Progress Report

As you'll know if you read this blog regularly, we're moving this fall.  That has transformed this into a very busy summer, with a constant list of things to do to be ready.  You may have noticed that I'm writing a lot of blog posts about what I see nearby, not many Furry Gnome adventures this year!  But we're trading our big country property and gardens and some winter isolation for a tiny urban lot, easier access to services, and more time for adventures in the future - travel, exploring and photography, and writing.

Our new house is coming faster than we expected, as our builder has decided to use it as a model home for a couple of months before we move in.  There are multiple trades there working every single day, and there's never a gap in progress.  They're already installing the cupboards in the kitchen.  So far we're very impressed with the quality of the work.

It's a tiny lot, but we do look out on the local golf course, so hopefully we won't feel too hemmed in.  I hope I can find hours to walk around it when it isn't busy.  This will become our new garden - we're planning very little grass, at least in the back yard.

The saga of our shed has been challenging.  We ordered a small shed for the back yard, but when it was delivered, the wire at the end of the street was hanging a little low.  It caught the peak of the shed and pulled it right off the truck.  So back it went to be repaired.  Now it's sitting on the vacant lot next door waiting to be moved into place.

Meanwhile, back at home, we've been working like mad.  Don't have pictures of our garage sale, or our trips to the dump and other places, but we've been working like mad at downsizing.  One disadvantage of my big garage is there's too much space for junk!  Now that I have to get rid of it I notice what a packrat I am!

This is the little waterfall I created - after 4 years of hard work, delays, lazy summers, and more hard work.  The waterfall part is done, though you can hardly see the water, but the planting remains to be done.  So I will treat this as the 'before' picture and sometime you'll see the 'after' pic.

But down in the corner was the most challenging project for me.  I wired up an outdoor plug for the waterfall pump, with a switch inside the house, so I can just turn the waterfall on and off from inside.  I put this off for quite awhile, simply because I was hesitant to stand there and drill a hole through the wall of our house!  And of course you need to know what you're doing and be careful when you're doing wiring!  But it's done and it works!

So now we've started digging up a few key plants to take with us, mostly Hostas and Day Lilies.  This is the garden works yard for the summer.

The garlic harvest has been lifted, and is spread out in the garage to dry.  Mrs. F.G. hasn't decided yet how much garlic she's going to continue growing, or where.

And on top of that, we have a new house going in on the long-vacant lot next door.  Having built my own cabin, and two big additions, I'm interested in the process.  Our lot was an open field when we started, 19 years ago, but this lot is tree covered.  So we've listened and watched while they cleared part of the lot (chainsaws and a wood chipper), put in the driveway (which is going to have to be moved according to the owner), dug the foundation, poured the footings and then poured the foundation, and now they are spraying gravel everywhere with a big stone-thrower.  I've talked to the owner a couple of times, in part just to welcome them, and learned that this house is a pre-fab house built in a factory.  It will arrive on two trucks and be lifted into place.  I'm looking forward to seeing that!