Tuesday, June 4, 2019

The Former Floating Home

It’s another gorgeous day and that means I will finish section one of the backyard project today. When I finish, I’ll take photos to let you see what I’ve been doing.
It’s been strenuous work. Much of my time has been spent removing old construction materials from the base of the tall Firs in the yard. Whoever built this place, dumped their detritus at the base of the trees and then spread a thin layer of soil over it, so yesterday involved a lot of depressing reveals as I continued to prepare the surface of my first section of the backyard for seeding.
I’m pleased with what I’ve done. The front yard looks so, so much nicer now that it has a lush green (weedy) lawn. I don’t care about the weeds; I love its rich deep colour. And that is what I hope my backyard will look like when I’m done.
Today, however, will be harder on me. Around 1:30 yesterday, something in my shoulder got damaged from my work. I now have a very  painful shoulder and my plan is to be using it a lot today. I’m going to steal some soil from the lot next door to fill the areas where I removed the rocks, concrete and wire.
From tomorrow until Friday, it’s supposed to be cloudy and showery. Then Beth comes for a few days and she’s followed by Edwin, so it will be a while before I start on section two of the backyard and the visits will give my shoulder time to do some healing.
When I moved here, my house floated in the forest. The lot had been cleared, the four buildings had been built and a single Rhododendron had been planted. The yard was Salal, Ferns, Oregon Grape and innumerable forms of weed were where there was soil and my land faded into the forest on three sides. A short fence defined the property line between my home and the cottage next door.
I remember thinking how lovely it looked and how nice it was that there was no fence so that my home felt part of the forest. 
Then I built the fence to for Sheba, and since then I haven’t stopped. Come Fall, I’ll have transformed 85% of my half acre. 

















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