February 2009

The new trees came in! I went to Millenberger and walked around the back lot where they keep the big stuff. I picked out a cedar elm that's about 30 feet tall and a live oak that's maybe around 25 feet. It's not a true DIY project because I didn't dig the holes the trees were planted in, but it took a huge earth mover to dig down 4 feet and I'd rather farm that out than stand out there with a shovel and pickaxe for a week! The one problem out of all this... the vitex shrub tree things that were there beforehand. I cut them down myself which was pretty easy to do. But I didn't take into account what to do with the wood. It's stacked up in the back yard, waiting for me to do something with it. Hope I can figure something out before too long!

Before:





During - you can see why I didn't want to dig the holes! It was impossible to get a pic of the bottom of the hole since it was pretty much 5ft around x 4ft deep.






And After! The big challenge will be getting them established. Texas is in a horrible drought right now so that means lots of water. They aren't a lot to look at right now, especially since there aren't any leaves yet. The tree guys said they'll look a lot better next year (as in, 2010).

June 2008

The movers showed up WAY ahead of schedule - before they got in all I could really do is unpack whatever Elle and I brought along in her car when we drove over here. The car was packed, but that's not a lot of stuff. The plants look bad... I don't know what happened but they really don't look good. Maybe they got a lot of sun on the way over, who knows. Also got an LCD TV and stand (thanks to my parents for the stand). It's a pretty massive piece of furniture, it took a 4-wheeled furniture mover or two to get it indoors.

After all my stuff arrived I had a little repair work to look into. Two fence posts, rotten at ground level for this short section that runs between the fenceline and a wall. Of course you can't just go buy new fenceposts and put them in the square hole in the concrete.

The hard part was really only an afternoon job but it felt like a weekend. It's hot in San Antonio in June, and breaking up the old concrete and getting the new fenceposts installed straight isn't exactly a good time when it's 100 degrees out. Anyway the fence is installed with new pressure treated posts that should last a long time and stand up a lot better to the carpenter bees I spotted going in and out of the old one. I also got the chance to write Elle and my name n the concrete and that's always fun. Wonder how long they'll be around? Hopefully longer than the old ones anyway.

We want to redo pretty much everything, of course the hard part is figuring out exactly what changes to make. The plan is to start with easy or repair type stuff, then move on to bigger and better things once I have a better feel for the house.

Anyway here are a couple of pictures of the concrete. Cheesy I know.