Travel Blog

I know we didn’t write much while we were in Albuquerque this year. Part of that was we were working on the new site. The other part was, while Sue was working, I was landscaping my moms’ back yard.

When we first got here they said they wanted to do some work on the back yard – put in a raised bed, lay some pavers, put mulch around the edge. Sue and I were only getting small jobs at the time, so we said we would help out. Well, once I got to thinking of everything we could do some work turned into totally redoing the yard.

Because it hardly rains here, keeping up the grass on the lawn was impossible, so the yard had turned into one big dirt pile.

My first project was putting in a large raised bed, so Paula could cultivate some climate friendly plants.

Then we had to level the yard so when the monsoons come in the summer the water would flow away from the house. For this monumental project we went out and rented the smallest bobcat I’ve ever seen so it would fit through the gate.

This not only leveled the yard, but packed the dirt in, so we had to bring out the rot-o-tiller to break up the soil.

Once we prepared the foundation we started laying out the pavers for the two patios.

After we lay in the pavers we put crushed gravel around the outside for the dogs to run through. Unfortunately this meant we had to shovel all the crush.

But after everything was done and Paula got her plants in, the place looked a million times better and now there is hardly any dust.

And the swing and hammock fit in nicely.