Yard Work

Last weekend it was so beautiful that Tom and I took advantage of the weather to do some yard work. The previous owners kind of let the trees go, and many of them were planted too close to the house, or fence, or randomly jutting into the yard. We're clearing out most of them so we can put in a vegetable garden and leave room for the dogs to run around.

This is a shot from the backyard towards the door and shed that provides the back of the carport (a bit of a needed sound barrier as well). The sliding doors lead to the bedroom.

A view from the deck towards where the last shot was taken... By this time the trees have been thinned quite a bit from what they were, but they'll be gone completely. We were going to keep the one in the very corner but after trying to clean it up we realized that it's not going to be very salvageable (and I got really frustrated with thinning it) so we're going to put in something like a Japanese maple... something with a nice simple trunk and canopy that develop all kinds of suckers. Both Kali and Uma have been up on the deck and find it pretty nice for sunning... although the stairs are way too narrow and rickety to be safe and Uma fell through them on her first attempt up.

This is the deck and back of the house... no idea why there are no windows out here but that will be changing soon. We're shaving off some of the deck to make it narrower and free up more yard, extending it out to cover most of the back, and adding a single patio door on the right. This crab apple tree is one of the two we are keeping. The deck is actually in rough shape with some rotting boards so we're going to redo it completely and put in some safe stairs that will lead off this corner by the tree.

View of the far corner and Tom working on clearing out a second apple tree... it's still a work in progress. You can see the pile of brush we've already cleaned at this point, and it's still growing. The brush pile is over the area where the garden will be.

View from where Tom was standing showing the width of the yard. It's a good-sized yard but most of it is length rather than depth. The girls spent most of the day outside with us helping to remove branches by chewing them... sooo helpful.

A final backyard shot looking down the far side of the house with the second entrance.

We just got 10+ cm of snow last night so the yard doesn't look like this anymore... so much for the hint of spring...