Summer Nights

For three years I worried about the state of our yard, or lack of yard. After we moved in and the snow melted, we realized that we basically lived in the middle of a construction site that had been cleared of building materials. Since that first summer I have been putting out feelers for someone to help us figure out where to start the massive job of landscaping. People love our "blank slate" and that we "can do anything" with the property, but they have no idea where we should begin.

Then last fall I took a series of start-your-own-business classes, and lo and behold a landscape designer was among us. I got to know her and found I could easily talk with her. I saw photos of her work and liked what she had done. I asked her if she would be willing to work with us, and she said yes.

We wanted just the plans on paper because we will do most of the work ourselves, hence the purchase of a tractor with a front-end loader and chipper/shredder. Our part required emails, conversations by phone, and a five-hour meeting at our house with several tours of the yard where measurements and photos were taken.

We now have in our possession drawings from several points of view and at different elevations, as well as an overview of the three areas we want to develop. As work progresses I will post pictures here and on Facebook.

What strikes me tonight, on this first night of summer, is that Ken and I are spending a lot more time outdoors. Two of the last three nights we have been outside way past dinnertime, only to come in to eat and then head back out to clean up the yard before dark.

Saturday night it was almost 9 o'clock before we were in for the night.

Tonight I left dinner heating in the oven while I did some outside painting and Ken worked on new steps. I came in to set the table, thinking Ken would be right behind me, only to realize he'd taken the tractor out of the garage and over to a pile of branches and leaves to test out the chipper/shredder. It was after 7:30 before we sat down to dinner.

We are like a couple of kids when school is out and summer has arrived.

I haven't felt this way in years.