Stone Wall- needs fixing

A couple of weekends ago, a car ran off the road and into the stone post at the corner of our front yard.  Luckily, no one was hurt.  The only injury was to the stone post, and two little bushes that were ripped out by the car...

Insurance is paying for repairs to the post & stone wall.  But it's one more thing to add to the list of things to do!  We've gotten a few estimates and all of the masons said they need to wait until the spring to complete the work.

We may take this opportunity to extend the wall down the side a little (just a couple of feet), so that it makes a nicer flower bed for the corner.  The masons said that big pile of rocks in the backyard will match the rest of the wall perfectly (we've already used some of them for the backyard flower bed).  But first we want to check with the town that we don't need additional permits/approval to extend it.

Hurricane Sandy- surveying the damage

We feel very thankful that we are all safe and were very fortunate that the house did not sustain any damage from Hurricane Sandy.  We're still without power, heat and water... fingers crossed that it comes back soon!  Thank goodness for the fireplace!

Reheating pizza in the fireplace
(Without power, we had time to get a little creative!)

We lost about 7 trees in the yard, and damage to others.  The trampoline also went flying, and the privacy fence is leaning a bit, but that's about the extent of the damage.  We were VERY lucky!

This tree was one of our favorites- it stood in the middle of the field.
I don't know if we'll be able to save the part that's still standing.

Lots more trees down on the side property line.
Luckily, many of these were already dead & slated to come down.

The trampoline had been on the opposite side of the car in the background!
Must have flown right over!

Three shutters flew off & broke

Now the clean-up begins!

Blackberry Bummer

This project didn't go as well as planned... but hopefully we can make up for it next year!

Our blackberry patch was growing on a huge dirt pile in the back, behind one of the barns.
This was a pain for a couple of reasons:
1- We're slowly getting rid of the dirt pile (using it to level other parts of the yard)
2- The kids' legs get torn up by the thorns when climbing to get the berries
3- Parts of the mound are so steep that we can't even reach the berries
4- The bushes were growing right into the side of the barn

So Mike decided to try moving some of the plants and train them to grow in a more orderly fashion.


The first thing he did was put up two fence posts- secured in the ground with cement.






Once they were set, he strung two wires between them.  Then used these spur looking things to tighten the wires.  (Hope I don't lose you with my technical terms!)

Finally, he transplanted a couple of bushes.


Unfortunately, they didn't transplant well.
I think they're dead!








Which could be because of two reasons... either we transplanted them too late, or we didn't water them enough (or maybe at all!)

We've still got loads of bushes growing on the dirt pile, so no lack of berries.

We'll try moving some again next year to get this little garden growing!

A Turkey Twist

Beautiful weather on Sunday allowed for some yardwork- we're thankful for every bit we can squeeze in!

Mike's been cutting away at the countless dead trees around the yard, plus the ones that fell during the crazy October snow storm.

My mission while Mike worked on the trees, was keeping the kids out of his way! 

We collected pinecones for a future winter craft, stacked & then climbed on the newly delivered hay bales, collected sticks, & climbed some trees.  After they were a little worn out from playing, we went inside & sat down to re-create this project I found on Pinterest- a twist on the old turkey handprint.

I went up to my stash in the attic, and found an old 8x10 frame to clean up.

We each chose a fall-color paper & traced our hands, and my 3 year old's foot. 


(We got Mike's hand traced after he came back inside.)

 A little bit of glue, and project complete!

It's now hanging in the hallway, and makes me smile each time I pass it!

We may have started a new tradition!

Gimme a sign!

At each end of our property is a sign post...
(we briefly mentioned them way back here  ).

And last week, we left off here with the planting of the bedraggled mums:

We're in the middle of doing the historical research on the house, to try to find a new name for the property.  The trick is trying to find little stretches of time to go down to the Hall of Records to pick up the trail of property deeds.  We're now back to 1872.  Only about 100 more years to go!

In the meantime, we decided we could make a monogram sign to hang on the driveway entrance that we use the most.

So after measuring, we were off to Lowe's.  They have pre-cut boards, that are perfect. 
We also picked up some trim moulding (to add a little detail to the top & bottom of our sign), and some new hardware (the hooks on the post are all rusty).

Mike attached the moulding to the top and bottom on each side.  A little wood putty to cover the nail holes, a quick sanding, and we were ready to paint it white.

This took a couple of days... waiting for each coat to dry, then flipping it over & repeating.

So, in the meantime, I searched online for a nice "R" to paint on. 

Here were some of my top picks  --->

The winner was from here (they have tons of cool patterns!)

The colors are just representative (the closest I could come with my set of sharpies!)  We're using the blue, green & cranberry house paint that the previous owners had left for us in the basement.

The next step was enlarging it (and thickening up the lines a little bit).

To do this, I went back to basics- the grid method learned in elementary school art class. 
I wasn't confident enough in my artistic ability to draw it directly onto the sign. 
I instead put it onto paper (four pieces taped together to be precise!)

The next trick was getting it onto the sign. 

When I was little, my mom had taught me to use a pencil to trace the design on the reverse side.  Then you tape it up & trace it on the correct side.  The lead will transfer onto the surface.  

(I have no idea what project we were working on when she taught me that- but I remembered the important part!)

I spent the next couple of evenings painting both sides of the sign. 
Then I applied a clear coat (spray paint) to seal it.  Mike then put the new hardware on.


And we were finally ready... 

Tah-Dah!

Mums the word

We used a lot of mums to decorate the front yard for fall.

Our stone wall has five built in plant holders, which I filled with purple mums.

Unfortunately, they were now starting to look a little ratty... 

I had to get them in the ground so that I don't kill them! 
My grand plan is to buy perennials for the wall each season, and then re-plant them somewhere in the yard.  More bang for the buck!

For the purple mums (and let's just say purple is my project theme color this month!) I decided to move them to around the sign post at our back driveway entrance.  That spot was begging for some flowers!

Here's a photo...

Disregard the fact that they're half dead, and also that we haven't raked the leaves. 

Picture how lovely it'll look late next summer!

AND most exciting of all...  We're almost ready to put a sign there!
Mike built it 2 weekends ago & I painted it this weekend. 
We're just waiting for it to dry so we can do a sealer coat & hang it.


More to come!

Minds in the Gutter

Okay, more like "minds ON the gutter... AND the drains... and keeping the water OUT of the basement"!

Mike has been doing a lot of re-grading around the foundation, and it's helped tremendously with the dampness in the basement- Irene & Lee really put it to the test!  (And although we still got some water, it wasn't nearly as bad as it was the first week we moved in.)

The biggest part of the project involved creating a drainage system on the East side of the house.

Water kept flowing under the basement door, so Mike got a drain to go on the outside of the threshold.  (And looking at this photo, I need to get out there with a scrub brush, pronto!)

Anyways, that drain then combines it with the gutter drains from the roof, along with the sump pump drain that comes out from the basement under the front porch--->

<--- Check it out!  Three sources into one pipe that will drain on the opposite side of our driveway (so it won't create a sheet of ice across the top of the driveway in the winter- like it would have if we left it!). 

Of course, this meant digging a trench across the driveway... between hauling out that buried bathtub, pulling out shrubs, and digging this trench, that tractor is starting to pay for itself!

After testing the water flow, Mike buried the pipes, added gravel on the path, and we were finally ready to make it look pretty!

We re-cut some old slate that had been found in random places through the yard.  These were used to create a path to the basement door. 

We lined the path & the flowerbeds with big rocks that had been dug up from around the yard.  We'll work on planting the flowerbeds next spring.

On the "To Do" List:  I'd like to get some moss to fill in the cracks between the slates, as long as that won't interfere with drainage.

The part I'm most looking forward to will be paving the driveway.  The boys will have so much fun riding their bikes, using chalk, & playing basketball on it!  But we have to wait until the kitchen addition is complete- no sense in doing the driveway until the heavy equipment is out of here. 

The upside for waiting- it'll give us a season to make sure the new drainage system is working like a charm!

A New Look in the Front

The front shrubs were growing like crazy. 

Since we live on a corner property, we need to keep the front shrubs trimmed to no larger than 2.5 feet high (so as not to obstruct a driver's view of the cross street).  We could see that they were going to be a lot of mainenance... plus we didn't really like the way they overshadowed & downplayed the pretty stone wall. 

So, Mike decided they had to go, and out came the tractor.  There had to be at least 40 of them!  Some will be replanted along the (soon-to-be) back fence.  Others, like the bunch with the big bee's nest in it, were not so lucky.  We left some of the ivy- because it looks really pretty with the stone wall, but had to thin it out to make room for some new plants.

Once the shrubs & excess ivy were cleared out of the way, Mike had to raise the dirt level to the top of the front wall, so that our new plants would be seen from the street, and not just from our  front porch.  More tractor work!

We spaced out the newly purchase plants:

Dwarf Holly Bushes- so there would always be green, and a touch of red from the berries

Sherwood Dwarf Abelia- an evergreen, with white summer flowers & leaves that turn purple-ish in winter.

Mums- for a splash of fall color

Tulip, Daffodil, and Crocus bulbs- for spring color

And finally, we added mulch.



Before

Along the side of the front yard, where the steps come up from the driveway, we did some more work.  



There were a bunch of little slates at the bottom of the steps that didn't really go.  We removed them & instead made a landing at the bottom of the steps out of a big slab of slate that we found under a bush in the back flowerbed.

The hostas on each side of the steps were getting huge & taking over the entryway.  So we defined a new flowerbed to the right &built a matching rock boarder.  We planted them here for now but will  move them into permanent spots next spring.

The deer are certainly enjoying them as evidenced in the "after" photo...

After

In place of the hostas, I planted daffodil bulbs (my fav) on each side of the bottom slate.  I think will provide a nice pop of color against the gray brick.

It's looking a bit bare,  but should start looking better once the grass seed starts growing where the tractor wore a path. 



And now that the hard-scape is done, it'll fill in & look really natural next season.

The best part about working in the front yard was all the people that stopped to chat as we were working.  In addition to meeting several of our neighbors, a couple of folks thanked Mike for pulling out the shrubs & another asked if we would consider boarding his horse in our barn (hmm... gotta think about that one!)

Out we go!

I was so busy going on about the inside projects, that I neglected to mention the outside stuff!



Tall, tall grass!



After our Florida trip, we came home to grass that was taller than the dog.  We went out running in the pasture, and it felt like the opening of "Little House on the Prairie"!

We had ordered the mower, and it was being assembled... waiting for it to be delivered was torture!  It was like watching grass grow (which is similar to watching paint dry!)

Despite the overgrowth, Mike's parents dug right in!  During their visit, we cleared a lot of the random plantings out of the front yard, put in new azaleas, and even gave the front lawn a trim with the little push mower.  Potted ferns were hung on the porch.  We put petunias into the flowerpot holders that are built into the stone wall.  We're still picking out a tree to put in the front yard- something flowering.

The property used to be called "Three Sisters Farm", and had pretty signs hung at each driveway entrance.  Obviously, "Three Sisters" isn't going to work for us.  We're going to do some historical research before deciding on the name.  In the meantime, I got a hanging planter to put on the front sign post (so it doesn't look so empty!)

The mowing begins!

About a week after we returned from Florida, the mower was delivered!
It took Mike over 8 hours to get the yard done- that's one way to kill a weekend!  Hopefully it won't take so long after that initial cut.

The other good way to kill a weekend ... is building a play set. 
It arrived in a million pieces & the directions said it will take two adults 6-12 hours to complete. 

Uh-oh, we've got one adult & a 6 year old slated to do this...
Another weekend gone, but well worth it!

And now... I'm going to get back inside!