This is a quick update on what the front boundary of Lizard Rock looked like in the middle of July, 2007.

That's the neighbour's house in the distance and no, that is not our vehicle!

Remember how we had a long, boring, dirty white picket fence along the front of the property? As you know, we decided to pull it out and replace it with our zigzag recycled paling fence. We at first considered selling the pickets as they were largely in good solid condition, due to being treated pine. But then we began to consider what we were going to do up the back of our property in the interests of security, property definition and privacy. Those scorned pickets, far from being sold, ended up individually de-nailed, scrubbed, painted, trimmed and turned into our fresh, cottage-y back fence. Even the long horizontal (hardwood) rails from the original front fence were recycled. Only the posts had to be bought, and they are treated pine as well. They will last a long time.

As usual, we had a goal - we wanted merely to build three fence panels and two gates, and hang those same gates in one afternoon. Well, we wanted to go away the next day, yet were loath to leave the property unsecured at the back. Remember what I said about our goal setting habit in 'Snapshot: The List'?

The original fence.

The first panel of pickets is installed and Slick is glad-wrapping the freshly mortared top section of the pillar so it holds firmly together as it dries. I don't know where he got the industry strength plastic wrap; I think either he salvaged it or someone gave it to him. It has come in very handy for various things. Note the new garden, which is basically cow manure from the saleyards and kitchen compost rotting down together. The old drive was so packed and gravelly beneath that we gave up on the idea of trying to dig into it.

The Klick, Alick and Glick Painting Squad. As you can see, the pickets have been cut and nailed to the rails, already. As you can't see, the pickets actually all have an initial coat of white paint, so this is just touch-up time. The day was beautifully warm and as soon as the panels were dry we were able to lug them across to the posts they belonged to, chock them up and screw them on.

Slick outlining the process necessary to install the fence panels.

This photo was taken approximately from our back door. By the end of the day almost the entire fence was up ...

... except for a few last pieces. However, by nightfall all was finished, including a clever bolt to secure the big gates. We could go away the next day in peace and satisfaction.

A few images of things from February, 2007.

 

Llick, working in the garden down in the front yard. Notice the new crushed granite path? Oh, and do you see the lamp-post down at the gate? There is another behind Mum, too, just across and up the path a bit. Slick took advantage of the trench that the plumber dug to run the electricity.

 

Picturing the back of the house, from the upper corner of that side of the property. The clothesline has been moved - did you notice?

 

And again, from slightly further up the hill, on the drive. The hedge is growing healthily, despite being young and coping with the full heat of summer. The thick bank of mulch around the roots made a huge difference.

Skip ahead with me to December 2006 for some glimpses of our gardens, beginning with the vegetable patch.

We decided to make use of the oddly shaped corner up on the highest point of the block, an area cut off from the rest of the property by the right-of-way to the neighbours' place. The soil proved to be an interesting puzzle and challenge, as it had a high proportion of both white and red clay, a liberal scattering of rocks, large and small, and also contained much ash and garbage. Evidently this area had been used for burning off. A vigorous crop of blackberry canes also had to be removed before the garden could be dug, so tons of roots had to be removed - and are still a constant battle. The earth was also very compacted.

Because of the unfortunate composition of the soil, we had to dig it over completely, quite deeply, unload a couple of trailer loads of cow manure onto it and just leave it for a while as the manure broke down and started the process of re-balancing the soil components. After that we planted sunflowers (their roots would help break up the soil), tomatoes (we eat so many), broad beans, pumpkins, beans and zucchinis. Actually, the pumpkins might have been self-sown from our compost. In hindsight, we should have piled on at least twice as much manure. A load of fine green waste or straw or something probably wouldn't have gone astray either.

This photo, taken through the sunflowers, looks down the hill from the highest point on the property.

This photo was taken from the right-of-way, looking back up to the veggie garden. We grew lots of pumpkins and zucchinis that year.

And from the other angle, still standing on the right-of-way, just about where it exits our property and becomes Mangold Lane.

The steps and flower garden.

The steps from the bottom.

Looking toward the steps from the higher level again.

And from further back still.

We grew lots of pumpkins that year. The mulch was very fruitful!

As things stood, on the 4th October, 2006, we had a front gate, a kitchen door and nothing except grass in between. This was about to change, and Blick was the energetic instrument...




...with a little help.

As can (hopefully) be seen, we didn't dig the path, we dug gardens for Mum (she can always use more) that would eventually define the shape of the path. The yellow lines on the grass indicate the path space.