SUMMERTIME

LEMONS

BIRDS IN THE POND!

The impetus for all this hard work in the backyard was to invite more birds in to use the pond for water and bathing.

A few days ago, the first bird I saw using the pond for a drink was a crow...not what I really had in mind.

But yesterday, as I sat on the back porch I saw a swarm of European Sparrows gather, looking longingly at the pond.  Eventually, one brave soul landed and hopped over to the edge and proceeded to bathe.  

FRIENDSHIP

CARVING FOR PEACE

I finally got around to carving an image into my piece of the Peace Puzzle Project.

I sat on the patio, under the umbrella, with the sound of the waterfall nearby.  It was very pleasant.

Now I just need to get it into the mail to Maria in Las Vegas.

BEFORE AND AFTER

Here are the before and after pictures of my backyard project:

Before

After

Before

After

Before

After

Before

After!

After

MOMENT OF ZEN

FINISHING THE PAVERS

The final step - putting 'Paver Lock' in the space between the pavers.  This will 'lock' them all together and prevent anything from growing up between them.

First you sweep the sand into all of the cracks and try to get it even and looking good.  It's a lot like doing tile grout - you sweep one direction and get it looking great, and then when you sweep the other direction it messes it all up.

It took me most of the day.  It was a slow process.

Once you get it looking the way you want then you 'mist' it all with a fine spray of water, getting enough on there to soak all the way down to the bottom.

Sweeping

Misting

Cooling

It was a very warm hot day.  My feet were tired and hot, so I soaked them in the pond afterward.  Excellent.

FINISHING THE EDGING

I got up early and headed to get stones for the edging, some plants and other stuff.

This was my first time to Marenakos Rock Center in Preston.  What a wonderful place!

They have all kinds of stones and rocks and things to see.

I walked around until I actually found something that I was looking for, it was perfect.

Then I headed home, stopping to buy some plants on the way.  I found a water lily with a lovely peachy-yellow flower.

I laid the rocks out on the walkway first to wash them and try to pre-fit them together.

Here's what it looks like after.  I'm going to add some plants in the empty spaces.

THE WATER IS IN!

After Darrell's girls took us out for a Father's Day lunch, we got back to work on the pond.  There wasn't very much we needed to do, so it went fairly quickly.

Then it was time to put the water in.  I was so excited (and a little scared).

I used the spray nozzle to hose down all of the rocks and clean off any residual dust and dirt.  That was fun for a little while.   Then I put the hose in and went about doing other things.

I haven't turned the pump on yet because I want the dirt to settle first.  So I haven't been able to get a really good idea of how the waterfall will work.  I did put the hose up at the top and let the water run down, but it's not the same.  But, it looks pretty cool!

Starting to add the water and rinse off the rocks.

The hose is propped there, it's filling itself.

Hard to tell with such harsh light, but this is my view from where I sit on the deck - so nice.

Bentley is such a curious cat.  He had to taste the water about three times.

The plan is to finish it up on Tuesday.  I need to get a few more coping stones and start looking at plants.

So exciting!

THE POND COMES TOGETHER

Darrell and I got started early on the putting the pond together.

First was to put in the underlayment pad and then the liner.

Next we started rinsing off the rocks and putting them in, one by one.

The skimmer and piping installed.

I feel like I'm being watched.

So curious...

Darrell washed the rocks before handing them to me.

Bentley was supervising

Almost done...

We didn't finish, but there's not a lot left to do.  

BACK TO THE POND

It was raining lightly when I started this morning.  I began by trimming the tree a little, and then digging the hole for the skimmer.

When I started putting it all together I realized the pump wasn't fitting in there correctly.  I called Russell Water Gardens where I bought it.  They said it sounded like they gave me the wrong part.  I could mail it in or bring it back and exchange it for the correct one.

I was more than a little pissed - this was their mistake, yet I was the one going to pay for it with a 2 hour round trip drive to Redmond (in the worst traffic around).  They were very unsympathetic.  After I cussed for a while and took it out on the pond hole with the shovel, I decided to bite the bullet and just get it over with before the traffic got worse.

I made them put it together for me so I was sure it would fit.

Anyway, back home...I got the skimmer installed, finished digging the hole and glued in the piping.  I'm all ready to put the liner in tomorrow - Darrell said he'd help.

Skimmer installed and leveled.

View from the other side.

Got the pipes all ready to go.

FINISHING UP

I spent part of the day cleaning up and and doing the fill-in-cement work.  I didn't take pictures.

Here's all that was left of the  870 6x9s, 138 of the 6x6s and 109 12x9s.  I moved each of those 1107 bricks at least three times, if not more.  

Good planning?

Nothing better than a job done and looking good.  Now, I'm on to the next job.

PAVERS ALL IN!!

We waited to start sawing again until 8:00am. 

In the meantime, I got the last area prepped and ready to lay the bricks onto.  I had to run down to McLendon's Hardware and get another two bags of sand.

We were finished cutting all the pieces by 11:00am.  We cleaned up the saw and returned it before lunch.

After lunch, I cleaned up our work area and tools and put everything away.  I can't hardly believe the mess that masonry saw makes.  Yuck.  There was slurry everywhere.  We had most everything covered in plastic, but the ground was covered in it. 

All of our scraps fit into a three gallon bucket.  We used  almost all of the little pieces up!

I was too pooped to do anymore today.

Here's where we started this morning, with the far area pretty much done, and just beginning to lay out the fancy stuff on this side.

Darrell did all of the cutting with the saw.

This is what it looked like at the end of the day.

Here's looking at it from the other direction - you can't really see the 'tendrils' because of the lighting.

SAWING THE PAVERS

Today is the day I've been waiting for.  I was up and at Home Depot when they opened.  I got 15 more of the big pavers and 120 of the 6 by 9s and some red bricks for our fancy stuff.

Since I was the only customer in the garden shop, one of the guys that worked there helped me load it all up and get it into our pickup.

After Darrell took the pallet of pavers out with Big Joe, I headed down to my favorite rental store, Center Tool Rental in White Center, just a few miles from home, and rented the masonry wet saw.

Darrell cut while I fitted the remaining bricks.  I had one piece left to fit by the time we stopped for the day.  Darrell worked on the area near the house, fitting in the cut pieces and designing and fitting the red bricks for the 'tendril'.  We didn't get done.  There is still one area left where we have a lot of designing and custom work to do.

Big Joe helps out again, removing the pavers from the pickup.

Wet saw set up on the rolling scissors cart.

This is what it looked like at the end of the day, after I cleaned up a little.

The walkway goes all the way to the patio now.

It is looking so nice!

THE BIG PUSH

Okay, this is the week I'm going to get my project done - or really close to done!

I've got to lay all of the 6 by 6s and 9 by 12s, so I'll know how many more I need before I head back to Home Depot.  (There was a change of plan since I ordered them, so I know I'm going to be short.)

See the little blue paper?  That's the pattern, I had to have a cheat sheet.

From the side, I'm getting the hang of the pattern.

After lunch I went back to Home Depot and got more pavers and sand.  Darrell made a pallet that his Big Joe would be able to lift out of the truck.  That's one less time I have to pick them up and move them...yea!

Okay, this is as far as I could get without a masonry saw, which we are now ready to go rent.

ANOTHER THURSDAY

Took another Thursday off work to get some work done on my project.  I want to get the next section done next week, so I prepped the area for it today.  And the last of the 6" by 9" bricks for the walkway are underneath the other pavers.  I have to move them, so I can figure out how many I'm short. 

I'm all out of 6 by 9 pavers, this is as far as I can go with the walkway.

I had to move all of the 6 by 6's and 9 by 12s to get to the 6 by 9s underneath.

Can't see it, it's over exposed, but that is as far as my bricks got me.

This is the next area I'm doing.

This area will be laid with the 6 by 6s and the 9 by 12s.

I