Who needs grass?

So much for the new grass...I mentioned earlier that we killed the best part of the lawn putting in the raised vegetable beds. Below is a series of photos showing the progress. The final product isn't shown, unfortunately. I'll try to get shots up soon of how it looks now. The grass is actually growing up pretty well all over the place, despite all of the new dirt dumped over it, and the beds are full of healthy, happy tomatoes, squash, cucumbers, radishes, beans, carrots, peas, chard, etc... We'll be eating Kale in a couple of weeks!

No more grass for us...it was hard to break ground here after we spent so much time last year rebuilding the yard from scratch.

...and of course we needed to find a place for the soil we excavated, so we basically spread it out over as large an area as we could. Luckily, must of the side yard was already dead.

Here you can see three of the raised beds set in place, and the pile of bricks that we (Viola) would be laying over about four days.

Viola at work with the last section of brick (500 total).

Most of the brick completed and the greenhouses in progress.

Finished brick and two greenhouses in place.

Look for more soon!

Tree guys

OK - we got our 4 quotes from tree guys estimating how much it will cost to take down the 8 or so trees around our property. Let's make it a quick guessing game to figure out which one we're going with:

A. $1,200

B. $3,000

C. $1,250

D. $775

If you chose anything but D., you must have forgotten that Zach took a pay cut last year. With luck, we'll have much more sun hitting the new lawn by mid-May. We'll keep you posted.

Back in business?

Well, the wheels are in motion at 21 West Lane again! Viola and I have dusted off the to-do list in our minds and have a few projects in mind for the summer season. This includes the addition of a new set of raised vegetable beds to supplement our 600-square foot plot down by the lake, the creation of a few more flower beds, and the removal of a bunch of trees.

The garden plots have already been installed at the time of me writing this, and I'll try to upload photos soon. The tree job is currently being quoted by a few professionals (don't worry Ted, we're hiring this one out), and I'll try to be there when it happens to catch the action as it happens. In the meantime, try to check back in. I'll try to remember to keep posting things of interest.

21 West Lane - A History

HEY, LOOK, A NEW POST! I doubt anyone is reading this anymore, but just in case, I thought you might find this interesting. I know I did. I recently needed to go to the Winooski Town Clerk's office to get a form filled out for tax purposes, and at the same time do a little research on the right-of-way we enjoy on our neighbors property. The amount of information that they have on our house is staggering, and right away someone recognized our house as formerly belonging to the family that owns the Kingsford Charcoal company...who would have thought?! So while I'm there digging through old deeds and tracing the owners of our house back into the 40's, I was also handed these great old photos of our house dating back into the 1970's. It's interesting to see the changes that have gone into it!

Here it is in 1973 (approximately 90 years after construction):

Here it is in 1986: 

Finally, here it is in 2004:

I've never shown it, but our house currently has a 6' privacy fence around the whole thing, so you can't even see it from the road anymore. We're planning on lowering it to a 3' or 4' fence this year to open it back up, as it is much friendlier looking when it's open like these photos. 

Just to give points of reference, the two windows on the first floor to the left are the dining room, the two windows at the right are the living room, and the single window (2004 photo) on the 2nd floor is our bedroom.