01/10/09: Happy Birthday Rick!!

Saturday was cold and windy but we got quite a bit accomplished. This is where we started on Saturday morning. Every sheet required multiple cuts. It was quite tedious, but we finished the south wall.








The birthday boy!

Sunday is supposed to be warmer and less windy. We hope to finish the east and north walls tomorrow.















Milo poses by the amaryllis (picture for Mother).

01/07/09

We've made a lot of progress with framing and installing windows/doors. The metal siding is scheduled to arrive tomorrow. We plan to have everything enclosed before we leave on vacation January 22--hopefully the wind and weather will cooperate.

01/02/09 Update

Our little steel worker learned how to climb ladders. Here he checks out progress on the beams & inspects Rick's welding.

More progress 12/24/08

The outside apartment 12/14/08

We finally started on the outside apartment this week. Rick assembled the beams inside the shop this week, and we started putting them up on Saturday. As is always the case when we start a major construction project outdoors, it was quite windy this weekend. Saturday wasn't too bad, but Sunday was very brown with 60+mph winds.

Minx and I are helping.

Trees and grass

August 2, 2005: The day we purchased the land.

October 2005: The fun begins.

Watering the old-fashioned way (before the well).

Winter 2005/early Spring 2006: The water line. We put a water line 2 foot deep around the perimeter of the property. You can see the "windbreak" trees if you look closely. This is the future site of the pipe fence on the west side of the property.

Finishing the well house in October 2006 just before the first big freeze.

A light winter ice storm in early 2007 bent several of the trees nearly to the ground. This live oak didn't straighten back up completely until the summer of 2008.

Spring 2007: The grass plugs planted along windbreak trees late in summer of 2006 were starting to spread. The desert pines were still tiny but surviving.

Early August 2008: the grass was doing well. A huge area had been sprayed and weeded. I spent countless days and weeks putting grass plugs in the remaining area to the west of the driveway.

Late September 2008: the grass plugs (and weeds) were spreading . The ongoing driveway project is in the background.

Something to make life a little easier....

Mid-December 2008: Just about everything is dormant for winter, but the grass plugs have grown well and will fill in quickly in spring. Several of the desert pines are now about 5 foot tall.

Minx