An Update for the Sake of Updating
This weekend, the weather was amazing. After half a year of steady sub-50 degree temperatures, we got a strange break and for one day, the temp here was 83 with bright sunshine and light winds. It was a taste of true Pacific summer. While on a drive, I couldn't help but notice the sudden influx of bikini-clad teenage sun bathers. It's that time of the year again and it reminded me of days at EOU when women would tan on the front lawn of the dorms or even in the fields. Back then, I would wonder how those girls could get away with tanning so often and for so long- Didn't they have classes? Regardless, it's nice to see the weather beginning to change. Although, right after our 83-degree day, it suddenly dropped to 30 just this morning and some places locally got snow. Oregon is one crazy ass place; let me tell you.
Thanks to the weather, I was out in it helping with some new lawn improvements my folks have been planning now that the winter has left us. They bought more than a dozen Arborvitae trees to plant in the backyard up against our neighbor's fence. For the last decade, the branches of a tree our neighbor planted right near the fence-line has overgrown into our yard and our neighbor hasn't done anything to curtail his property's spawn. Every fall, it seems like the majority of the tree's leaves fall on our property and it annoys my father to an extent. I don't think it's that big a deal or else he'd have words with our neighbor, so instead he bought a bunch of these arborvitae trees which stand 8 feet tall and will eventually act as a barrier against the tree. Or, at least, that'd be the best case scenario. In all reality, it'll probably end up just looking like a natural fence in our backyard. Still very cool. Go nature.
Also dealt with the front yard which has been an eyesore for half a decade. My mother has been building a hand-laid retaining wall circling the property by the sidewalk made from carefully selected rocks; some weighing up to 100 pounds. Since constructing the wall is time consuming and the weather has to cooperate and it's something she wants to do all by herself, it's taken years. The plan is, once the wall is built (About 2 feet tall), we'll have fresh dirt bought in to back-fill the wall and level the yard out. Then grass will be planted and it'll finally be done. We also have a sprinkler system going in. While the wall is being built, all the project rocks we have yet to put in the wall are laid out in the front yard. It looks miserable. Finally fed up with the front yard looking like a rock quarry, the parents tasked me with moving all the rock to the berm (Government-owned property between sidewalk and street) so that we can rototill the earth. Moving all this rock should take the majority of the week. It's heavy crap. Did I mention that some are 100+ pounds?
Thanks to the weather, I was out in it helping with some new lawn improvements my folks have been planning now that the winter has left us. They bought more than a dozen Arborvitae trees to plant in the backyard up against our neighbor's fence. For the last decade, the branches of a tree our neighbor planted right near the fence-line has overgrown into our yard and our neighbor hasn't done anything to curtail his property's spawn. Every fall, it seems like the majority of the tree's leaves fall on our property and it annoys my father to an extent. I don't think it's that big a deal or else he'd have words with our neighbor, so instead he bought a bunch of these arborvitae trees which stand 8 feet tall and will eventually act as a barrier against the tree. Or, at least, that'd be the best case scenario. In all reality, it'll probably end up just looking like a natural fence in our backyard. Still very cool. Go nature.
Also dealt with the front yard which has been an eyesore for half a decade. My mother has been building a hand-laid retaining wall circling the property by the sidewalk made from carefully selected rocks; some weighing up to 100 pounds. Since constructing the wall is time consuming and the weather has to cooperate and it's something she wants to do all by herself, it's taken years. The plan is, once the wall is built (About 2 feet tall), we'll have fresh dirt bought in to back-fill the wall and level the yard out. Then grass will be planted and it'll finally be done. We also have a sprinkler system going in. While the wall is being built, all the project rocks we have yet to put in the wall are laid out in the front yard. It looks miserable. Finally fed up with the front yard looking like a rock quarry, the parents tasked me with moving all the rock to the berm (Government-owned property between sidewalk and street) so that we can rototill the earth. Moving all this rock should take the majority of the week. It's heavy crap. Did I mention that some are 100+ pounds?