Burr Oak at 10 years

The Burr Oak has grown so much that I had to prune off several very large branches. It is exciting to see the backyard changing because the oak tree is getting so tall and broad.

The oak tree is now 10 years old which means the backyard patio project was done 10 years ago.

Ten years ago I was working for IBM and travelling nearly every week. Peonies were blooming this week in June 2019. This year the peonies are close but at least another week before full on.

Check out the Burr Oak from 2011 and from 2013 and when first planted in 2009.

New garage door

New door

I have gone several years with a door to my garage that doesn't lock and doesn't even latch. I have never had anything stolen but there have been so many posts on the NextDoor website where people have had their garages and cars broken into that I thought it was time to replace the door.

It wasn't just the door but the jam was also messed up. I found a complete exterior door at the Habitat For Humanity's ReStoreIt store. It was the correct size and opened the correct way. It only cost $45!

The locking door knob and dead bolt cost more than the door. The project came together without too much hassle ... which is a miracle at this place.

Old door

While I was working in the backyard, I repaired a couple of sections of the patio (not pictured) and replaced the pressure-treated wood mini-retaining wall with railroad ties that I found for free on the NextDoor website.

Water feature back up and running

Photo is at an odd angle but the water feature is back up and running for the season.

A lot more work this year to get it going. The basin needed to be re-balanced. Getting it out was the easy part. The patio stones around the edge needed to be reset. That was the difficult part.

There is uneven settling of the stones and some of them are splitting. I'm not surprised as I didn't have the ability to set the stones in a layer of sand when I installed the patio some years ago.

Still need to grout the stones and clean up the river rock that cover the basin lid.

Hopefully the birds

Patio repair

It has only been four years I believe but the area of the patio where the giant maple tree was had sunken. This caused the stones to be uneven and some had split like shale.

The problem with starting a repair project like this is to not end up tearing up large sections. The more I got into it the more the more sections of damaged stone showed up. I also had a large piece of stone left over from the original project. Using the big piece would give better coverage but also meant I had to get it into place.

The following photos are before the magic sand (polymeric) has been applied. I am liking the results so far.

Working from home this week and enjoying the backyard patio and gardens

First off it has been very warm.  As you can see by the shot of my weather station, it was 102 degrees at 7pm.  Well, not really.  The sun is still setting very high on the horizon and was shining directly on the outdoor sensor which is on the north side of the house.

But as you can see it is 87 degrees indoors.  As long as you don't move, it isn't too bad.  I put the AC unit in the bedroom yesterday so I can sleep at night.

This is a double day lilly that originally is from the old house in New Baltimore, Virginia.

I got these years ago when I was back East.  They've survived being moved halfway across the country and from the backyard to the front.

I love the look of the double blossom.

These are single bloom day lillies.  They came from Garland Wright via Jill Rendall's garden.  They are 4 or more feet tall and have several blooms at the same time.

These are my only tiger lillies.  I wish I had more.  They are so beautiful.  They used to be next to the fence and the squirrels would eat the buds.

I finally moved them to the center of the garden and surround them with a rabbit proof fence while they get big enough.

These beautiful flowers came with the house and survived several years of being eaten by squirrels and rabbits.

A Weather Window of Opportunity

The weather this weekend was perfect. Highs in the sixties and lows in the forties. Perfect for finishing the backyard patio.

The temperature needed to remain above 40 and be dry in order to put down the special sand product called polymeric sand. It is swept into the cracks between the stones and then wet down. It dries hard and keeps weeds and ants from coming through in addition to filling the gaps between the stones.

I had gotten 5 bags when I bought the 5 tons of stone. The salesman at the stone place made the estimate. He was pretty darn right on. I needed about another half bag which I got Saturday morning.

Here is the patio just after the watering on Saturday around 1pm.

The next two photos are from today with the product nearly dry and beautiful. I am so so pleased with how it all came out.

It was a lot of work but the final result looks great and is just wanted I had envisioned.

Backyard patio - updated

Home from the picking up highway trash, most of the snow was melted. Needed to make some progress on the backyard and clear up the two piles of grass and dirt that were still left from leveling the patio area. So built retaining walls to hold the dirt and terrace the yard.
Can you tell what the walls are made from?

The jack-hammered concrete side walk.

Still need to fill the cracks with the polymeric sand that is supposed to hold it all together. The directions say it has to be above 40 degrees and very very dry. That rules out last weekend. And makes we wonder if there is going to be time before winter really sets in.

Backyard patio update

Friday evening I was able to get the "water feature" in and working. The fountain is a large stone speckled with quartz. There is a hole drilled through it and it sits on a pedestal in the water. A pump circulates water up a plastic hose through the drilled hole. It sounds and looks great.

Put in patio edging all around. The edging should keep the stones from wandering apart. So all the stone is in place. Now I need to partially fill the space between with dirt which I'm filtering to remove rocks and weeds.

Then I'll fill the cracks with a special sand that will bind the whole thing together.

Backyard patio update

Saturday, Sunday and Monday, September 12,13 and 14. Got area as level as I could and covered with the landscape fabric to keep the weeds from growing back.


Tuesday, September 15...working the edge....


Wednesay, September 16...edge nearly complete so filling in...


Thursday, September 17....this shows work after work and before going out to dinner. Did more work in the dark after going out to dinner with friends.


Sunday, September 20. Was out of town during weekend so only worked about an hour this evening. There is a full path from the back door to the garage sidewalk!

Showing the progress of work over the week of being home.

Backyard patio project update

Okay, had to have a re-do on the project. I used all the stone I had and all the stone that Andrea and Jason had and barely covered the space.

My neighbor, Sari, and I went to Hedberg's in Plymouth, a stone and aggregate seller. We couldn't find anything that matched the existing stone. We couldn't even find anything that would go with the stone. But we did find a different stone. A stone that was smooth and came in large, uniform sheets. It had struck me that I have to be able to shovel off snow.

So it was re-do time. I purchased 5 tons...yes 5 tons! of Minnesota Dolemite....quarried in Mankato, Minnesota. We had taken a piece of the current project stone. The salesman said that it was Platville Limstone from St. Paul, Minnesota. It had been quarried from the city to build the sky scrapers and was no longer available. It is historic.

The stack you see is 2 of the 4 pallets delivered via an 18-wheeler. The "sheets" have to broken up to reasonable sizes. Many "thanks" to JT for loaning his sledge hammer.

It took about 10 minutes to take up what had taken be two days to put down.
I can get some pretty good sized pieces and the thickness is completely consistent. So laying it down goes faster than with the first stone. Prepping the area...making it level....is still the hardest part.

I'm including the old St. Paul stone in spots that won't see so much traffic. I like the look of it and now the history of it.

I'm working from home this week...a first since I don't know when. So I'll be able to work on the patio during the evening. I'm planning on getting the bulk of it done by Thursday night.

Backyard project

I may be totally in over my head or this is the most exhausting project ever.

I rented a jack hammer Saturday morning to bust up the sidewalk. It took less than an hour but it was loud and some of the sections were 6 inches thick. Took a boat load of effort to break into pieces.

Here is the pile o' concrete.

In the process of getting rid of all the grass, I kept running into more and more of the maple tree roots.

I snapped my shovel handle in the process of prying out a root. To be honest this shovel was one I bought with my house back in 1991 and who knows how old it really is.

I bought a new handle and with the help of my Dremel machine removed the old handle part and got the new handle in. Not nearly as easy as the internet site made it sound.

By the end of the holiday weekend I had another big pile of roots.

Friends, Andrea and Jason, bought a house with a yard full of all kinds of stone. Huge pieces of slate, tons of river rock, boulders and lots of shale.

I had sights on the shale. One truck load on Sunday and another trip on Monday.

Picture 1 is the start of the layout.


The following two are the end of the weekend. I felt like I'd put down tons and tons but only ended up with this much. It looks good but there is a lot lot lot to do.

Backyard patio update

Finally got all the grass removed. Sure are a lot of weeds in with the grass. You can see in the pics that I've been trying to get the concrete walk out. It is just too big and heavy. I'm going to rent a jack hammer to get it broken up. I'm still not sure if I'm going to reuse it in pieces or take to recyclers.

There is tons of dirt to move to get the patio level and somewhat sloping away from the house for drainage purposes.

Update on the umbrella...still no more squirrel damage. The moth balls seem to be working.

Roxi reported another hawk sighting but I think it was the falcon that I just saw this evening. Frankie and I were out when I heard a commotion. Looked up and saw the falcon right over where Frankie was. I picked him up and took him inside. The falcon flew off to the power lines.

There is also another baby bunny in the backyard. Some him yesterday eating grass and playing in the flower garden.

Backyard project

No real progress this weekend. It was still some what wet from all the week's rain.

I moved the pile of grass from the apple tree area back into the yard. It has mostly composted into dirt. Taking the slight decline in the yard and flattening it out...or at least that's the idea. There is going to be a lot of dirt to move to get the patio area to slope away from the house.

The Mount Fuji tall garden phlox is about at its end. The Royal hostas have started to bloom. They seem to like their new location near the garage.


Update on the squirrels taking the umbrella apart... I sewed the top and bottom back together. There were only about 2 or 3 connections left. And trying moth balls as deterrent. The side of the moth ball box states that they are not to be used as squirrel deterrent. Seems to me that means it is definitely worth a try.

The umbrella tie is completely gone now. I'll have to come up with another tie.

Backyard Project - update 07/26

Only worked on the backyard on Sunday and only a few hours. It was kind of hot and I was kind of tired.

Got the rest of the day lillies out. Anyone want some? They are the standard orange ones. Some are double blossoms from Virginia.

I dug the hole for the water feature. You can just see the black water tub to the left of the oak tree.

I filled up the raised planter bed with just the grass I had already taken up and the dirt from the water feature hole. Don't know what I'm going to do with the rest of the grass and dirt to make the area level.

Pruned the red currant bush. Big big pruning. Also discovered that there were two baby currant bushes. Dug those out. One went to Amy. Anyone want the other one?

Backyard project

As many of you know my plan for the backyard is to put in a stone patio. When the big maple tree had to come down last year, it seemed like a good time to re-do the backyard.

I've put in the replacement oak tree and reshaped the perennial garden bed slightly. I've also removed the pressure-treated wood border. I didn't want to just throw away the wood so I built a raised bed where the compost used to go.

I figure there is going to be a lot of dirt from the patio area and this raised bed provides a place for all the soil. It kind of looks like a coffin and is about that size.


The hostas have all been taken out from in front of the back porch. Some went to Sari and Mather across the street. A new planting bed was dug out in front of the garage peonies and hostas were put in there.

More hostas were moved to along the north side of the house. It is technically the neighbors yard but I've been putting hostas there for a few years.

I dug out the three large stones that were the path to the perennial garden. It was amazing how much of the stones had been grown over with grass. They are a good size and really flat. Just the kind of stone I'm looking for.

You can see them in the picture to the right.