Mid Summer Backyard

The three tomato plants are taken over much of Mt. Gurgas. They are just now starting to show ripe fruit. Hopefully the squirrels won't get them ....

A pair of shots. Judith Falls in all their glory while Lake Jowels is turning rather green from the algae now growing in it.

Floodplain!

I beat the rain this morning and attached and buried the pipe that caries runoff from one downspout into the pond. The rain came down very hard and quickly filled up the pond, which then spilled into the floodplain. After about 30 min. the water in the floodplain soaked into the ground.

The photo was taken from the 2nd big rain storm which is still going as I type. The walkway stones are above the water level.

Nearly Finished Pond

The waterfall and pond are about 90% complete. The pond is double lined and there's newspaper and scraps of liner beneath to help protect the bottom liner.

I scavenged all the rock from the walkway to the back door to complete the lower falls and walls.

Still left to go are the pump, additional rocks to line the edge along the patio, sealing the lower waterfall, installing the pipe from the roof and plants.

No plans for fish, too much work and the liner is not fish safe. Kanohi has already been playing in the pond.

To save water we'll run a pipe from the roof downspout that will empty into the pond. Hopefully we'll never have to use potable water to keep the pond full.

Waterfall and Pond

Construction on the the waterfall and pond has begun.

Mt. Gurgas is being carved down for the water course and built up with the soil from the pond excavation.

Finally gave up on finding free blocks so i bought some for the rear retaining wall of Mt. Gurgas.

With some great stone from Madison i've expanded the berm area, replacing the small bricks with stone to form a bench. This might change.

Gohan Farm Produces!

We got our first eggs from the chickens!

I happened to look in the coop and there they were. One, on the right, is cracked, and both are frozen solid.

The 'nest' the chickens made was pathetic. They moved some of the bedding material in to a rough circle in the nesting box. Of course none of the material was anywhere other than the edge of the box. Meaning they dropped the eggs right onto the wood floor.

Ongoing Saga of the Countertops

Shortly before we left on vacation we had our countertops worked on yet again.

The sealant the guy put on was holding up well but since he hand sanded the old crap off, it was uneven.

Turns out the boneheads from the Countertop Factory had used over diluted sealant and, once again, caused us problems.

As you can see the island slab is gone. They decided to take it back to the factory to power sand it down and apply the sealant.

Since it has been 3 weeks we are expected them to show up this week on install the finished piece. This had damn well be the last time we have to deal with fixing the countertops.