Long time no blog (empty backyard)

Owing to the last throes of the legal proceedings which have allowed us to keep the castle in the first place—but which threw one last financial monkey wrench into the works—we've only taken one step in the last several weeks. (Actually this happened over a month ago now. Whew! We need to get back to work on this place.) We finished getting everything torn out of the yard...professionally. No more of this inefficient hacking away with the wrong tools...That was fun and a fine way to start, but now witness the blank slate, wiped clean:

viewed from the NW corner of the lot

...from NE corner...

...from atop the gardeners' ladder, looking NW...

OK, so it's not exactly beautiful...but it's ready for action. What will happen out here?

Not shown: The considerable chunk of the big tree overhanging the roof which the gardeners trimmed back, thankfully. I'm not sure how much less debris we can actually expect to accumulate up there, given how huge she remains...but it's the thought that counts, right?

Name that tree, cont'd

Acacia melanoxylon! Also known as the Australian Blackwood.

As I suspected, it spreads underground through its root system, in addition to dropping those little seed pods all over the place. They are considered invasive around here, but it turns out their wood is also useful for tons of stuff, including guitar-making. Hmm...

Open yard...

Feel the space! Breathe the air! Walk around! It may not look like much, but it's at least not full of trash any more! Is my enthusiasm about the expanded dimensions of space here getting through clearly enough? Is it?

Guts and glory, cont'd

Trash hauling begins! This was a step we'd been eagerly looking forward to making, but unsure about when exactly the proper moment to take it out might present itself. Halleluiah, the day has arrived. On Monday, we'll have a backyard.

Still to come this weekend: green room?

More big tree paraphernalia

Incredible to think that such a huge mamajama could come from something this tiny:

Yet, it did. And these pretty little onyx-lookin' suckers come out of these funky curly-q's:

Still haven't identified genus & species...

Concrete solutions to concrete problems

Katie,

Thanks for sending this idea! Don't know if we'll end up going with it or not but it's good to know all the options we might have at our disposal.

Cracked concrete gardens...

Name that tree, cont'd

First stab at tree research with this site didn't help.

Whatever it is, it's quite common around here. They're all over this neighborhood:



I'm not sure why I need to know the genus and species, but somehow I do.

Name that tree

This tree dominates our whole house, above and below ground. We do not know much about it.

We'd like to know what kind of tree it is in the first place. Dad...? Are you able to help us here? Hint: in addition to copious leaves, it also drops these little brown fuzzballs all over the place. The ground is covered with them.

Also, we'd like to name it. Her.

Meet the yard

Better audio?

Yard demolition

Reminds me of playing out in the forest, chopping stuff down when I was a youngun.