yard improvements

Not sure if many words are needed for what we got done this weekend.

Before (taken about 3 weeks ago):

During (actually at the end of the day) - the dirt pile is getting little!

Back off to the left is the mess (see the rocks) I would love to attack, but it's full of water.

It is very dry right now so not sure if it will ever dry out. Yuck. Maybe toss in some more dirt?

After: Notice the new flower bed on the far right, huge fire pit in middle ringed with rocks and the fire wood pile moved way over to the left between the two trees. Moving the firewood was the easiest job of the day. It was super light as it was dried out. I also found some flowers in the woods and moved them - we'll see if they survived. They were some sort of bulb so I'm hoping they do. The most fun of the day was pulling vines off the trees and playing Tarzan and Jane. No pictures of that! Maybe pictures of the resulting poison ivy later - if we get it.
The huge fire pit pile might be here for a while - we need rain!
and finally...


Pretty please may I come out and help?
Beggar kitty - he is not allowed out, but I can still tease him!

We also planted an apple tree and have one more to plant next weekend - it is very hard work. After chipping the hole with some sort of dagger like tool - our soil is very rocky and compacted - I filled it with water as the directions on the tree indicated. The water did not drain into the soil after an hour causing some worry. I'm pretty sure they will still grow - we have some really old ones on our property and they did just fine. There is one Empire and one Honey Crisp.

Next up is an Italian Plum tree -

only one is needed as they will self pollinate unlike the silly apples.