Landscaping has started on our homestead and wow, it's a process. They've finished digging the trenches for all the drip watering and sprinklers. Yesterday, they delivered 13 fairly large boulders. The two workers placed the boulders in a pretty linear design along an also linear design of river rock which is on top of the slight slope we have from our yard to the golf course. That area was hard to plan for because without a lot of building up of dirt (in some small areas) and possibly adding a retaining wall (very expensive), it would be almost impossible to get things to grow there. Largish river rock is the answer so there's about a 3 feet 'border' to our yard of stones.
The linear-ness of the added boulders didn't sit right with me - nature doesn't place huge rocks in any sort of 'pattern' really and while I don't expect our professionally landscaped yard to look as random as the hills behind us, I didn't like the two very linear things that I was seeing.
The landscape company owner came by yesterday and totally agreed - so he is here this morning to work with his team to get them to re-situate the boulders into more groupings. Even said the same thing I did about 'too linear'. We sync alike with him. It is hard to visualize the finished area when all we're seeing so far is bare earth and rocks everywhere. But we trust him and it will be beautiful when it's finished.
In researching the idea of a labyrinth, I went back to the website of The Labyrinth Company to get ideas of what pattern to use. I was planning to basically 'freehand' the design ourselves - so was looking at some fairly simple patterns we could recreate (or die trying to, anyway!) and noticed a 'template' tab that I hadn't noticed before. And viola! Just like that - they will place any design you like on weed fabric so you can then fill in the template with whatever medium you're using to create the labyrinth. We're going to use decorative rock but we could have also tried plants, mulch, etc. .
I ordered the template at 9:30PM Saturday night and it arrived Monday morning - from Connecticut! We haven't taken it out of the box yet because we're not at the labyrinth stage of our projects yet but we will soon!
150ish plants are being delivered today and we'll keep them watered until planted. It will be at least another two weeks of work until completion but most of what we liked had to be ordered. Worth the wait.
We've decided to place the cremains of Dani & Chloe under the labyrinth. Researched if it was legal and didn't find any reference at all in the Carson City ordinances - so we asked our landscaper and he said it's fine. I feel a bit torn about doing it - because if/when we leave this house someday, they'll still be there - but it's OK. It feels better than leaving them in our closet which is where Dani has been for a long time and now Chloe, too. We loved those dogs and they will be close to our hearts as we sit in our lovely garden corner nightly watching rabbits and birds.
Yesterday, the punch list guy was here most of the day working away on fixing the little things that have needed tweaking since we moved in. He put up towel racks in bathrooms and did a lot of patching, texturing and painting. He'll return next Thursday to continue so we're doing a constant 'eagle eye' approach in every room. No firm 'deadline' for this process (yet) other than that we are very ready to not have workers here off and on for weeks.
Today, we're planning to head to Reno to go to a nursery where we saw some other plants that our landscaper is having a hard time finding - we'll have lunch down town - free play at El Dorado and a down town adventure with a nice lunch.
I made a big grocery list to get stocked up a bit - but changed my mind. A website I follow is doing what they call 'Shelftember' - shop first from what you have and supplement as little as you can at the grocery store. We've got lots of frozen meat we need to use up - and enough pantry stuff to feed us for a few weeks, I think - so we're going to 'eat down' our pantry and freezer before doing a stock up. I'm considering thawing a bunch of beef cuts and grinding them up into 'ground beef' for soups and chili.
Winter is coming - and while I haven't lived in a snowy climate long, I feel compelled to have 3-4 weeks of supplies 'on hand' in case it's a bad stretch of snowy days. Picture a fire in the fireplace, cup of something warm in my hand and piddling in the kitchen cooking stews, soups and baking. It's going to be a lovely winter!
In other news, I survived my colonoscopy procedure and am SO GLAD that's off the list for another 3-5 years. A week ago today was my prep day and it never fails that no matter how 'easy' the prep seems at the start, there will come a point where misery rules the day. Adding to that this year was a procedure where I needed to be there at 6:30 AM with a prep step that happens at midnight 'the night before your procedure'. That translated into very little sleep that night - but oh well. It's done. Yay!
J. has a huge 'packet' of stuff we're going through for getting him set up for radiation treatments. Like everything else in life, 'tis a process. We're lucky to be retired where our days are open for the most part 'cuz they don't call you to say 'when would you like to schedule such and such?'. They send you a list of appointments pre-set - way to get it done!
I've been waking up at 6:30ish these days - sometimes 'assisted' by the construction crew working on our neighbors house but mostly just the small amount of light that comes in through the shutters. While it's lovely to curl up and sleep another hour or two some mornings, I'm feeling like getting up earlier is helping me sleep so much better every night.
Our neighbors were visiting their 'in-process' house yesterday - (SIDENOTE: we LOVE THEM. So fun and nice. Can't wait to have them for neighbors - two genuinely nice people who are very excited to have made the move from California to Nevada!) - and the crew working on their house didn't start at 6:30AM this morning so yay! But I still got up! Another yay!
Time to get dressed. J. says 'just pull on some shorts and come out to look'. Um, no. Bed head, tank top with no bra is not a look I want to show the general public. LOL. I need to get dressed presentably.
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