Post for December 19, 2012 

Where has this year gone, whoosh....

Well here is the X Spot photo showing the foundation for the greenhouse taken  earlier this week.

Turning to the left and looking down the new "street" we see the foundation for the soon to be curb.

Turning further to left we see the cobble stone turnaround covered with its sand filler covering not to mention neighbor Julio's motor scooter.

On the other side of the wall from the X Spot the garage/kitchen yard is starting to fill up. We now have two 5 meter long raised vegetable beds (one planted with potatoes, and the other with cauliflower, broccoli, and four kinds of squash the other is planted with potatoes). next to them is our gigantic compost bin and the green house on the left now has the knee walls laid.

Outside the kitchen/dining room window next to the bread oven we now have our kitchen herb garden created and planted with primitive dog guard fencing.

On the patio one of the Jasmine plants is starting to bloom. Fantastic aroma!!

And around to the back side of the orchard the 5 raised beds are exploding with new life.

Viewing the orchard from inside the front wall you can see the grass is starting to fill in.

 I will try to do one more posting before the new year.

Later

December 5, 2012

The year has flown by will probably get one more posting in after this one. We have been in the house now since the end of April but it seems longer. 

Today we start with the X Spot photo where we see the edges of the compost bin and the first of two more raised vegetable beds made of concrete block this time.

Here is another view showing completed compost bin and the first of the two additional raised beds that are the same width but twice as long as the first five beds these will be painted green.

Around to the right from the above photo are more cement blocks waiting to become another raised bed and a foundation for the greenhouse which will be to the left in the photo above.

Meanwhile Ane and I have planted vegetables in the first five raised beds,

we will soon have kale, beets, turnips, celery, leeks, carrots, onions, peas and beans, the first five vegetables have all broken ground.

and in the orchard our first lemon ripens on the tree!

And in the back yard the well covers are in and the planters planted, you can see the finished pan horno (bread oven) in the background. We have made pizza twice now with it!!

We decided that the balcony wall had to be a little higher for privacy reasons so another course of blocks are being added. Here is a view from inside of the work in progress.

and here a view from the outside looking up. Sorry its a little underexposed.

Out front the flowers are happy.

And nine street lamps have been installed.

Here is a shot I took this morning in the dawn twilight.

Out at the entrance the entrance gate (motorized for auto entrance) is now installed. 

    Next week we will have two rows of cobblestones laid for the street and they will start the curbs and sidewalks. check back in two weeks for updates.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  

November 13, 2012

Well finally sitting down to post again, seems like it just takes 2 weeks to get it done. So here is the X spot photo:

 and going to the right around the house we have photos of the Bread oven (pan orno) under construction on the corner of the house just outside the kitchen/ dining room.

 another view showing the darker mortar in the oven portion. This is made with raw sugar (like molasses dried out) and then mixed with water and sand to bind the bricks. This is an old method of construction and 90% or so of the buildings in old town Quito are made with this system and they are 100's of years old.

Since it has taken me a while to update the blog here is a shot of the outside coating going on today after waiting for the sugar mortar to cure for a week.

We also added another fragrance to our environment in the form of three new potted Jasmine plants on our patio. 

We had a heavy rain about a month back and the whole back yard flooded and drained over towards the back corner of the orchard. We have installed a concrete tube under the perimeter wall with rock up to the surface, hoping that this will solve the problem. Here is a shot of the opening.

We are in process of building 5 raised beds for root vegetables at the back of the orchard area. Here's a shot of them we still have to line them up, the guys should be back this afternoon to do that then we fill up with dirt and plant!!

Around the the left front of the house, we finally got rid of the dirt piles (the dirt is now spread out in the back and seeded with grass; we pray for small amounts of rain each night to get it to grow. You can see where we have landscaped to the side of the drive and planted three new trees and part of the lavender that will be in between them to form a border to the property.

Here is a closeup of that area

and a shot from the upstairs balcony shows the workers putting the finishing touches on the perimeter wall, it is now complete!!! you may have to double click the photo to enlarge it to really see it.

 the foundation for the gate has been poured and should be installed this week...so that's it for today.

October 28, 2012

Well this week was very busy outside first we have the X Spot Photo showing some of the construction materials waiting to be used and also the bamboo planting  has been completed here and on the other wire fence that encloses the orchard.

All inside perimeter walls are now planted with red bougainvillea and honeysuckle which we hope will cover the walls entirely, eventually.

The back yard is taking shape as the gardeners smoothed out the dirt piles and prepared the soil with organic fertilizer making it ready for grass seed. They also mowed the existing grass for the first time.

And around the corner the Magnolia is happily blooming!!

As I mentioned the bamboo is all planted here is the back corner fence area that closed off the orchard.

In the orchard we have placed stakes around the apricots and next to the other trees to try and protect them from the rambunctious play of the dogs.

Out front Ane was watering the grass and flowers as we have been dry now for about a week.

To the right of the previous photo we see the turnaround at the end of the street has been graded.

And as we turn around we see the rest of the street has been graded and is now ready for the cobble stone pavers and sidewalks which will be installed soon.

We took the boys for a walk down to the entrance and the front wall is now half done and should be completed on the other side next week.

And here the boys are playing by the wall, 

See ya next time...

October 20, 2012

Well less than 3 weeks this time, today the Boys are 6 months old and we took them out to see their brothers and Mom and also we weighed all four brothers.

Odin and Manny both came in at 69 lbs. and Tony and Tor both weigh 73 lbs.

Here is Sean weighing Manny (I think) while Tor in red collar looks on.

Around the house we have been busy....Went to Nayon a little town on edge of Quito Wed and picked up trees and shrubs, here are a bunch of plants on the front lawn waiting to be planted next week.

In the back over in the corner we now have three young bottle brush trees soon to catch the eye of many a humming bird.

and outside the yoga room window we planted the real "find" our new magnolia!!

Meanwhile on Monday we started three new walkways, first out to the Dog House this will cut down on a lot of mud and dirt into the house.

Around to the right we have the walk going past the future bread oven area, out the gate and past the wood and storage sheds.

Over in the Orchard the path is done and will allow us to meander thru the trees and pick their fruit quite easily.

We also installed wire fencing at both interior gates closing off the area behind the garage and the orchard from the main back yard. the orchard fence awaits its bamboo wall to shield it.

As the perimeter walls near completion the front entrance awaits its motorized gate with a flimsy barbed wire horse and cow barrier.

The front walls are going up next week and will curve away from the interior side of the gate and over to the side walls. here we see the footing for the wall on the eastern side of the entrance looking mostly east from the inside of the gate.

More next time.