A Tree for Mason

I can't remember when I started thinking this, but somewhere along the line I got it in my head that I wanted to do something that would celebrate the birth of my babies (I'm talking current and future, here).  Okay, when I wrote that sentence I realized that this could mean almost anything and that probably every current and future parent thinks the same way.  Sometimes I'm obvious.  Okay, but what I really meant, was a little something more permanent.  I would keep you in suspense, but I think the post title gives it away.  I'm talking about a tree.  This may be a little sentimental, but I think it is so cool to have a living, growing thing that can grow and change with my baby.  And someday, he'll know that the tree is just for him.  And someday, he'll probably climb it, fall out of it, and end up with a broken arm, but it will still be his tree full of his memories.
Byron agreed fairly quickly, as our backyard is a pretty blank slate and could use a little interest, but what tree do we plant?  Last fall, when I was still working additional jobs, we took a trip up to Minnesota with the band for a competition. They had the most beautiful yellow trees that had small, umbrella shaped leaves.  I don't usually have feelings like this, but I think I really fell in love with the tree.  I actually took a leaf home with me and then googled around to figure out what it was.  Turns out it was a ginkgo tree, which I had never actually heard of before.  The only stipulation that Byron had placed on me was that he didn't want a tree so big that it would cause foundation problems.  It turns out that this tree is pretty slow growing and will take about 70 years to reach maturity, so if foundation problems ever occur, we probably won't be alive to deal with them.  So he agreed that we could get the ginkgo (though we had it planted plenty of distance from the house to be safe).
So off to Earl May, where we happened to have a gift card, to see if they had the tree, and fortunately they did.  They were even running a planting special.  Score!  We paid for the tree, they took care of locating the power lines (a step that had completely not occurred to me) and a few weeks later, our tree is in the ground.  I would say Mason loves it, but since he's still pretty clueless, I'll just say that his mama sure does!
This is the before picture.  Side note:  I love my neighbors but I don't particularly love their fence.

Here is the during picture.  I had a sleeping baby and a barking puppy, so it's the best I could get.

And now here is my glorious new view off our back porch.  I mean, it has the potential to be glorious.  Right now it's just cute.

This is the view from the neighbor's yard looking back at our house.  See how bland our backyard is?  We have plans, my friends, big plans.  They are reserved for the future.

Below are the leaves that I just find adorable.  It is true that they turn the most beautiful golden yellow shade when they turn, but I have heard that all the leaves fall within a day.  That could be interesting, but nonetheless, I love Mason's tree!

Two Out of Three Ain't Bad

What do you call it when you meet two thirds of a goal?  Can you actually cross it off your list?  Maybe I can strike it two thirds of the way through.  But anyway, that's neither here nor there.  Let me just get to the point.
There are some new friends living in my garden.  And, this time, I actually planted them all by myself.  Last night, Byron and I went to Lowe's to pick up some random things, and I convinced him to walk through the plant section.  He was pretty tired, so we didn't do a very thorough search through everything like I was kind of hoping for.  Actually, it wasn't so much a thorough search as a deal on perennials that I was searching for.  In the few minutes I browsed, I didn't find anything that jumped out at me, so we settled for two little annuals.  Byron picked them both out himself, too!
Let me introduce you to our first addition, geranium.  This one is going to bloom pink buds.  If you look at the second photo, you can just see them.

Our second addition is something I had never heard of.  It's called fentas.  It will also bloom pink buds.  I'm excited for this one, because it appears that the buds are going to be pretty dense.  I hope it turns out as pretty as the picture on the tag.

Don't spend too much time looking at these pictures or you will notice the weeds growing in the background.  I'll get to those, I promise.
Technically, I only have two new plants for my garden.  However, living inside my home is this lovely little lady.

I have been instructed to plant this in my garden as well, but I'm just a little hesitant, and here's why.  Our garden is on the West side of our house, and anything I plant there is going to get drenched in the afternoon and evening sun.  The tag on this little guy says that it does best in indirect sunlight.  So although I love it, I don't want it to meet its instant death in our garden.  I think I can plant it in a pot to sit on my front porch, which is covered, and as long as I water it like crazy, it should be fine.  That is my plan, but due to another upcoming porch project, this will have to wait a few more days.
Two new plants in our garden, to do exactly what Byron likes - add color!  The little garden will probably be a work in progress well into next year, but we are learning some things and it is really taking shape.  Before I sign off for the night, I'll share a couple of updated photos of the flowers we planted earlier this year.  A couple of the blooms on the coneflowers (middle picture) have already turned pink.

#26

I'm going to call this one officially done.  Mostly because we hit a couple of snags before the finish (mostly our real jobs requiring OT), but also because I feel if I dragged it out any longer it would get awfully repetitive.  The official goal was "plant flowers in front of the porch", and although there is room for a few more, ladies and gentlemen, we have flowers.

I am so proud of both Byron and myself for our work on this project.  Byron did ALL of the heavy lifting and manual labor.  I am also proud that between the two of us we didn't want to kill each other in the process.  We just both wanted this project to look perfect, and sometimes our way of communicating with each other takes a few unnecessary winds. Usually, and this time is no exception, we end up in a good place.

We also had help from my mom with this project, since my current condition doesn't exactly make bending down one of my strengths.  We got several plants for free from a coworker of hers and she donated some of the extras that she purchased and didn't need, as well as dug the holes, planted them, and helped me to place them.  I am also expecting some flowers from a coworker of mine, so I should only have to buy 3-5 things for myself, maybe even less.  I do have plans to add tulip bulbs in the fall, because what kind of good little Dutch girl would I be if I didn't plant tulips?

Truly, we still just have to glue the top layer of brick down, fill in a few more plants, and learn how to enjoy the view, but since those remaining items don't really change what people see as they walk or drive by, we are done.  Now comes the challenge of developing my green thumb!

Tis the Season for Yardwork

As I've been keeping up on some of my favorite blogs, I have noticed that we aren't the only family that's been hot and heavy into the yardwork/projects these days.  Check out some of the other projects that have been going on.
My favorites over at Young House Love have been up to major projects like this and this.  If I had more time and a shorter to-do list before this baby comes, I would definitely undertake a back patio DIY project of my own.  Although we won't get to it this year, it's definitely going in the 3-5 year plan!
Meredith at Welcome to Heardmont took on a weekend of yard clean up.  Isn't it great how much of a difference a little blood, sweat, and tears can make?
Katie at Bower Power has been busy transplanting flowers and shrubs.
And I'm sure there are many more out there.  I love reading about the projects that others are taking on.  It just makes me so proud of what we are able to accomplish and inspires me to take on more.

Weekend Warrior

***NOTE:  Sorry to those of you who tried to read this when the pictures had disappeared.  All is restored now, and no, I have no idea what happened.***


So work on the wall continues.  Saturday was a long day for Byron.  Unfortunately I was gone most of the day and missed most of the action, but he put in a full day's work out front.  He even managed to get a little sunburn in the process.  I feel bad for him there, but woo hoo for Iowa, who finally figured out what month it is and gave us weather accordingly.  But anyway, back to the wall.  We made it around the curve and are several layers deep in some areas.  The hardest part is still making sure it is all level.  Once the base layer is complete all the way around, I feel like it will all come together fairly easily.  Byron will have to go back and affix all the bricks together with adhesive (I speak in general terms because I have no idea what it is called), but again, it won't take nearly as long as preparing the area.
But now, onto the pictures!

This photo (and some of the others in not so obvious ways) shows off one of Byron's best ideas yet - to bury the gutter downspout and feed it out through the retaining wall.  Not only does it make the downspout totally unnoticeable, but it directs the water well away from the foundation of the house.  That man has got brains I tell ya!

This is one of my favorite in progress shots.  Minnie the inspector closely checking out her daddy's handiwork.  She is so curious about everything we do and just likes to be included.  I am working on her vocabulary to add words like level, hammer, chisel, etc., so I can send her to fetch our tools for us.
Up next, finishing the bricks and the capstones, filling in the dirt as well as adding GOOD topsoil, and finally filling the area in with plants.  I can't wait to see it take shape.

All in a Friday Night's Work

I came home from work last night to see this view in my front yard.

 The inspector checking out the workmanship.

 

It was getting a little late last night, so I snuck out this morning to snap the pictures.  Thank goodness one of Byron's buddies came over to help for awhile - that is a lot of stone to move!  I didn't get to see most of the process, and quite honestly, I'll probably miss a good chunk of it today, too, but I think Byron is realizing it is more work than he had originally thought it would be.  I think he was hoping to be further along last night.  Either way, both of us agree that we would rather have it done right than done fast.
There was one snag that happened.  On Tuesday, we had purchased the bricks and scheduled them for delivery on Friday. On Wednesday, Lowe's called us and told us that we hadn't paid for our capstones.  It seemed odd, but I double checked the receipt and sure enough, they hadn't charged us for them.  At this point, I was glad that they caught this mistake, although I have no idea how they did it, and we just swung by the store again and paid for it.  However, in order to avoid a double delivery charge, they sold it to us as a "pick up later" order, then would just add it to the delivery schedule later.  Sure enough, Friday comes, the delivery comes, and the capstones don't come.  The stinky part about this is that I was on my way to work and had to field about 7 calls from Byron, but to make a long story short, Lowe's delivered!  Haha.  Nice pun.  I don't know exactly, but I think they just went back to the store and drove it back out to us.  Thank goodness we live so close!
Another thing that complicated the process ever so slightly is that we had planned on our yard sloping toward the neighbor's house as you can see in the pictures, but what you might not be able to see (and we definitely didn't) is that from the sidewalk to the middle of the porch, the yard actually slopes UP first.  It's not a big deal, it just means leveling the wall took a little more thought.  And time.  And, I am afraid that we won't have enough bricks, which just means going back to Lowe's for like the 16th day in a row.
I hope to have more progress photos to share soon.  Byron has been a machine attacking this project, but after all there is only so much time in the day.

Digging It All Up

Work is underway on one of the items on my 30 Before 30 list.  Item number 26 to be specific - plant flowers in front of out porch.  Although I need to say that this little project has morphed into something just a little bigger than planting a few flowers.  Ladies and gentlemen, we are building a small brick border slash retaining wall.  I don't remember if the idea started with me or with Byron, but we are both really excited about it.  I am excited, because I'll be able to check one of the items off my list and enjoy a pretty garden out my front windows, and Byron because he'll be able to build something really awesome for our house.  I swear we didn't plan this, but in my third-trimester-pregnant state, I'm forbidden to do much of the manual labor.
Last night, Byron was able to dig up most of the sod in the area we had staked out.  Think of these pictures as one part before, one part during.  He was so ambitious that I didn't realize how far he had gotten before I got the chance to snap any pics.

In the end, he cleared out the sod from the entire staked out area.  Then, he simply transplanted it to the back where we had a bit of "repair" work, so to say, all thanks to our lovely little puppy and her supersonic pee.  Gotta love recycling!

We ordered some of these bricks from Lowe's, which are scheduled to be delivered on Friday.

With (hopefully) the help of a couple friends, I should come home Friday evening to see the start of a little stonework out front.  I can't wait to see how it looks!  I'll post more pictures this weekend of the (again, hopefully) finished wall. Then I'll just have to fill the new bed with dirt and start planting.  I'm aiming to find some low maintenance flowers and shrubs, since this whole gardening thing is going to be a new undertaking for me, but I do have my heart set on some forsythia.  I just love the bright yellow.  Good thing I have the expert gardener (aka mom) close by to help me out with advice.  I'll definitely be using it.

Come on, peephole

This post could alternately be titled What a Hoot.
I am sitting on the couch again, though this time I don't feel quite as worthless, when to my internet-browsing eyes should appear an interesting sight.

To which I turned the computer toward Byron and said, "Should we get a peephole?"
It doesn't happen very often, but he had no response.  I guess the best way I could describe his response was a silent giggle.  He gathered his composure, and to my surprise, said he actually like the owl.  (There was also a chick and a flower, that I saw.)  Now truthfully, installing a peephole in our front door reminds me a little too much of a hotel or apartment.  Do people in real houses actually have these?  Just a few weeks after we moved in, our neighbors house was robbed (nice welcome to the neighborhood) so I am all for increased security measures, but I don't know if this is the way of going about it.  It is just too humorous.
Image found here.

The Leaves are Changing

I remember writing about our trees the day they were planted.  October Glory is what they were called.  Well folks, it's now October, and our trees, er, tree, is seeing it's glory days.  First, let me show her off.  Then I'll fill you in on the back story.

Well, this tree certainly looks glorious, at least in a scaled down type of way.  The other one, or should I say the third one, looks healthy, but was only planted last week and had only about 5 leaves on it at the time.  The actual second tree died sometime over the summer.  Although we, being novice gardeners, thought it was possibly just dormant, since it was the first year it was planted.  If you are laughing right now, just think to yourself how much we have to learn.  About 5ish weeks ago, Byron bumped the tree and it flat out broke in half.  Actually there was only a 12-inch stub sticking out of the ground.  That's when we knew the tree was really dead.  4ish weeks ago, I called the warranty hotline to report this, which by the way wouldn't even let me leave a message but redirected me to send an email.  Seriously?  Why do you have a hotline?  Argh.  But anyway...I reported it, and 3 weeks later they FINALLY responded.  And I suppose the wait was worth it because mama talked her way from a 1 inch tree to a proper 3 inch one.  I'll take no leaves as long as it comes back to life this spring!

Just like the trees are in transition from summer green to winter bare, I feel like we are in a transition period, too.  This fall has been a busy one, and I am looking forward to a slimmer schedule where I can stop running around and get back to the place I love - home.

Acer Rubrum, October Glory

Today as we came home from work, we noticed that our trees were planted in our front yard.

Tada!  There is a matching one on the other side of the driveway.  I was really hoping that our builder would forget about planting trees for us because I really wanted one with lavender flowers, but he remembered.  Which, even though these trees won't bloom lavender, they are red maples and will turn bright reddish orange in the fall.  I guess I can handle that.  Here are a few more photos.