Digging out unwanted dirt had left a pretty good sized hole in my front yard. One thing you dont want going into winter is a big hole in your front yard. Luckily I found some composted manure close to town and was able to get it hauled in. I normally try to haul everything I can with my old ‘79 one ton dump truck “hank” but, the distance and the amount material this job required would have been a little hard on the old guy. Now that I have the manure all spread out I will have to till in some regular soil as the manure itself will be a little too “hot” or high in nutrients... but that is something that will have to wait until spring. 

​​      As you can see everting in my yard is dirt, so if there is any moisture this makes for muddy Lou paws. I decided that making a small landing to connect from the patio door to the back door of the garage was a good idea. Instead of pavers I opted to use old brick to make a small paver patio. The nice thing about old brick is its free, locally available, and sort of in style right now. Some of the brick came from the dump and some came from a friend’s backyard. In my experience pavers end up being the most expensive part of a landscaping job, this project ended up taking around 250 bricks and bricks are free. I love getting a deal. Right after me and bruce finished laying the pavers I took a step back to look and felt like they had a bit too much contrast in color. Im going to wait until I have more of the yard in order to make the final call, but I was thinking I may stain them to sort of mellow out the contrast. Also, the step... thats a temporary thing. Once I put my deck on some of this will be changing.
     Aside from finishing up the window well covers everything thats getting done this “fall” is done and im excited to start working on the interior of the house. The whole basement is unfinished, so I figure that would be a good place to start.

    During the first summer in my house a few things needed to be addressed, most notably the mountain and canyon in my front yard. In order to ensure the safety of neighborhood youth and protect myself from financial ruin: window wells were installed, the foundation walls were back filled and fifteen 3-ton-loads of spoil dirt, mostly “gumbo” were hauled out. The back yard wasn’t as big of a job. After a couple evenings of chainsaw work and some loads to the dump my overgrown yard was looking much better. To do all of this I received a lot of help from friends in the form of loaned equipment and labor (special thanks to Michael, John, Chad, Bruce, Ken & Jeff.) With that the landscape is finally at what I would consider ground zero. 
     With winter right around the corner there are still a few things left to button up. Topsoil needs to be spread in the frontyard and lewis’ bathroom spot needs to be finished up in the backyard.
p.s. As i was writing this Lewis decided to pee on my bed, he is very naughty.