7/21/2004 Summer vacation flies by no matter what you are doing and no matter how long the vacation is. I am done with four of seven weeks and I feel like I only stopped work a week ago. My brother has been helping me re-landscape my back yard. I rented a jackhammer and a dumptruck and we kicked things off by removing the large cement square that divided up the yard. We had to rest for a day after that since it was more work than either of us had done in a long time. I had decided to terrace the yard into two sections; the lower being for bonsai and the upper for a lawn and sitting area in the shade of the medium size pine tree.
We went on a couple scouting missions for materials and inspiration...turns out that the closest place for materials was all the way over in Berkeley...kinda a drag since I have now been there at least a half dozen times. We used about two tons of rock to construct the rock wall and the steps. Brian did most of the wall while I spent hour upon hour finding rocks of the exact size for the risers on the steps. Initially I tried using the blue stone as the treads, but the pieces were too small and wobbled when you stepped on them. Another trip to the stone yard led me to discover the tumbled quartzite that I used. We had to sort through an entire crate of it to find the five pieces that were large enough to become the treads. They run back under the stones that make up the steps above them at least six inches, making the steps quite solid even without any mortar.
I spent a day digging plants out of an old garden in San Jose that was being removed to make way for some new houses...I plan to place them carefully. I also realized after multiple trips to nurseries that I already have many plants that I want to use in the garden. I have a collection of them in pots that are just waiting to be planted in the ground. We did pick up a few plants...a couple tall evergreen iris and some grasses and ferns. I've decided that I will put plants in as they become available to me instead of buying them all immediately. One thing that I do plan to put in asap is the small patch of lawn. I never realized how inexpensive sod is (at least in small quantities.)
I spent the last couple days hiking in the Desolation Wilderness just west of Lake Tahoe. I had never been backpacking before...only day hiking. It was a great experience, it is soo gorgeous up there that you can hardly find a view that isn't perfect. I was especially interested in the high mountain Juniper trees that grow in the area. They are slow growers, but show incredible age and character even from a relatively young age. Inspiration for the bushes and trees in my yard. The one thing that I could say is bad about camping out in the wilderness is that there are a lot of mosquitos. After the sun went down, but before it was completely dark we were bombarded by attackers. Even with mosquito repellent we couldn't escape. We finally retreated into the tent; but not before we spent twenty minutes running around in circles to keep them away while trying to hang the bag of food from a tree so that bears and rodents wouldn't get it.
7/21/2004 Summer vacation flies by no matter what you are doing and no matter how long the vacation is. I am done with four of seven weeks and I feel like I only stopped work a week ago. My brother has been helping me re-landscape my back yard. I rented a jackhammer and a dumptruck and we kicked things off by removing the large cement square that divided up the yard. We had to rest for a day after that since it was more work than either of us had done in a long time. I had decided to terrace the yard into two sections; the lower being for bonsai and the upper for a lawn and sitting area in the shade of the medium size pine tree.