3:00 p.m. and I still haven’t taken the first stitch. Definitely not looking good for 8 hours of stitching today.
The dirt moving guys were coming today and they showed up a little before noon. They were supposed to cut down part of a tree and level the fill pile for Vince’s shop. Vince went out to talk to them. I heard the chain saw so I knew they were cutting down part of a river birch that had died. Next, I saw this on a security camera.
The dead river birch is on the left side of the driveway and he’s headed towards the right side of the driveway. Then I heard a chainsaw right by the front door. I was afraid to go out and see what was happening. I figured once the action has commenced, there’s no use going out and putting in my two cents so I stayed inside.
It’s really nice to be able to watch from the cameras without having to go outside.
Once they had moved around back to the fill pile, I went out and I was happy with what they had cut.
This area was so overgrown and shrubs that had too many bare limbs and not enough leaves were left so they cut those off and Vince will dig them up (or maybe not).
Almost all the shrubs are planted way too close to the house. Vince may be happy to drill holes in these, pour stuff in them to kill them and then mulch over them. Digging them out is going to be hard work. I want to plant small stuff – mostly things that bloom. I don’t like a lot of big shrubs, especially so close to the house.
There were also two or three big trees on this end so they cut those out too.
One of our neighbors has gorgeous beds. They’re mostly things that bloom and mostly things that come back year after year and she said she would help me with some ideas.
Eventually the dirt/rocks got spread. I would have sworn there was hardly any dirt, and mostly rocks in that pile but now I see more dirt than rock. Josh is the same guy who cut the Bradford pears, ground out the stumps and spread some topsoil for us. He does such a good job and no matter what else Vince comes up with for him to do while he’s here, he smiles and does it. I’m so glad we found him right off the bat when we moved here.
The bread is made and I’m pretty sure Josh will go home with a loaf of warm bread. I made it with the intention to stick one loaf in the fridge for later but I can always make more.
Darla says
Good decision on the shrubs. Your house looks nice all the way to the ground…no need to hide it.
I read that builders started the practice of planting shrubs along the front of houses to hide the fact that they had a lot of bare concrete foundation showing above ground…to save money on the brick work.
Now everyone thinks we must plant shrubs there.
Judy Laquidara says
Our bricks do come all the way down but we have a basement so it’s a bit different. We’ve always left several inches of concrete before the bricks started with no plants right up against the house to help with termite control. Having dirt or even dark, damp areas encourages termites.