April Fools Day 2016

John's crew came by today and planted the Red Twig Dogwoods. Look good!

They also planted T's Columbine and Knock Out Rose, here shown being inspected by Spenser.

Kevin never showed up this week. I am going to give John keys to the garage and the security fob which will permit him to disable the security system while we are gone. John said he would like for us to not irrigate any of the zones, except the raised beds, while we are gone. I will adjust the controller program accordingly. John said he will stop by often to check on things. Wally said the same thing. Wally also said he thought we should water everything three times per week. Hope they coordinate. I have updated our security protocols so that John is the first person the security company calls if there is an alarm. We are second.

Garden, Windows and Irrigation

We did not see Kevin yesterday or today to work on the pond. We got about 1" of rain yesterday with pea-sized hail. This was enough to raise the pond level but not enough to reach the overflow port.

John left a message saying he could not locate the two Red Twig Redbuds we had wanted. He suggested we go ahead and buy them at the nursery at which we found them and John would plant them along the north fence. T assures me that they will be beautiful. We got three Arctic Fire (red) and two Arctic Sun (yellow).

Todd (Marvin windows) called to say the parts for the west and south sunroom doors will not arrive prior to our departure on our cruise. I told him we would call him when we return.

Wally showed up to commission the irrigation system. He relocated the sprinkler head at the southwest corner of the lot, tested the entire system and gave T and I a tutorial on how to operate the Rain Bird control system. There are thirteen zones in the system.

Morgan (east neighbor) came over to ask if we wanted him to mow the lawn while we are gone. I told him we did not want to impose and that we thought it would be OK. He said it was no problem and he would be happy to do so. Very nice of him, but if we travel as much as we hope, we will need to line up a lawn care company.

Garden and Windows

Next week we depart on our European cruise. This week the goal is to get the plants, that we have been growing inside, transplanted into the raised beds and get the irrigation system operational. Last week I told John we needed to have Wally to come back and start the irrigation system. This system has never been completely tested due to the previous cold weather. John said he would be talking with Wally as well as Joe (concrete) about acid washing and sealing the walkways. Not too surprisingly, despite come beautiful weather early this week, no further word was received. Yesterday, I sent John another note saying we needed to get Wally to put the irrigation system into service. John responded that he would call Wally and we could expect him to be out yesterday afternoon. He never showed up. If he doesn't show this week, I will put the system into service myself.

I called Kevin, as requested, on Monday to update him on the pond situation. He was here last Thursday and did some investigating around the upper basin area. We refilled the pond and started the circulation on that day. I told Kevin that we still lost water at about the same rate and that I did not believe anything had significantly changed. Kevin said he would be out later in the week to continue his investigation.

Yesterday, I called the Marvin Window dealer concerning the south door, which has a loose handle. I called them to just find out what size of Allen wrench was required to loosen the handle set screws. I tried a 1/8", which was too large, and a 3/32", which was too small. The dealer suggested that he just have his technician (Todd) come out since we are still under warranty. I am glad they did. Todd found the spindle on the south doors to be bent (Todd said it was an installation issue), which resulted in the latch being difficult to operate. I asked him to look at the west door as well because it also is difficult to latch. He did and found the same bent spindle. Todd did what he could, but he said he needed to order some parts. The west door especially is still difficult to latch, much more so than the French doors on the east. Todd said he would discuss this with his team and get back with us. We may have to contact them upon our return.

Update:

Kevin never showed up, but Wednesday afternoon John did appear. He said he would work with Kevin on the pond issue. He said, again, he would get with Wally about the irrigation. He said that when he talked with Wally earlier this week, Wally said he was not anxious to start the water systems because "they" were projecting temperatures down in the 20's. I told John I had just looked at the forecast through mid-April and it is not supposed to even get down to freezing. We also looked at all the plants and trees. John assured me that the Canadian Red Cherry will have dark red leaves. He thought everything else looked pretty good. There is one azalea that looks sick and the maple on the west fence has some dead branches. John said he would come back later and prune it. I also told John that we thought we wanted to go with Red Twig Dogwoods along the north fence, alternating the Arctic Fire (red) with the Arctic Sun (yellow). I also asked him if he thought a weeping Snow Fountain Cherry (Prunus 'Snofozam' Pendula ) would be happy in the spot currently occupied by the Japanese Red Maple next to the east porch. The literature suggests the Snow Fountain needs full sun. This spot will not get full sun. John thought it would do fine. I told him we saw some beautiful Snow Fountains (probably topgrafted which should get only 5' to 6' tall).