A Welcoming Home

Among the photos that I snapped yesterday is this one of Mom's new entry. Don't you love the two rock planters that used to be in front of the donut shop and which now frame her new courtyard entry? Her azalea survived the winter and is blooming for the second time. Her new family of ducks (from Oregon) are guarding the front door and her collection of froggies is patrolling the planting beds. Several of the granite rocks from the Yosemite area and lovely green Mariposite are scattered haphazardly at the moment.

It's a nice start to her new start!

Rhodies in Bloom

Grammy, the pup and I spent the day working on her yard. I usually forget to take pictures, but today was an exception. This shot is the "Nova Zembla" rhododendron that just burst into bloom when the hot weather arrived a couple of days ago.

The Backstory: Winter lingered on until just a couple of weeks ago and the nurseries were suffering from too many plants and too few customers. So one very cold day, we scored some great buys on rhodies. JR and Gram immediately found a place for three in the front yard; JR dug through the horrific clay "topsoil" that Lennar provided her new home and they have survived the unseasonable cold, winds directly off the snows and the aforementioned dirt. Well, they didn't survive exactly--I think it's more like they flourished! This is the first to bloom. Another white one is blooming now in the backyard, and another pink one is set to bloom very soon in the front yard. Another has buds, but we have no idea what color (part of the reason they were so nicely priced is that many didn't have a tag indicating color). So it will be a surprise!

In other garden news, a contractor has been chosen, pavers have been ordered and a garden plan has been finalized. Six yards of triple-mix will arrive this Saturday, meaning we will be a wheelbarrow brigade digging up soil in the planting areas and replacing or remixing it with the triple-mix. A week later, paver installation will commence. While the pavers go in, we will be getting the irrigation system in order. Sod will be laid when the coast is finally clear and we will all breathe a sigh of relief and toast each other for a job well done!

Good Fences

My better half is a handy guy to have around! He is so great at building strong fences and perfect gates. Our side gate has been flopping around for quite some time; the latch wouldn't catch and wind would blow it open. The 4x4 post had been rotting and was holding by a thread. My suspicions are that the rodents who have tunnelled under the bricks for a few years running may have helped the rotting process along, but I have no proof. Just the knowledge of mouse runs through leaves, baby mice sightings, and replacement of the sand base under many of the bricks in that area.

With the arrival of a puppy, suddenly the old gate became a big concern. When Kharma disappeared from the backyard when my back was turned for 5 minutes and appeared in the front yard, the gate became a menace. So there was no doubt that when he got back from his latest trip, rebuilding the gate would be a priority.

It wasn't fun to have the gate deconstructed, leaving our backyard exposed so that our little escape artist could have a field day. We literally had to keep our eyes on her all the time. And with some late nights at work the project dragged on and on. For sanity's sake, we put up a roll of chicken wire left over from Tess' puppyhood many years ago. Kharma just figured out how to push, climb or burrow and get to the other side. I added a picnic table turned on its side, a heavy box, the kids' old red wagon and one of E's extra tires to the barricade. It slowed her down at least.

Thank heavens the project is finished. Grammy brought the drill we left at her house, and my sweetie had the whole thing completed before dark. It will be nice to be able to put the pup in the backyard and know she is safe while we are cooking/upstairs/cleaning/etc.

Welcome, Family and Friends!

Welcome to our Blog! Hope you enjoy this peek into our lives!

Whether we finally got around to emailing you this address or whether you found it after checking our basically defunct old website, we are glad you found your way here.

If you are one of the dear souls out there who put our old RenoReynolds site on your favorites list after our Christmas newsletter, and have checked back on our website only to be sadly disappointed time after time with no news since January...well, what can we say? You deserve a gold star for sticking with us.!

Lately we've been posting about our puppy. We are enamoured with her and have taken a million photos, but only post our favorites.

Please, please, please--click Comments and let us know you are out there. The most exciting thing for any blogger is to know that we are being read and not just talking to ourselves.

Love you all!

Hole in the Ground

Spent the day at Mom's new house--digging. She has all these plants, both new and old, and nothing is planted in the ground yet. That's partly because the soil is clayey with a fair amount of gravel and a few cobbles thrown in. It is NOT fun to dig in. Nearly every shovelfull hits a rock or two. But there is one corner that has been outlined as a planting bed which is also a little less compacted from the construction (oh, yeah, forgot to mention the compaction underneath the clayey gravelly stuff) and I got carried away today.

I started digging and just kept on. In fact, I kept on for nearly seven hours. (I actually enjoy spading. I take it slow and easy and don't let my ambitions get ahead of my shovel.) Mom now has an 18 inch deep hole that will take some decent soil, as well as a very large mound of dirt from the excavation and a nice pile of cobbles and gravel that can be used later.

Through all this digging, Kharma kept me company. She roamed and used her increasingly large paws to dig and chased gravel when I tossed it in the direction of the designated gravel pile and explored the depths which were much deeper than she is big. She would occasionally desert me and wander away to see what Grammy was doing.

She tired toward the end of the day and fell asleep close by as I shovelled. I would step around her as I used the spade. Pretty soon there was no room for my feet, only the pup. Eventually she was asleep on an island of soil surrounded by a large hole in the ground. Dirt would fall on her, the shovel would be inches from her head, the rocks would screech as the shovel scraped them, and she didn't budge. She was totally worn out.

After dinner, human and canine, I began to work on the nice big hole for the dogwood tree. Again, she helped dig. She fit rather nicely in the hole--the depth suited her and it was just the right round size for her. I was rhetorically asking myself what she would grow into if planted, when it dawned on me. Obviously, a puppy would grow into a dogwood.

Happiness is a New Puppy

We may be a little sleep-deprived, but we go around with big grins! Kharma is turning out to be a great puppy. She is alert and smart and cute and lots of fun! She likes tugging on rope, shoelaces, towels, and old floppy balls. She likes chewing on twigs, cardboard, garden tools and paper. She is almost sleeping through the night, although we sleep light and keep expecting to hear her. She has not had an accident inside yet, due mostly to our diligent outside expeditions every time she wakes up or eats. This is her investigating what might be in a hole in the railroad tie. She is just SO CUTE!