Retaining walls steps are done

With working on the wall a couple hours here and a couple hours there, we've made good progress. The steps are in now and the wall is mostly done. The original plan was to make the entry to the walk much wider but the slope of the yard dictated where they had to go and how wide the could be. Even so, we rather like the result. This week I'll go get a ton or so of mulch and create the walk from the steps to the porch.

Much progress has been made on the garden too. Remember all those roots? Well... I have a confession to make. Now that the stump of the fig tree is out I've come to the conclusion that those giant roots did not come from the fig but from the stump of a big tree in the neighbor's yard. One of those roots went right under the fig, giving the impression that it was a fig tree root. That fig tree could have been gone weeks ago. The good news is all those roots needed to come out anyway if I was going to be able to garden worth a toot. I wasn't planning to bore you with the garden details but since I've gotten this far... yesterday, I brought in a load of compost and spread it across the garden. Thankfully, it started raining before I could turn in under because I was out of energy anyway. We got a much needed rain yesterday so it may be several days before it dries out enough to turn.

News

Three blog entries in one day. Is this a record?
There are two bits of news I would like to share.

One... Larry got a new job. He is now District Manager for an insurance company. His territory is the state of Tennessee. He'll be driving all over the state (in the company car) meeting with insurance agents, taking them to lunch and, in general, drumming up business. They give him a weekly budget and encourage him to use it to get to know the agents! You know... lunch, golf, sporting events. What a life.

Two... (and this is most exciting)... Ben and Laura are moving here!!!!!!!!!!!! They've been packing and planning for a few weeks now. This week, they're visiting friends and family in CA. In about a week, they will be leaving Las Vegas and arriving here about a week after that!! They're going to rent our little rental house in the beginning. Laura is being transferred to a brand new Starbucks here in town and Ben will be job shopping. Their house in Las Vegas is still for sale if you know anyone moving to Las Vegas. Don't laugh, apx. 5,000 people move there every month! (At least, I think that's still true.) If they knew any better, they'd move here instead!

A Rotten Retaining Wall

As you can see, the existing retaining wall along the driveway is in need of repair. The railroad ties are leaning away. What you can't see is one of them is visibly rotten.


Work has begun! We've taken all the railroad ties out and found many rotten ones. This job needed doing even more than we first realized!


Since we're pulling out the wall anyway, we've also decided to add a walkway to the front door. It's rather odd that there wasn't one before. Like Larry says, we live in the South and we out to be hospitable. What a house without a walk up to it?


Now. What materials do we use to rebuild the wall? Railroad ties? No way!! We talked about a concrete wall but didn't think that would be very attractive. We finally decided upon the landscape bricks that are so popular these days.


We have made progress. Larry has done most of the work; I help where I can, moving the truck up and down the driveway and bringing bricks to him for placement. He has shoveled two tons of rock from the bed of the pick-up to the wall.



The tallest part of the wall is done and we're just about to the point where the walkway will begin. We'll cut into the existing lawn and curve the brick into a broad approach and narrow it to match the width of the front steps - about 6' wide. If I don't get photos of the progress, I will at least show you the finished project... whenever it gets finished.

Dogwoods are in Bloom!!

Our friends from CA missed seeing the Dogwoods by about a week. What a shame. I've taken some photos of the tree outside our bedroom window over the span of a couple weeks. All 5 of our trees are white but there are pick ones around town too. Here are some photos.









Lots of our neighbors have them too. The drive up Greenleaf is so very pretty right now.

The Redbuds started blooming about the same time. Here's a good specimen I found a short distance from our house.





While these trees were blooming we were having daytime temperatures in the mid-80's. Those temperatures lasted about two weeks. Then, a few days ago it turned cold. Last night about 8:00, while Larry and I were cleaning up from the work on the retaining wall (that's another story) it started snowing!! It only lasted about 15 minutes but what a change. The plants got a shock with lows in the high 20's last night.

Spring has definitely sprung in Chattanooga.