For the last week I’ve been spending most of my time working in the yard of my “other” house. I understand that my priorities are probably not in the right place. I should be working inside the house so that I might be able to move into it in the near future.

Well, in a couple of weeks I hope to actually have the back yard done, so there’s always the possibility that a bucket of common sense will splash on me, and the inside work (where you actually live and eat and sleep) that should be done will be done.

The fish pond and the bridge

In the meantime, here’s some of what I’ve done in the yard.

  • built a bridge
  • dug a fish pond
  • built a waterfall and stream to the pond
  • underground sprinkling system in the back yard
  • cut out pathways through the lawn
  • moved the sod from the pathways to the south side of the house
  • roto-tilled the driveway to get rid of the weeds
  • removed all of the plants, weeds, junk from the north side of the house, and replaced it with gravel
  • hauled away three wheel-barrows full of cat poo from the front of the house by the varanda
  • moved a million or so iris plants to the pond
  • cut down all of the bushes, trees, and other miscellaneous stuff from the south side of the house
  • planted a new tree (a Russian Olive) beside the fish pond
  • roto-tilled the driveway again

the pink flamingo Another view of the bridge and pond The fish pond

If you take a look at the photos here, you can see there’s a lot left to do. Digging a pond 4.5 meters X 2.5 meters (about 15 ft X 8 ft, for the unmetricized) leaves a lot of dirt. You can probably see it in the pictures. On the “to do” list is

  • load the dirt into the truck and haul it away
  • finish cutting the paths through the back yard
  • haul the gravel for the paths
  • haul gravel for the driveway
  • finish building the fence
  • paint the fence (someone please volunteer for that job :sad: )
  • stain the bridge
  • clean up the flower (weed) garden at the very back of the yard
  • tear down the old shed, and build a new one
  • plant a couple more trees, ’cause there ain’t none in the back yard

The fish pond already has fish in it. That was a little ahead of schedule. Sherry dumped a couple of fish (big ones) from her house into the pond because they she thought they were mean, nasty fish. I think they were just horny, because they appear to be doing the mating dance marathon now. As well, I decided to put my fish into the pond. The big fish obviously have more important matters on their mind, because they pretty much leave the small ones alone.

I’ll post some more photos when the work is a little more complete.