Getting older hopefully means that you get smarter. We immensely enjoy the "do-it-yourself" approach and also know that the right equipment makes the job oh so much easier. When it comes to the property, Dave decided that the one piece of equipment that would make our projects easier is a tractor with attachments. It will also save our backs when it comes time to dig out and shape the water channels.
At first, he was looking at larger John Deere type tractors. I wasn't sure about it as they were big and would require the purchase of the attachments. Then he found Alice on Craig's List. It was a go!
Meet Alice. Alice is a 1968 B-110 Allis-Chalmers garden tractor. It is perfect! It comes with several attachments including a front plow, grader, disc, little wagon, and lawn mower deck (which we don't need, but came as part of the package).
Alice has already proven her worth with small stump pulling. Dave can then grade over the gaping holes so that cars and small children don't fall in!
You will see more of Alice as the renovations progress.
We bought our house in April 2013. At that time, the grounds were not over grown. My oh my, what a difference 18 months makes! Here are a few shots of the grounds at that time of purchase or shortly thereafter. The appeal to the property, aside from a single level home, was the possibility of a clean slate.
Front view of the NE (left) and NW (above) view of house and front drive Notice how "clean" it looks and how small those cute little bushes are. Aside from the apparent stumps, doesn't look like much needs to be up cleared out. We can just start the landscaping. Keep reading and hold on to your hat!
Back view from the NE (left) and NW (below with nephew Michael). A few small "trees" and shrubs along with the palm trees (Dave's favorite tree, by the way).
Also notice the railroad ties. There are hundreds of them! We learned the history of the ties from our neighbor David. The former owner and neighbor David worked for a railroad. They liberally helped themselves to the ties. The landscaping was born! The ties go!
We did not ask our tenant to take care of the "yard" so literally nothing was done from the time he moved in until we moved in. When we drove up in September to park Lucille, the property looked like it had gone back to the wild. I wanted to cry. The "clean slate" had gone wild! So before we can even begin the landscaping, we are digging and pulling the over growth.
What I have learned is that all those pretty little shrubs are really trees of the fast growing kind....ones you DON'T want next to the house. The African Sumac (aka Rhus Lancias) grow over 25' tall at a rate of 24" per year. They replant themselves from seeds. The plus is that they are extremely drought tolerant. Two or three will make the cut and be allowed to live. The rest are history. To the left is the NE corner of the house in its current state (Dec 13, 2014) with the huge growth of the African Sumacs (those cute little bushes in the before pictures).
We also have a cousin to Scotch Broom, known as Desert Broom. It is an outright weed that grows with a vengeance! Unfortunately, we got here as they were blooming and spreading their seeds. But at least the main plants are gone (the "little" bushes shown above in the right side of the frame). Vigilance will be necessary to remove them as soon they appear. Over time......
To the right is a picture from the street of the NW corner of the front of the property. In the forefront is just a glimpse of how the drive way has washed out.
The NW back corner with a ton of over growth. This is how fast the African Sumac grows and spreads! In the very front of this picture is a small Desert Broom plant. Some of them had gotten over 3' high in the front of the property.
To the right is the NE corner of the lot. Notice that there are a few dead trees. In reality, there are a lot of dead bushes and trees all over the area that we are clearing.
To be sure, we are not trying to clear the entire 2 acres. But we do want to clean out a nice little living space that invites birds and wonderful outdoor living.
To add to the fun, the monsoon season, which was heavier than usual for this year, managed to turn the front area into a river bed. From the positive perspective, I would rather know now that we have to fix the drainage rather than have the newly installed landscaping wash away. It gave us a different perspective on what needs to be done in the front. The challenge is to channel the water without flooding out our neighbors that are on the downside of our little estate. We will certainly learn about culverts and water diversion! And in the meantime be able to channel water to feed the trees and other plants.
Long story short, in a really backhanded way, the neglect of the property is a blessing in disguise. As we are cleaning the slate, we are learning the property. It will certainly help us better design the water diversion landscaping.
More to come!
I'm taking a few liberties to write about our adventures at "home." Justification - Tiny and Lucille both live on the property and Tiny has been very instrumental thus far in clearing out the property of dead trees and stumps. So the adventures continue, just in a little different direction.
We were thrilled to take possession of our home on December 1, 2014. However, the trailer with the furniture was still at the terminal and would not be delivered for another few days. Thank goodness Lucille was on the property! We borrowed her bed mattress, kitchen goods, towels and other living essentials and proceeded to camp in our house. It worked. We are no longer in a hotel!
The trailer arrived on December 3. Good grief do we have a lot of stuff to unpack! Even after selling most of our furniture and culling our clothes, we still took up 20' of the 28' trailer (9' tall, 8' wide). I felt a little better after talking with the delivery guy from Old Dominion. He has delivered as many as 2 of these trailers to a home. So in retrospect, maybe we did good almost filling just one. (If you are moving a long distance, I highly suggest checking out Old Dominion Freight Lines. You pack, they pick it up and deliver it. It beats driving a UHaul.)
The new washer/dryer and fridge arrived December 3. The bedroom set arrived a week or so later. It was so nice to get off the floor! These should be our last large furniture and appliance purchases unless the workmanship has built in obsolescence. Well, I take that back. We still need a couch or something for our family area. While we do have interim chairs (Dave's marshmallow couch and a vintage easy chair) to sit on, it provides limited seating when company comes over.
It has been a whirlwind since we moved in. Unpacking the moving trailer, unpacking boxes (more to unpack), starting the yard demolition, meeting neighbors, out of town company (already!), finding a hair stylist, learning how to use the garden tractor, yard demolition, finding the dump that takes clean green, more yard demolition.......
