WE ARE DONE!!! 5-31

We had a good steady rain last night for quite a few hours…smelled so good and washed all the dust off of everything. Larry likes to sit on the front porch when it storms to hear and smell the rain and to see the lightning…when there is any.

Larry was out bright and early finishing up the irrigation pipes that were going under the rock and got the last of the weed barrier down. I did a little tidying up around the house while I waited for ten a.m. to roll around. I went down to the nursery to order up 3 yards of rock and bought a couple of thyme plants. Our rock was being loaded up as I headed home.

In honor of it being the last day of shoveling rock I slathered up in sun block so I would stay a little cooler and stick it out until the end. The rock arrived about 10:30 and we got busy. The problem with the rain is it made our rock heavier…all the dust that sticks to the rocks was wet and in some places muddy…heavy. As we got going we weren’t sure if we were going to have enough…then we thought we would have some left over and as it turned out we had just enough! We finished shoveling and spreading most of the load in just an hour…the end was near and we wanted to be finished!

The weather co-operated…no big wind and there were white fluffy clouds floating around to block the sun which kept us from getting too hot and at 1:00 we were finished and everything was put away!! Wahooooooo! Then we sat and just looked at all our hard work and we liked the finished product…good thing after all that work…not like we were going to change anything.

It looks pretty barren and rocky…but the evergreens soften it up and keep your eye from traveling beyond to the fence and give us a little boundary. The plants will give us color and more texture as they mature and expand and they’ll smell good too. I planted Rosemary, Lavender and Thyme and the Russian Sage smells like sage of course and it will be a pleasant experience now to sit in the backyard in the early morning when it is cool and in the late afternoons and evenings after the sun gets behind the house. It has been fun watching the little finches and other birds enjoy our plants in the front yard already.

It was a sweaty, hard two weeks, but we are really happy with our design and execution and we did it with our own four hands! The process started May 2nd when we got the patio lined up and we wanted to be done by June and we did it! It is really nice to walk anywhere on our property and not be on dirt or mud and to know that we won’t be tracking those nasty goathead stickers into the house. As it was Larry got a flat tire on the wheelbarrow a couple days ago…from a goathead…they are just brutal stickers. The yards are pleasant to be in now.

As you can see in the pictures we had another day of thunderclouds, thunderstorms but we only got a few drips of rain…most of it was west of here today and then later east of us.

Hmmm, what will we do tomorrow?!

Are we there yet? 5-30

I don’t remember when we have ever worked this hard for this long. Our eight yard pile of rock was all put into place yesterday afternoon and today. Many, many wheel barrows and lots of shoveling, we get started early while it is cool, but we don’t want to make a lot of noise much before seven. Larry was out first getting the last of his plastic and weed cloth spread out.

My shoulders burned the other day and I haven’t wanted to wear sunscreen…getting kind of rashy so I have been wearing my long sleeve lightweight denim shirt, my floppy garden hat and sunglasses….I must look a sight. Today though I felt like I was burning through my shirt so around 12:30 I quit helping. The sun is really intense here, but Larry just chugs along sweating and grunting away with nary a sunburn...

We had a really good dinner. I skinned a chicken and put it in the crockpot and stuffed it with an apple, onion, minced garlic and a large rosemary sprig, with more garlic, onion on the outside and coated in herb/garlic seasoning…it was really yummy.

We could tell part way through today that we needed MORE rock…jeez…but there were low spots that were needing to be thicker to make it look better, so about 3 more yards coming tomorrow…THEN we should be done. We planted four mugo pines in the rock and that should be the last planting for a good long time hopefully. All the plants are looking strong…not that I ever expect anything else…we do everything we can to give them a good start. Half the backyard is finished and it looks really nice. It is a different look for us, simple and rocky, but I think it will do really well for us with all the traveling we do.

Today’s thunderstorms took the sun away a little later today and just before dark we actually got a few drips of rain, followed by an actual rain that wet things down nicely. It smells so nice when it rains this time of year.

More Rock!!! 5-29

More yard work today...spreading gypsum and compost in the new flower beds.

We had the exterminator spray all around the house...now we are in the "dead zone", but it is really nice to sit on the porch or patio and not have your toes bit by ants or have to brush them off of you. He rousted a black widow out of the garage...I didn't wait for her to die from the poison...I squished her....I really dislike spiders.

More rock was delivered today and we got started moving it a wheelbarrow at a time during big wind from a thunderstorm that was passing over us so we were covered in rock grit. What is sad about all this...about the time my muscles adapt to all this work and I get buff and toned...we'll be done and I probably won't pick up another shovel for another 5 years or more....oh, was I sounding sad?!....NOT! It is nice to have plants to watch grow and bloom and I enjoy deadheading the flowers in the evening or first thing in the morning. It should be cooling off a bit the next few days which will be good for the new plants, I have had to water them twice a day it has been so hot and drying with the wind.

I am tuckered out...ta ta for now!

More Yard Work 5-28

Today was just more of the same…yard work. I planted the last of the plants we had bought and gave everything water a couple of times…it was hot and the wind came up which tried to dry all my new babies out.

Larry got the boxes for around the bases of the junipers built and in place and got the trees tied to their stakes. I soaked them really good again. They look very happy.

I didn’t take any pics today…I am just going to wait until it is all finished now before I post photos.

Tomorrow bright and early the bug exterminator is showing up to spray around the house…ants are everywhere outside and have been making investigative explorations into our house which I do not appreciate…so they MUST die…won’t hurt to keep out the spiders either…if they would just stay outside they could live. AND our last load of rock is arriving in the afternoon, so we are almost finished….can’t be soon enough for either one of us. We want to just sit around and enjoy it.

LOTS of rock and junipers planted 5-27

Yes Larry was out bright and early digging holes for the smaller plants. We had to make a Walmart run for more compost and snackies and then we were back at it and finished all the planting by one.

We had company coming, Larry’s Uncle Robert and Auntie Annie from Pahrump…we were looking forward to seeing them and getting a break. We had a really nice visit and got to enjoy our patio and our beautiful front yard.

This morning was our delivery and spreading of 77 cubic yards of “fines” for the perimeter of the backyard…we won’t have to deal with mud and it should really help keep down the weeds. Once it gets watered in and settles it is like concrete.

Our company left just after all that got started…next time they will stay longer.

So Larry did shovel work again and kept water on the fines as it was getting spread by the big loader. I watered after they were gone so Larry could work on fixing the rock. Before the guy operating the loader left, Larry had him scoop out holes for our five juniper trees. It was hard for his toothy bucket to break through the crust, but it took him about 5 minutes to do what would have taken us 5 days to do and probably a hospital bill for a crippled up digger man…Larry would have killed himself if he had dug those holes. The holes were way big looking but really the size that you should have when planting something large so their roots have an easier time getting established. The chunks of dry clay looked like stack stone for a wall.

Larry got the trailer put back in the yard, went and paid for today’s work and stopped at the store for gypsum and more compost for the trees. We forgot stakes to support the trees in the wind here and had to call all over the place before we finally found what we wanted. Larry ran off to get those and then later we went back out to order the last of our rock for the backyard…more Nevada Gold and it is coming on Friday afternoon.

After we got back from all the errands we got busy getting the Hollywood Junipers planted…they are very heavy and it was a lot of work getting the holes filled back in…by Larry, I operated the hose to fill the holes with water…we added gypsum and compost and we finally finished just before it got dark! They look great and we are going to be so happy with them…they smell really good too.

I think all my muscles are shot…Larry and I hobble around here like ancient people in the evening…which is why I am whipping this blog out quickly before I forget what we did today and yesterday! Laugh!

Digging & Planting 5-25

Boy is it ever easy to lose track of time when one is working one’s ass off. This morning seems like a week ago! We got started digging plant holes first thing this morning while it was still cool. Now the term digging doesn’t really apply here in this concrete for ground we have…Larry had to loosen the dirt for each hole with his five foot tall steel digging bar that is a workout in itself just lifting the thing and then we scooped the loosened dirt out of the hole with the shovel. Then we would fill the hole part way with water, soak the hard base with water and he would chisel some more. It took us five hours to dig 21 holes for one gallon size plants and get the plants planted.

Now for most people getting all the plants planted in the front yard would have been a good days work, but NOT for my Larry. After a couple hours rest he was back at it in the backyard. We took some time to figure out where we wanted the plants, I figured we would plant them tomorrow, but NOOOOoooooOOOOOOO, Larry decides to dig their holes too. I was done in, but decided I couldn’t let him do it all by himself so after he dug the holes I planted the plants, once it cooled off I got my second wind.

So for today Larry chiseled 37 holes out of this lovely clay soil, one would think that tomorrow he wouldn’t be able to lift his arms, but I’m sure that bright and early he’ll be out digging the holes for the rest of the plants…crazy man.

The front yard looks really great and we are already getting favorable comments about it from neighbors and people passing by. One lady asked if we would come design her yard…sure, Larry said…designing was the easy part. I can’t wait until the plants start growing and filling in the blank spaces, I’ll try to remember to post pictures in a month or two to keep you updated on its progress.

Shopping for Vegetation 5-24

Another warm, sunny day here in Fallon, today was shopping for plants day and Larry claims it was way more exhausting then the work we have been doing the last several days. I have one planter mapped out…the smaller one and now I have to get the large one laid out. I don’t want to have to move plants here.

Larry got started on the planter boxes for the back yard, we have lots of rock to do yet, but we have a sequence that we have to do things in so it will probably be about a week and a half before we get it done.

Hey Lori, here is our new furniture arrangement...does the clock look familiar? I was looking through old photos and noticed you have a similar model hanging in your lovely cottage.

Rockin done in the Front 5-23

Thunder storms moved in when I took these pictures so they are a little dark and I didn't take the time to brighten them up.

We finished our rock in the front yard today. We got all the red lava rock placed and the seams made between the two colors, but with an alteration to our plans we needed some more gold rock, so we had 2 more yards delivered and dumped in the driveway and we had to wheelbarrow all of it where we needed it. We had some leftover but we are using it eventually in the backyard so we wheelbarrowed it to the backyard. We also had 5 large junipers delivered and we had to muscle them to the backyard too, one at a time.

Now I just need to get the plants and we need to get them planted and dripped…I also need to find some rocks to put in with the plants too. After all the plants are planted and the entire thing is finished I’ll share more pictures….of course. We have no sidewalks and our front yard/property line is where the whitish rock starts. This next week we’ll be working on the backyard…I’ll keep you posted!

And MORE-----

This is just an update on my earlier post....I just thought I would show you what we accomplished today! So scroll on down if you haven't checked the blog in a couple days...I posted this morning. I think we are going to run out of rock...darn...but we'll fix it when we get the rock for the backyard next week sometime. Larry had a lot of plumbing and other stuff to do, so I did a lot of the rock today...RockXena!

Shoveling and More Shoveling 5-22

We have been working hard. I tried to post yesterday morning but our internet was miserably slow!

Forging ahead with the yards, on Wednesday Larry had someone to dig about 50 feet of trench in the backyard so he could run the pipe for our drip system. Our soil has a lot of clay mixed with sand and it is like concrete, no rocks, those are clay clumps…the guy had a teeny backhoe…I didn’t get any pictures because I was leaving as he arrived and was done by the time I got back. It only took about an hour and the trench is wider than Larry needed but for the price and the time and pain saved it was worth it! Larry got busy with getting all the pipes run.

Yesterday, Thursday, we got started filling in the trench…that’s a LOT of dirt, we ran water in it to get the air out and help all the dirt settle so we wouldn’t have tons of dirt left over…what comes out never all goes back in…at least not right away and we don’t have time to wait for it to settle.

Just about break time from shoveling the truck arrived with our decorative rock. We got our plastic down where the bulk of the Nevada Gold rock was going and had them dump there and then the red lava was dumped in the driveway.

Oh, we changed the plans for both of the yards. Something wasn’t working, so I decided in the front because there were already so many angles and box shapes on our house to just go with that, so it is more geometric and simple looking with larger planting areas…it will be “mahvalous” when we finally finish!

So we decided to let the trench rest and settle and we got busy shoveling rock and then during the afternoon our lumber was delivered for the planter boxes…the wood is pressure treated and a hideous teal green color….doesn’t match our color scheme…but in this hot sun we figure it’ll fade in no time, plus the plants and rocks in the planters should hide a lot of it. Larry got those built and placed, they are just 2x4’s to keep the rock out…I didn’t want to plant in the rocks, I just want those to be blocks of texture and color.

Today is more shoveling…Larry was up with the chickens fixing the grade on the side of the house so the trailer won’t be so “tippy” going into the backyard. We finished filling in our trench, Larry is off to the hardware store….again and I am trying to get a blog posted during this lovely down time!

I have been slathered in sunblock, which I detest, but I didn’t fry…I poop out about 2:30…the sun is too intense for me and then I can get back to it around 4:30 or 5. We hope to get the rock done in the front yard today…I don’t know when we’ll get started on the plants…I am still trying to come up with a plan for that.

Back in Fallon 5-17

We are back in Fallon. We hit the road after ten this morning, back at the house by one and had everything put away by two. It was in the 90’s here today.

Larry worked every day we were in Quincy and got most all his stuff done. I worked most all those days going through my thousands of pictures since we’ve hit the road to pull out the best and get them copied into separate files. I also deleted duplicates or crappy pictures, a huge job that I have needed to do for a long time, but I finished this morning. Having been a photographer most all my life, I love, love, love this digital and computer stuff for photography. I would have had a large room filled with all the photos and files and negatives I have taken just in the last five years…and we would have been broke with buying film and printing costs….

I may just post every few days for the next couple of weeks or so…depends on what we end up doing.

My Roses 5-12

Not much going on here in Quincy, Ca with us. Larry is working and I am enjoying the lovely weather and getting my photo files moved around while I have the time to do it. I had a wonderful relaxing massage yesterday with my favorite massage therapist, once or twice a year isn't nearly enough!

These roses that Larry found for me for Mother’s Day are just stunning…they have opened beautifully and smell so good. The pink one was given to me at the restaurant where we had dinner on Mother’s Day.

Road trip 5-10

Today we were up by 7:30 and we had the trailer loaded and we were on the road by 9:30. We only plan on being gone a little less than a week so we just loaded up essentials, it didn’t take as long and we love all these empty shelves all over the place. The trailer hasn’t been this light since we brought it home from the dealer….smile! We had a light travel day, just 140 miles to Quincy. The last time we were here was in the fall of 07 and the price has jumped up again here at the RV Park. There is snow on the higher mountains still, but it was a pleasantly warm day…in the mid seventies and all the lilacs are in bloom.

I am finding my change of heart towards desert landscapes interesting. Ten years ago as soon as we left the trees and hit the high desert I would go on about how barren it looked, boring, etc. and always loved getting back into the forest. NOW, I feel closed in by the trees because I can’t see as much of the sky though I still love their strength and all that green but now I see so much beauty in the rocks, foliage and terrain changes of the desert. Maybe it is because living in a small space and getting rid of all the “stuff” except for essentials has given me a greater appreciation for the starkness and openness of the desert…hmmm.

We’ll be here less than a week and then we need to get back and finish rocking and planting our dust bowl.

Larry gave me a stunning bouquet of yellow/orange roses for Mother’s Day that actually smell like roses, I’ll probably get their picture tomorrow. He had a nice visit with his Mom and I had a nice visit with our girls on the phone today.

Our pet 5-9

Meet Killer our attack lizard. Larry thought it was going to jump on him...Larry didn't notice it on the gate until he swung it open and it moved! Wish I could have seen that, Larry isn't fond of reptiles and this is a big fence lizard.

Larry did more work leveling out dirt today and filling in his hole of irrigation pipes. We also put stuff in the trailer, we are hitting the road tomorrow.

Big Truck and Mud 5-8

Today was a nice day…sunny, warm and just a light breeze. We had an early start…our patio concrete was being poured this morning.

Larry needed to get to the hardware store first thing for irrigation supplies and get back so he could get the trailer hooked up and pulled out of the yard.

The concrete showed up about 8:45 just as the crew finished forming up. You know your backyard is a big barren desert when the concrete mixer truck can just drive straight back into the center of the yard and be in position for pouring, BUT that is all changing with a lot of hard work.

By two the forms were off the patio and they sprayed it with a toxic smelling slime that allows it to cure slowly. The color was nice while wet, but as always concrete dries lighter so I’m waiting until it’s done drying before posting the finished picture…it wants to look pretty for its debut…!

Yesterday Larry was working on the irrigation system in the front yard while I went to one of the local nurseries for planting ideas. At one point while I was waiting for the lady that was helping me finish helping some other customers I had a lovely conversation with a man that is the father of someone I knew in Chester. Learned a lot from him…an interesting guy, was raised in Susanville and now lives in Fallon after having lived all over the place. It is amazing how small our world really is, we constantly seem to run into people that knew areas we’ve lived or people we’ve known etc.

Art and Business 5-6

Today we were up early and took our walk, it was chilly but the gusty wind usually waits until it gets warmer so we didn’t have to eat sand. We did later in the afternoon though…we can’t wait until we can get all the rock in the yards to cover up all this loose dirt.

Our concrete contractor Bob is the most amazing artist and his medium is wood and the scroll saw. He makes the most amazing dimensional, inlaid clocks and the box he brought over was stunning…it had a beautiful bow on top of the lid and it was inlaid wood, I had to keep touching it! He uses other saws and tools of course, and he showed us the pen and pencil sets he makes too, some solid wood with inlays and some made of other materials but all so beautiful. He has a great eye for detail and believes in quality work so I am expecting our patio to be great! I just wish I had thought to ask to take a photo of the box and pens to share with all of you! His stuff should be in an art gallery somewhere!

It is always nice to talk to business owners and find that what worked for us works for others…Bob gets most of his business by word of mouth because of the quality of his work and his level of customer service. In the five years since Larry dissolved his business and we left the area he has had sooo many requests to come back any time and pick up where he left off and it is because he took such good care of his customers, did quality work and didn’t price gouge.

Not much else going on here…the patio should get poured on Friday unless the wind is really bad again.

Dirty 5-5

I took a few days off…not a lot going on. Still getting things organized and rearranged since getting back. I got all my piles of yarn boxed and organized in a closet. Larry rewired our TV hookups from one side of the room to the other today in between supervising the dirt moving.

Yesterday we went to Lowe’s to price edging options and get a few things. Larry keeps getting annoyed with having to buy stuff that he used to have and didn’t keep when we hit the road but we couldn’t keep and store everything.

Today the concrete people showed up to start prepping. They lifted out our old little patio and scraped up all our lawn out front. Of course the wind had to blow….our neighbors are going to hate us…the sand was just blowing out of our yards like crazy with the sod gone and the dirt all moved around in the backyard. It will be soooo nice when it is all covered up again.

We have lucked out with having our concrete colored. Our contractor discovered that the company that makes a lot of the powdered dyes have gone out of business and the liquid dye is too expensive, but his supplier happened to have two bags of the color we wanted so we won’t be blinded by the glare…we are having the concrete darkened.

Here are our plans for the yards and the plot map so you can see the whole plan. We are using different colored and textured rock material with a few planting areas. I can’t wait until I can show the finished job…we have a ton of work to do! Right now the front yard looks as bad as the back yard with the sod out.