Yep, moved to the Klopeks, now for renovations!

[CopperNick]

A local property owner decided that being able to park off the street was more important than having a front lawn so he had the lawn taken out and replaced with an asphalt pad. Apparently the 'hood wasn't too happy about his yard upgrades and he got grief over that but, just as way to pull a little more chain, he decided to have the pad painted green and then scored some of those big plastic hippy flower decals and had them laid down on the green background. Neighbours were Not impressed.
Whatever.



Nick

 

[ck80]

Today was a day of the redneck trailer doing redneck things.

Throughout the property there are (or were) a series of sunken depressions, these could be 3 ft by 5ft and a good 12-14" deep at the center. It all stems from the original developer cutting down trees and leaving the stumps to rot in ground, a practice continued by prior owners.

So, today we bought small #57 granite to fill the worst of the depressions up to a level about 2-3" below grade. The first 3300# of it did the job for this tranche of workings. Then compacted the stone as it went in the depressions/holes.

Then we bought 6800# of nice, heavy organic, topsoil. Top coated the stone, with about a 1"crown above grade to account for some settling and wash down. Covered the stone, now the yard looks like it has chicken pox:



A solid acre of lawn covered like that, although, picture was from before we hit it with the roller to get it close to grade.

Coming soon: a garden, and, some fruit going in.

 

[CopperNick]

Y'all seem to be fixing to make things tough for the gophers and groundhogs.


Nick

 

[ck80]

Y'all seem to be fixing to make things tough for the gophers and groundhogs.


Nick

Luckily we don't have too many of those. High water table would flood them out I bet. The big losers today would've been any rat snakes and garden snakes taking up residence there. We don't have much of anything in the way of squirrels or chipmunks that would've used the hollows as tunnels.

 

[CopperNick]

Thinking on what you just described, would installing some kind of french drain system help keep the water table in check. I know the stone will help with drainage but getting the water from there to elsewhere can entail some major labor and effort.


Nick

 

[ck80]

Thinking on what you just described, would installing some kind of french drain system help keep the water table in check. I know the stone will help with drainage but getting the water from there to elsewhere can entail some major labor and effort.


Nick

That is in the cards for rainwater management off the roof and away from the structure in future stages, when it comes to landscaping near the structure... But, everywhere around is flat - were down on the coast. There's swamp land around, and, turns out building practices down here involve raising land when they want to build - anything from houses, to shopping centers, to roadways. So, that's probably how things went down when they built this neighborhood as well.

 

[ck80]

Today was tomato transplant day.

Cherokee Purple, Lemon Boy, Better Boy, Beefmaster, Roma, Grape, Super 100, Sweet Million, Black Cherry, Orange Sunsugar, Husky Red Cherry, and maybe another one or two types.

All in all there's now 93 tomato plants currently in the ground, although, I do need to get the patio ones into the planters.

Peppers are also ready to go in, but, 1) holes must be dug, 2) more manure must be obtained.

 

[ck80]

Today was tomato transplant day.

Cherokee Purple, Lemon Boy, Better Boy, Beefmaster, Roma, Grape, Super 100, Sweet Million, Black Cherry, Orange Sunsugar, Husky Red Cherry, and maybe another one or two types.

All in all there's now 93 tomato plants currently in the ground, although, I do need to get the patio ones into the planters.

Peppers are also ready to go in, but, 1) holes must be dug, 2) more manure must be obtained.

So, today wound up being half of pepper day. Bell greens and yellows went in, as did mild bananas. I also found 15 more orphan Roma and better boys that needed to go in so in they went.

Holes are dug and fertilized for the remaining 18 green bells and 6 bananas. Marked out the locations for the squash and zucchini mounds and have dirt/manure mix in the redneck trailer ready to make mounds from, ran outta mosquito-free daylight for it. The cucumbers and watermelons are behind schedule to get in the ground, but, I've got to pick where. Cukes may get some of the 2 dozen half-whiskey barrels I've got empty.

I'll be trying to get those sorted tomorrow morning. Midday I've got an appointment at the specialist for some blood work problems thatve increased from bad in nov, to really bad in feb, to now revoewed by a pathologist and been referred to a specialist... so...

Whatever that news is, this year I'm going to have an all-out garden to enjoy.

 

[ck80]

So, a victim of progress and life.

We're at a bit of a crossroads here.

Strike one - if you've seen the news, Hyundai and a series of suppliers decided to build a mega site down the highway. So, you factor in the port development that has been getting paid for since covid under the guise of 'supply chain improvement', the new warehouses going up everywhere 2 towns over, the massive auto plant, the 2 new ev battery plants, were probably talking way over 10,000 new jobs. That means traffic, bad drivers, pollution, and lowered quality of life.

Strike two - the county commission has voted make a series of 'improvements' to the feeder road our neighborhood empties to. Now it'll be higher speed limit and 3 lanes instead of 2. Meanwhile, they're going to bisect it with a 4 lane parkway extension 2 miles down the road, and, use a stop sign only to cross it.

Strike three - there's MASSIVE development happening on the street. They already snuck through rezoning 164 acres that had lots of rear wetlands to an r6 zoning - that's 8000 sf lots, and, they already filled in the wetlands. That hurts drainage upland, aka here. Now, coming up for a rubber stamp approval is a request to go from AR1 (agricultural/residential) straight up the ladder to a PD zoning. Here, PD - planned development - is exempt from density and setback limitations. So, apartment buildings 5 feet from the property line? SURE, have at it. Make things short and sweet.... it's about to suck around here, just like the shitty cities I've been fleeing.

So, my planned shop garage is now on hold because, why build it to sell? Meanwhile, the oncologist Shitshow is a whole different story, suffice it to saw I need a new one after false documents were being submitted by the practice

 

[Supercharged111]

Well that didn't take long, did it?