Final post of the Year 2013!!

AT LONG LAST 

I finally figured out how to use windows 8 and got a photo re-sizer so here goes....

We have gone through 8 months of refinishing our brand new house. We had two workmen who did an incredible job (starting in mid April and finishing mid December). First they sanded all the exposed beams (interior and exterior) and they also repaired all the salt blooming damage at the base of all the walls. We then actually got color on some of the walls!! and refinished all the exterior wood, put in thresholds in all the exterior doors and much more.

In the meantime this fall/winter (only two seasons here dry or wet) the garden and yard have really done well.

We will just start with a shot of the front of the house:

The flowers in the island out front are thriving

Starting outside here is what the beams look like now:

And one of the walls that we have painted-its in the living room and also shows the interior beams refinished.

bear in mind all these beams were scraped and sanded and filled and then resealed and lacquered.

Another little touch all outside wood structures and doors have been refinished, here is the gate to the orchard;

to the left of this gate  the gardeners have boxed the lavender nicely;

Grass in the orchard has totally covered the area now;

We also took this black water tank sitting in the back corner on the left:

and built a nice enclosure out of bamboo that is big enough to store spare tiles for the roof and misc.

supplies out of site.

Next, we have some potatoes popping up after only 3 weeks.

flowers and plants are thriving here Hibiscus are exploding in the orchard area

and the bougainvillea are coloring up

In the back yard outside the Yoga room window the Magnolia is starting to bloom

over in the back yards far corner the bottle-brush trees are attracting the bees

and that corner is starting to get lush

Here is a rare shot the dogs in their house

moments earlier (a small sequence of their play)

Next to where they play our patio shapes up nicely fresh repaired walls and trim paint 

a shot of the back yard from the window above the new patio furniture shows the backyard grass filled almost totally in inspite of the "boys" best efforts to dig and tear it up with the paved path to the future labyrinth.

The bread oven is nicely painted and the fire box has a new unchipped floor in it.

and behind the bread oven the kitchen yard grass is also filled in nicely.

 Well sorry it took so long to get a new post up. Will try to get it together more often next year.

Best wishes to all and thanks for coming.

July 14th 2013

Hi folks, well here is the July update

The front entrance is getting overgrown with Honeysuckle

Moving counter clockwise around the house we see the two long raised beds with the coming potatoes (sometime late Sept early Oct)

Over in the greenhouse Ane shows her morning harvest of cherry tomatoes.

On the other side of the house the Orchard grass continues to fill in and fruits are setting on the trees.

Here we see the figs sizing up. (have to keep the dogs away from this one as they think green figs make great toys.)

A naranja (like a tangerine) is ready to pick.

The peaches are setting on. I  may need to thin them a little to get some bigger fruit.

The apples are in full bloom.

Here we see the black cistern in its new location. It used to sit to left of the underground cistern.

The boys relax with their leather chews

The boys also think that the new tiles make for another area to lounge around 

Will try to get updates up again in first of August, 

June 16th 2013 short update

Well several things are happening here, we start with the good stuff.

In the orchard garden we have new veggies coming on strong.

In the fourth box above the onions and carrots are really happy and we have already gotten many tender carrots already.  In the farthest box we have broccoli heading up which is much better than our last attempt.

And to the left of the top photo on the ground we have Zucchini and Yellow crook neck squash coming in. 

Around to the back yard we see the new metal fence bordering our patio flowers and the work in progress of putting ceramic tiles on the patio.

and we can't go out into the back yard without Tor checking up on us.

But Odin is a little more laid back. Here he worries over a bone out by the dog pen.

And now to the bad news, last night someone broke a hole in the wall and then broke into Paul and Angelea's house and stole their two water heaters and two gas tanks. 

Here is a shot of the wall.

So it seems that the wall is not that secure. More to come.

April 7, 2013 the flowers are blooming

First we have our first explorer-our long tailed friend who is now one of four different hummingbirds (more photos as we can catch them.)

Here is what he is feeding on the Honeysuckle on the front porch.

The gardener has finally gotten most of the wires up on the house walls and the fence walls for the bougainvilleas to climb on as you can see outside the guest bedroom.

The white fence walls are lined with alternating Hibiscus and Bougainvillea. Here is one of the beautiful yellow blooms that is growing in the orchard.

If you turn around and look along the wall outside the master bathroom you find these purple flowered shrubs that are really starting to get healthy.

And their blooms are quite vibrant.

The orchard garden has been fully harvested and we have cleared out most of the first plantings and replanted the peas, beans, carrots and onions. The remaining spinach, chard and onions continue to yield for the kitchen.

As mentioned earlier we have the perimeter wall planted with alternating Honey suckle and  Bougainvillea. Here we have a vision of things to come.

Looking along  one of the back walls we can see the wires and their effects. Some of these Honeysuckles are blooming enough to attract the Hummers too.

 The blooms on the young bottle brush trees are a great hummer magnet.

We have three of these trees in the back corner of the lot.

Outside the dining room window the kitchen herb garden is taking off with Basil, Sage, Parsley and a towering plant of Cilantro

We dug the rest of the potato bed on Saturday and it now rests waiting for ferterlizer and more potatos.The bed on the right still has one little Zuccini plant and our struggling cauliflowers.

Here you can see the cauliflowers trying to create a couple of heads.

Moving over to the greenhouse we have two huge cherry tomato plants dominating the right rear bed. With some new young tomato plants and Basil in the foreground.

The lettuce on the left side has been producing for over a month now and is about ready to go to seed but it still is delicious and tender.

In the left rear we have more tomatoes about ready to bear fruit and a few young ones just starting out.

Out front the yard and grass outside the garage is thriving and looking good.

As are the flowers in the front circle - note the large bougainvillea climbing the wall behind the front of the car.

The grass in the left front yard is struggling but the flowers and trees are happy.

Up on the game room chimney we have our second Internet antennae as we continue or search for a reliable source of high speed internet service. This big white one is getting signal from a mountain on the other side of Ibarra.

And finally the boys play in front of their new kennel that surrounds their house.

till next time.