320 Pounds of Concrete!

The local weatherman has been having fun with me. I'm starting to get annoyed! He keeps telling me that storms are coming. I've been wanting to get the stones finished and move on to the next step of my project.


Ali and I went to Lowe's today and bought four eighty-pound bags of concrete mix, hoping to be able to use it someday soon. After dinner it still hadn't rained. I got online and checked the forecast... A slight chance for spotty light showers. I'll take the gamble!


Hubby is still on restrictions, but he offered to mix and shovel. Ali helped me get the heavy bags out of my car and into the wheel barrow. (Did I mention the project area is at the opposite end of the house as the driveway? And since it's rained a lot we can't drive around to it!)


We each had our job. Papaw shoveled the concrete a little at a time. I was on my knees with a small garden shovel, filling in the gaps, cracks, holes, etc. Ali used a bucket to carry the crushed brick down and smashed a layer of it into the wet concrete. It took all four bags to finish this part of the job. I still have some stones edging the other side of the patio that need mortared, but it will have to wait.


We've made it this far! Yea! Next comes the plants for the other side and staining the rest of the wood... But that will be a few days. I've promised Ali that, come hell or high water, the cover comes off the pool tomorrow! How does it look so far? The big dark spot is just some very wet mulch that was left in the other wheel barrow.

And remember the new wood steps? Makes a great spot to sit and sample the chives...

Diamond in the Rough

How do you like my stone stairway?

Ok, I know it needs a little work... I didn't put in anything for scale. These rocks are huge! I've had them for two years now. (Freebies) The new steps I put in go from my deck down half a flight and up to the pool. The bottom landing will turn off to go to the lower level, where there is a waterproof bathroom for the Grands when they exit the pool. It is the last side to begin landscaping, so I don't have many pictures. I'll have to make a point of shooting the 'before' mess. That end has been a storage area for my boulder collection, etc. Grand #2 comes Thursday. I don't think we'll have it done...

For the love of Iris...

I did it! I finally finished the iris bed after four days of stuffing clay under my fingernails. Sorry about the quality of the video... a storm is moving in and it is getting dark. You can't really see all the irises, just the big ones, but you can see it's quite a good-sized area. Thank goodness for the rainy weather that gave me a little break. The first two days I worked on it for several hours and the third day my legs cramped!

The stepping stones lead to the 'sitting' rock area. The rock came from down by the creek. I had to roll it in place with the tractor because it's too big to pick up. It directly faces the round pen, so Hubby can sit and watch while I work the horses. Some day the plum tree will provide nice shade for the rock. I spaced the stepping stones with little feet in mind. Big people can just skip some steps.

The small section of picket fence is something I repurposed. A relative brought over a load of stuff to burn and I salvaged half the stuff! This was part of an old gate that was falling apart. I reattached the pickets,spacing them closer together, and wired it up against the electric transformer cover. It looks much nicer than the big green box. Eventually, I'll put sections around the sides too.

This bed will connect with one at the other end of the driveway that runs along the side of the house. I'm shooting for a low-to-no-maintenance landscape. Yeah, there's some weeds to pull, but I lay out my gardens and design the edges so that there's no trimming - just curves that I can mow with the lawn tractor.

Well, since this bed is done, it's on to the big bed out front! UGH!