PEPE 'LIL' PEW

We had some helpers this weekend and got a bit of work done...

Tom's dad worked on putting a hose spigot outside the basement door and he started working on the A/C compressor piping and electric...

Tom's mom planted 300 bare root vinca's on the slope in the front yard. It was quite a bit of work and we didn't have enough...

Pawel came in the afternoon and he cut down some of the rest of the dead and/or ugly trees...

Tommy and I worked on a couple things... We cleaned up the orange and black fencing, dug the sewer stickups out and cut them so they would be underground, spread some mulch, and graded the front yard a bit...

On Saturday night we went to home depot after we got done working and on the way home we pulled into the driveway and there is a little baby skunk!!! Pepe 'Lil' Pew!!! We couldn't get up the driveway for a good 5 minutes because he kept walking back and forth in a zig zag pattern up the driveway... He doesn't quite walk either... he has a chuga chuga cho cho type of walk... one butt cheek up then the other... so funny! What are we going to do with a resident skunk!!!

BEECH TREE MOVE

We finished the top tier of the wall out the basement. We moved the A/C Compressors onto their pads and then filled in between with the river rock. We also moved the beech tree into its place, planted some azaelas and junipers and some creeping evergreens... then we put mulch... this area is completely done...

ROCKY HILL

Saturday morning we loaded the truck with stumps and roots and headed to the Raritan Recycling Center to dump it. Then we got back and loaded the truck with garbage that has been laying around outside and took that to the Hunterdon County transfer station. YAY! Two more truckloads of junk is gone. It stinks because it took up the entire morning because the line at the transfer station is ridiculously long even if you get there early but it is great that the yard has two less truck loads of garbage laying around.

When we got back Tommy got the rest of the stumps off the front yard and I planted the rest of the junipers on the hillside. Then Tommy brought me scoops of the river rocks we had plucked out of some loads of soil we got for free and but them at the bottom of the hillside for me to lay out under the junipers. I did just that while Tommy shredded and moved some of the "garbage" leftover from the sawmill. Anything small enough was shredded and the rest is on the large firewood pile in the backyard. Laying those rocks out is quite a bit of work on that hill. It might not seem very steep but it is a workout. It was great when Tommy was done with his work and we could pick out the size rock we needed from the pile, put it in the bucket of the kubotka, and then place them where we needed to directly out of the bucket. I think it is looking pretty good so far.

DAFFODILS

I took the day off of work today. I didn't accomplish all that much though. I took some daffodils that were growing in the woods and transplanted them to the flower bed along the driveway. We will be covering where they were with quite a bit of dirt and it would have been such a shame to destroy them. After the daffodils were planted I started putting some of the woodchips from what we chipped last weekend on the flowerbed up the driveway, but didn't get too far before Tommy got home. We then took a drive to a Greenhouse & Nursery that I found on craigslist that has very good prices, actually AMAZING prices, on bushes and trees. We were able to pick up three white birch trees that we have been looking for and 22 gold tipped junipers for the hillside. YAY! When we got back we dug a big hole next to the porch and we planted all three of the white birch together. LOVE IT! Then Tommy started moving back some of the leftover logs on the frontyard from when the sawmill was here and I planted about 6 of the junipers before it was too dark for us to work outside anymore...

PLUM TREES

After work tonight we moved the two plum trees that we got on the auction last year to the front of the house... basically put them on the hillside that we created on the right side of the house. We were a little concerned that they would block the house, but once we just did it we decided that we love it. We are planning some other plants for the hillside, we just need for lowes to get another shipment of them...

LANDSCAPING

Finally took some pictures of the landscaping we started on the left side of the driveway. The deer have already started to eat the burning bushes but we have a home remedy that will hopefully work. We bought a blender and mixed eggs and cayenne pepper with water and sprayed it on the bushes... I don't think they have been eaten anymore... hope it works...

DIRT, LOGS, and PLANTS

Friday night we worked on the front yard. No more dirt is needed but there was a mound on the right side that we cut a tree down from and then flattened it out a little bit. We also removed another walnut tree that I remeber last year was pretty messy once the walnuts begin falling. And that is that... it looks great...

Saturday we worked on the front yard some more. We pulled strings for the property line and staked out the driveway. Then Tommy took dirt out of the back (near where the driveway pad will be and put it on the left side of the driveway while I raked it into a mound.

We are having someone come with a portable sawmill on Tuesday to cut up the logs (cherry, walnut, and maple) that we are using for the kitchen cabinets. So onSunday Tommy moved the logs to the front yard and put them in piles of what order to have them cut since it is likely that all 50+ of them will not be cut in one day so picking the better ones is necessary. Meanwhile I went to Lowes and got some shrubs to plant on the left side of the driveway. Got some boxwoods and burning bushes. Also dug out some of the other plants and trees we got last year at that auction. Planted all of those and I think it turned out pretty good. Later in the afternoon Tom's parents came down and his mom brought me two pink dogwoods and a white blooming tree. Put the dogwood on the small hill we knocked down on Friday and the other one along the driveway, still need to find a place for the white one.