Tanks, excavation and the three stooges

Let’s see…time for another update from Christina. First, the propane tank has been successfully moved with the help and supervision of our propane company. It’s been a week and Troy’s line has worked flawlessly. (“Of course” he would add in the background, if he were here.) It’s not pretty sitting right beside the driveway and main entrance, but we did not have any choice. Besides when I sew and knit I know the best creations sometimes come from the worst constraints, so I will look at this as a landscaping opportunity.

Speaking of landscaping, we have added a little dirt from the shop excavation around the house in key areas where the roof overflow was soaking into the basement. Once the dirt angled away from the house instead of toward it, it was covered with plastic about 4-5 feet wide, and then covered with mulch for the sake of prettiness (and to hold the plastic in place).

Troy reports the basement is noticeable drier after it rains, and with the dehumidifiers running, he actually has the humidity below 50%, for probably the first time ever. (Ok maybe that’s not fair since it looks like they did have gutters on the house before the last re-roofing.) But certainly since we’ve been here. And I have to add that I’m sure it helps that we have not had a good rain in weeks and everything is dry! In any case, we will continue surrounding the house with dirt sloped to give our basement the best chance of staying dry and will have the added bonus of evening out the look of the landscaping around the house. We have enough mulch from all the trees to mulch the whole yard if we wanted so that is not a problem.

Troy is calling the excavation done for the shop. He has figured that it is level within 4 inches. He can correct me if I’m wrong, but I think it took him about 2 weeks. He is so happy to move on to the next step which is…sorry but I have no idea. I wasn’t listening well enough when he was talking to David yesterday. (Oops.)

We have also continued to work on the wood cut down by the professionals…and the walnut trees cut down by Curly, Larry and Moe. I had the “good fortune” of being home last time they came. It was an adventure just to watch them work. After the professionalism of the crew that took down the maple trees (everyone seemed to have a job to do, they stayed out of other people’s way when they had a job to do, and the job got done well and efficiently without the thought that everyone’s life was in imminent risk), the stooges were a real change. Apparently it was the job of anyone that wasn’t running the forklift, truck or other machinery to constantly yell, “HEY HEY HEY” at the guy driving the equipment. I guess in case he forgot he was driving a big piece of destruction (when handled improperly) and needed constant reminders about the overhead wires, other vehicles in the area, the garage, etc. While trying to load a big piece of trunk onto the truck, two of them had a discussion about whether it would fit that went like: “It’s not going to fit.” “Yes it will.” “no it won’t” “yes it will” “no it won’t” “yes it will”…and ended with the Yes Man trying to load it into the truck and having it fall back down onto the driveway. Yes Man then agreed with No Man and they decided to bring it back to the woods with the other last few pieces. Which means, yes, they’re coming back one more time to get the rest. Can’t wait…

And the last thing we’re spending a lot of energy on is trying to get grass to grow. Troy’s is starting to come in where he dug the trench. The area I reseeded where a maple once stood is pretty thin and patchy. Troy figures the birds got the seeds. And in the front where I tried to fill in some really bare patches, they have completely filled in with very happy looking crabgrass. I think it was just waiting to take advantage of the extra watering I was trying to give the new grass seed. I feel like we’re living a parable. (And what grass seed will you be? Or maybe you prefer to ask what soil will you be???)

I'll leave you with a couple pics of my long dead alliums. But they look so interesting I can't cut them down. Hope you agree and enjoy.

-christina