Did we mention the pool?

Last summer, we got a big pool for the backyard, but I don't think we really used it much.  Jake and Lucy decided to improve on it this year by getting started early.  Last weekend, just before all the rain came, they relocated the swingset, dug out a flat area in the backyard, and set up the pool.  Yesterday, Lucy had a chance to use it, despite the fact that it was only maybe 70 degrees out.  She went prepared in her new wetsuit:

And it worked out great:

Yes, she is trying to squirt the photographer.  Alice went kinda nuts and tore around the yard (I regret that I did not get photos or video, but it was more important to watch what was happening).  She is very pleased that there is a large pile of dirt, apparently set up just for her to dig in.

Here's the full situation in the yard (yes, it still needs some work):

It was a fun time, and exhausted everyone, as pictured here:

And then Lucy got dressed up for guests:

Yes, that is my dress she's wearing, a little vintage number from sometime in the early 1980s.  It was a good time.

More updates soon, I hope!  Enjoy the rest of the weekend!

Yard update

While Jake and I were able to make some headway in the backyard clean-up project, we decided to hire our wall-building neighbor to do the heavy-duty work. He finished the roto-tilling today! Check it out:





We're figuring out now what to do next. Roland has suggested we hire someone to hydro-seed the backyard, and then in select areas (like around the holly tree and up on one of the levels at the side of the house) we get crushed rock (rather than mulch). Any suggestions, readers?

Creature Feature

Given our recent acts of destroying the habitats around us, we should have expected this. But no one really expects to walk into their dining room and find a mouse just hanging out, not even attempting to run away. We've had uninvited creatures here before (see here and here for a trip down memory lane with past critters) but never with such an attitude.

This morning when Lucy and Carter and I returned from our walk, we came face to fur with this tiny little guy.

I immediately locked Carter in the bathroom, as I figured his prey instinct would kick in and we'd have a real mess (and traumatized child) if he was in the same room as the small, fuzzy creature. Lucy was delighted and showed the mouse her teddy bear. The mouse walked around a bit, but showed no signs of desiring to escape. I grabbed a glass bowl and put it over him, without much difficulty.

Lucy was thrilled to be able to get up close and personal with the mouse. She showed him her lizards and decorated his bowl prison with stickers while I hunted for the camera.

After a frantic phone call to Mom and then to Jake, I decided to take Lucy to school so that I could deal with the critter without her "help." She was very excited to tell her teacher about her new mousey friend.
When I got home, I slid a file folder under the bowl, then a cookie tray, and carried the whole mess outside. Here's what it looked like:

I took him all the way down to the bottom of the yard and let him loose. Here he is:

No, he's not dead. Just sleepy, apparently. He sat there for a minute, and then I shooed him off, and he ran for cover under some leaves.


That ends today's installment of All Creatures Great and Small of 83 Durant.

Another rock in the wall!

The garden wall project continues, but we've hit some bad weather this afternoon, so there's a pause. But it's coming along nicely. Meanwhile, the backyard wall is nearly complete. There are a few spots that need more work, and the concrete has to dry, but it's almost done!

Here's the wall from above (taken from the back deck):
Here's a view w/ the steps (the back of the house is kind of a mess. That's the next phase of the project.)



Our wall is made of rocks. Heavy, heavy rocks. It's awesome.

More updates tomorrow, I hope!

The Wall...day, uh, something

OK, so I've lost track of the exact timeline of the wall project, but I thought I would post an update. The project has now grown in scope. Seeing as we had Roland here, and since he was clearly doing a bang-up job, we thought perhaps we should have him take a look at the OTHER rotting timber wall, this one in the front of the house. We've known for a while that it was rotting, and in fact, Jake had recently re-attached the steps that lead down from the deck because they had rotted out. It was a bad scene, with some serious dangerousness surrounding not only safe passage from the deck/kitchen down to the garden, but also, the wall was clearly host to various critters of the sort that like to eat wood. Given that they were having quite a feast on the rotting timber, it was only a matter of time until they started munching on far more important wood, like our house.

So we signed on to have Roland take out the rotting timber walls around the garden, and replace with a stone wall. He'll also put in new limestone steps. These will be much safer. There is one downside -- Carter will lose his wallow, the space under the wooden steps where he would sometimes hide on hot days. But we'll have to build him a doghouse replacement, because this is a better solution.

I haven't been able to get out to the back to update you on the backyard project, but here's the status of the garden wall (or, as you can see, lack thereof):


Wow, I always wanted to see a cross-section of the ground underneath our house! Yikes! (that's where the steps were)


The guys have promised that the plants above the wall (like the hydrangeas and lilies) will all be fine. They also know to protect the rhubarb and a couple of tomato plants, as well as the herb garden section. The strawberries, though, are taking a beating. Oh, and the Jerusalem artichokes were ripped out. But the thing is, they were becoming a bit of an infestation anyway, so we're not too worried about them.
The team should be back on Monday to put down gravel here, and also to finish up with the rock building out back. It's all very exciting. Stay tuned.

The Wall, Day 2

Roland and his crew continue to work on our wall. It's exciting to see it come together. This afternoon while we were looking out at the yard from our back deck, we noticed that a little creature had come to observe the work, too:
I know, that's kinda fuzzy. It's a baby groundhog!!! Cute!

Today they finished pulling out the old wall and dug down to lay the gravel. Here are a few shots to show the current status of the project:
Tomorrow they start to build.

By the way, Jake and I are right now, at this very moment, watching the Celtics v Lakers game. Many of you (I'm talking about you, Brendan) will find this hard to believe. Granted, we are both multi-tasking (me blogging, Jake building a bike wheel), but we're watching a professional sporting event on television. Alert appropriate media outlets.

Also, just in case you haven't recently scrolled down to look at an earlier post, you might want to know about this recent media appearance by Lucy:
http://www.npr.org/blogs/waitwait/2010/06/07/127537913/listener-mailbag-i-want-the-jokes

Go Celtics!

Men at Work

No, not like the 80's band; there are actually men at work in our backyard. I don't think we've blogged much about the backyard before, mostly because it is a sight of horror back there. OK, that's an exaggeration, but there is a retaining wall out there that has been crumbling and rotting since before we moved in, so it was always a bit treacherous. Last year sometime, Jake and some good friends of ours started digging to try to start to build a replacement wall, but never got much further than digging holes, which have since filled with water and plant life.

We finally talked to our neighbor, Roland, who owns his own masonry business. He builds retaining walls all the time for a living. He gave us an estimate, and we decided that we would have him do it later this summer. But then he stopped by on Friday to tell us that his job that was scheduled for this week fell through, and if we wanted to jump and have it done right away, he could take care of it this week, with an extra discount. Nice. Like, super-nice. So we decided to go ahead and get the darn thing done.

I know we had a few friends who had many times offered to come help us with this project. We decided that we would rather just have those friends over for a celebratory BBQ in our awesome backyard once it's all done. All around, a much better idea.

I'll post a few pictures this week as the wall develops. I'm very excited about the thought of reclaiming the backyard.

Roland told me this morning that the first thing he had to do was take out the poison ivy that was growing in the wall, and he also mentioned that there's poison sumac in the yard. UGH! So we'll be keeping out of there until it's free of poisonous plants.

Masonry Projects Complete!

Our mason did a terrific job fixing up the various problems at 83 Durant.

The main job was fixing the front wall in the basement, which has been the source of leakage over and over again. That area of the basement also had a bunch of weird built-in workbench type things. Why do I describe them as weird? Well, one of them was actually a door -- a cheap, hollow door -- made into a workbench top. It was kinda crazy, and we never used that area for anything, let alone as a workshop. So Jake's first job, before the mason could come to do his job, was to rip out all the junk. Here it is, most of the way broken down:


And now, here it is, all fixed up and water-tight!


We're now thinking that we should also have the side wall (where the window is) done later.

While we had him here, we also had him take care of a few masonry projects and repairs on the outside of the house.

This is a small area of the wall on the side of the house, towards the back. As you can see in the "before" picture, it looks like all the mortar has been chipped away.


The mason not only re-pointed, but decided that it would all be much stronger if he just coated the whole thing. So here it is, all nice and smooth and ready to paint (if we want to).





Here are the steps that lead out to the backyard from the basement:
They were once all cracked, and several bricks were missing. Now they're all better. (Sorry, I couldn't find a before picture.)

He also fixed up this little area of brick pointing:

So things are now nice and tight and hopefully water-proof and critter-proof! Hooray!