Backyard in Progress

There is still much to be done, but for now I am pleased to present a couple in progress shots of the backyard.

Steve has moved a ton of dirt (now piled in the front yard) and put in a tremendous amount of effort to get the project to this point. We are planning to put square, concrete pavers (with some sort of ground-cover-type plant in between the spaced pavers to soak up some water during the rainy season) in the newly flattened area between the concrete walk and the retaining wall. This will give us a lot more room to move in the small yard and a lot more space to put seating.

I am absolutely thrilled with how things are going. Steve was even kind enough to wait until 10:30 this morning to start chiseling retaining wall blocks so that I could sleep in. I'm pretty spoiled.

A break from digging and painting...

Steve and I spent last weekend in Southern California. The primary purpose of our visit was to celebrate my grandma's 87th birthday. My parents, aunt, uncle and one of my cousins were all in town for the occasion.

Lunch at The Only Place in Town:

I enjoy spending time with my grandma. Things have of course been very difficult for her lately. I can only imagine the devastation of losing one's best friend and constant companion of more than sixty years.

At any rate, Steve and I filled our time visiting with family (and a few friends that feel like family) and didn't manage to get to bed until around 2 am for the past four nights. Night owl that I am, I was loving it. Unfortunately we didn't get to visit everyone we would have liked... only a few months until the long Christmas break, though.

When Steve and I rolled in to Santa Cruz very late last night, it was nice to get an enthusiastic greeting from at least a couple of the resident critters.

White Rabbit hops up on a box to beg for attention:

Now that we're back home, more home improvement project updates to come...

Big things are afoot in the backyard...

Much dirt has been moved and shaped... a good portion of which seems to have attached itself to Steve.

More to come on the dusty developments...