Week 4

It was fits & starts this week, due to some unusual weather: heavy heavy downpours, thunder, and hail on Monday & Tuesday.

On Monday, we came home to a big development: no back wall!

View from inside the garage:

 


View from the yard, showing how little there actually is holding up the back of the house:




Somehow they're figuring out how to continue to cram more debris into the little room in the garage:




Meanwhile, the excavators moved these piles of lumber into the garage. These will be used to build the giant lincoln log towers that will hold up the house:




Work continued on Tuesday, despite the heavy rain. We came home to this:








Here is the last of the rosemary tree:




To get those supports properly situated, they had to dig down two feet (by hand, by the look of it) for each one. Because of the heavy rains, the holes promptly filled up with water, and work had to stop until they drain. As of today, Sunday, it's almost finished.

Wednesday was sunny. You can really get a sense of how warm and comfortable that room is going to be when you see how the afternoon sun comes in through the back wall, where the glass doors will be:




No further work happened this week, until Saturday, when AJ & I moved the monster rose bush. It was going to have to go from the middle of the yard to make way for the terrace steps anyway, so rather than just let it go straight to the giant compost pile in the sky, we decided to try & move it.

First, we took out the screwball pink rose bush in front of the panda. Here is AJ (gleefully) chopping it up with a hatchet so that it will fit in the green bin:




Pickles was fascinated by what we were doing, & was especially enthralled by the stinky fish fertilizer gunk Momma Arave advised us to put in the hole before replanting. Luckily, she didn't fall (or leap) in:




Next, we did our best Morticia Addams, & pruned off all the flowers & buds, so that the energy of the plant will go into re-rooting itself in its new home:




Then, digging the monster out. The soil here is very dense clay. After all the rain this week, it was heavy & unbelievably sticky:




Yet, we perservered, with shovels, spades, & determination. And cursing.




We were rewarded with two glass marbles:




And this 2-inch tile:




And the eventual freeing of the rose bush:




Pickles didn't seem to notice or care that this giant bush was getting placed two feet from her napping spot.

With that giant dirt pile already in the yard, filling the hole in was a snap:




Then the last & very important step of scraping all that mud off our shoes:




Success!

The main root was literally as big around as my arm. We have no idea how old this thing is, but we're hopeful that we saved enough of the root system for the bush to survive.

Here's the view of the rose bush in its new home, when you first walk into the yard:




On Sunday, I took the opportunity to put all the stuff back in a less Hoarders sort of way:

And then we had a picnic.

Next week is going to be hot & sunny, so we're looking forward to more work happening. Let's get this show on the road!