Rain Rain Rain

We have received a lot of rain this past week. Last Friday we had a vicious wind storm, with heavy rain, during which we lost a limb (about eight inches in diameter) from our only remaining silver maple. The limb landed in the neighbor's yard, between their pool and their parked cars. Near miss!

I have continuing concerns about the near term viability of the remaining silver maple. While still healthy, and despite our having it pruned heavily earlier this year, it is showing its age. At least, it is in a location in which its further maintenance demands can be addressed once our construction project is complete. The other three maples, which we removed, would have created much more of an access challenge.

The ground dried out sufficiently over last weekend for Tony ("the best [tree mover] there is") to come in on Monday and remove the three maple stumps. Then it rained (torrential at times) both Tuesday and Wednesday nights. While this rain has helped settle the ground, due to all the excavation and trenching activities, the back yard is now a quagmire. The weather is supposed to be cooler and drier for the next week.

Bob (landscaping) arrived this morning to show us the product of his efforts over the past couple of weeks. Before we even started the review, I told Bob that, although I had not seen the estimated cost, I could tell him that it was two times too much. Turns out that I was closer to being correct than even I imagined. Overall, T was very impressed with the vision and the detail. T got her patio chessboard (each square in the board is 2' x 2'). I got two koi ponds (with an interconnecting trout stream) and my crepe myrtles. After discussing the details for awhile, Bob said he would go back and work on it some more. It will turn out very good. We just need to scrutinize the options and determine how to phase the execution. Bob gave us the following image which looks east from the roof of the sunroom. The northeast corner of the garage is seen at the right.