06 September, 2011

Autumn

I can't believe how quickly it happened.  Last week, I swear it was summer and now, well it's autumn.  I know this because I spent the weekend being bombarded by yellow leaves falling from our maple trees out the front of our Vermont house while we were digging our moat.  

Actually, it's not really a moat, well that's not the intention, but with the amount of rain they've had up there, I'm sure it's looking pretty moaty.  It's the start of a path to our front door.  It goes across the front of the house to the front door and down to the other parking area. The boys dug an AWESOME set of stairs which I...ah...forgot to photograph.  I hope that they are still there when we go up again next weekend and haven't washed away.  Those boys worked HARD this weekend.  Proper aching shoulders and blisters galore.  The plan is to put down some weed cloth and gravel/crushed rock (which we need to save up for) and lay some gorgeous flat stones that I dug out of the yard at the back of the house to make a stunning and functional stone path.
This is my "quarry" out the back.  I started by clearing the trees and bushes that were too close to the house and discovered that at some point someone has used lovely old flat, stone wall stones to fill in that hole- and they are relatively easy to get out, just REALLY heavy.  That means we are going to save a bucket on making this path.  So we really have two projects going, because once we finish clearing this, we will have a fantastic spot to have a patio.  

So then, part of digging up the ground for the path, also required separating out all the round rocks that are naturally occurring around here for filler to replace the lovely flat rocks in the quarry.  We also took out all the grass and our neighbours were quite happy to take the lovely soil left over.  Of course, 2 and a half days is not quite long enough to complete a project like this, so we left the front of our house looking a bit like a construction site.  And then the rain came.  HEAVY rain, that we had to drive through for 1 1/2 hours on our way home.  It will be interesting to see it next weekend....

And I AM feeling very guilty about starting a new project when I haven't finished painting the house.  But, the painting is slow, takes a long time for me to set up, and really I can only do it (and I have good days and bad days with my health).  And it's hard to start when you know rain is on the way.  This, I had lots of "willing" helpers, and I want to try and get it done before the ground freezes and so that we can use it this winter.  The house painting may just have to wait for next summer... Although there are a few more leaks I need to patch.

And this week, it feels like autumn down here in CT too...rain, rain, rain and a bit of a chill in the air.  We came home to hot water last night- the landlord had had someone in to "repair" the boiler while we were away, but when Oscar went to have a shower this morning, the boiler had died again.  Ah well.

3 comments:

  1. well it is springing here, tomatoes are planted and we had a 29 degree day last weekend, so summer is not too far away...good to see those rugger boys using their muscles...does Oscar do the driving to and from?

    ReplyDelete
  2. No, as yet Oscar doesn't have his license...yet another thing we are saving up to do.

    ReplyDelete
  3. That hot water has been a challenge, and it sounds like you need a new boiler. You really would have needed the hot showers and baths after such a weekend. Can't wait to see all this work in Vermont in person!!!

    ReplyDelete

Thank you so much for reading my blog. I LOVE to have comments-even if I don't know you, please stop by and say HI! If you have a question for me, I'll answer in the comments, so please check back.

ShareThis