the wee one calls chickens “chi-chens.” we have some of the feathered things living in a cardboard box. as they can’t stay in there forever (well, not alive anyway), we’re giving them a proper home. actually, i doubt they care much about what their home looks like… but as it’ll be sitting in our back yard, i care.

on that note, i’m building something quite along these lines:

yup… the chickens will have a nicer house than us. coop is 5′ wide by 3′ deep, overall run is 9′.  changing the style a bit to match that of the house, and it’ll have proper un-painted cedar shingles (like the house will, one day).

last sunday we spent the day tilling the yard and doing some mild grading.  early monday morning my heart sunk when i heard my grandmother had passed away.   i spent some time in so-cal with my family for the funeral, then returned home yesterday.  at this moment, it’s been exactly one week since her passing.

i thought for sure that the closure of the funeral would return things to “normal” once i got home, but alas that’s far from true.  i can’t seem to get my mind around anything… loosing concentration every few moments.  the wee one and i went to home depot today, just to grab some primer/sealer for the breakfast room, so we can avoid lead poisoning.  that simple task took every bit of my strength to accomplish.

i’m sitting here now, trying to keep occupied with something that really does interest me:  heavy equipment.  well, not true heavy equipment… but medium duty backhoes for the landscaping project, driveway and drainage trenching.  planning on renting an allmand tlb 220 for a weekend… probably needing to get a lowboy 10 yard dumpster, too.  these simple tasks (which will lead to fun, as i love tractors) are taxing my feeble mind… but i’m looking forward to the kid’s first time in a tractor.  sure, it’s probably not in the rental agreement to let an 11 year old (let alone a 2 year old) operate the equipment… but hell, i learned when i was 6 or so.  i see nothing wrong with it… further, it seems cruel to not allow them at least some time in a tractor.

i don’t see the workday at the office going well, tomorrow.  hopefully after another night’s sleep, i’ll be able to focus a bit more.

ok, now that the weekend is upon us… and we’ve cleared sunday’s schedule… the yard is in trouble.  assulting the ground with a 200lb, gas powered, blade spinning, earth thrashing machine will be fun.  burn fossil fuels to till the yard? yes. could it be done by hand? yes, but damned sure not mine.  i’ll side with a good old gasoline powered machine.  get it done much faster, with less of an impact on the carbon footprint.
how would it be less of an impact on the carbon footprint by using a gas burning machine, rather than by hand?  have any idea just how much fuel a helicopter burns?  the impact on my body, if done by hand, would surely give me a heart attack, requiring a medi-vac helicopter to tote my sorry ass to the hospital.  it’s all in the justification, really.

plus, compare swinging a pic and shovel for hour after hour, to something with an engine that makes noise… the engine is gonna win with the “fun” factor.

speaking of fun… we might look into renting a skid steer loader for a weekend.  the driveway is 2/3 mud, broken concrete and ankle breaking holes.  removing the whole deal would allow us to lay paver stones in place.  pavers from the street to the carriage house would look awesome.  extra nice along side a dry-stack locking ’stone’ retaining wall bordering the front yard.
now just to make more $$$ so we can actually do it all…

i know nothing about the stuff.

what i do know is grass.  everything from basic commercial mixes like marathon, to self selected mixes of perennial ryes and blues.  i also know grass’ thirst.  sure, there are rye mixes that are hearty through the summer and can withstand some drought… but the brown cycle looks like absolute ass.  then there’s the mowing.

so… throwing away what i know, and looking at groundcovers.   i’ve had dicondria but it didn’t seem to care for foot traffic, animals, bouts of cold, direct sunlight or really much anything other than a nice 2 week period in the spring.   thyme looks good and smells incredible… but is a very slow growing (so by the time we had a yard, summer would be over).  isotoma blue star creeper looks like a pretty good choice with it’s ability to withstand heavy foot traffic, looks pretty with the summer flowering, and grows fast… but all i know of it is what i’ve read briefly, online.

all this talk comes from the nearing approach of summer… and the whole “our yard looks like ass” thing.  with high hopes, tentative plans are to remove the poured walkway, then rent a tiller on sunday.  turn the entire back yard (ok, so it’s not exactly a field). level it. then hopefully recover.  luckily since i work for a brewery, recovery beer is free.  “recovery beer” is the stuff you drink after dragging a gas powered tiller around a dense packed yard all day and getting your ass handed to you in the process.

once the yard is clear of walkway (much of which is in the way of our almost finished deck) and tilled… we’ll be able to plant some fruit trees (of which are yet to be decided upon)… and groundcover.  oh… gotta build a chicken coop and run for our new pets/egg layers, also.

then there’s the front yard…
and driveway…
side yard…
kinda falling over carriage house…
lead paint that’s falling off the house…
i could go on and on like this all night, but instead i’m gonna go take a bath (hey, the bath tub is in excellent working order!)