, and I happened to mention to Amy Sheep that I had recently acquired a pressure washer for cleaning the garage floor. I was planning on heading back to tut 'shop to pootle about with one or two vanity projects I'm working on.....but instead I found myself showing Amy Sheep how to fire up the pressure washer. I managed to stall her for few minutes by suggesting she swept the patio first.

Then I showed Amy how to use the new bit of kit, before I quietly sidled back to the sanctuary of tut 'shop.

a continuing tradition...

This is how the patio came out after all Amy's hard work. Hopefully it will get us by until I build stairs down from the upper deck; when that happens, we'll replace the patio with paving slabs.