That bad boy, Raymond, has moved from showing construction of the house on his blog to construction of the yard. I thought that was my area. 

Working out there in two shifts — pre-dawn and after work till sunset every day — means it's hard to keep up with reporting the progress. 

I'll stick to sharing previously unreported facts.



Ray's been spreading sand, expanding the slope from the front sidewalk into the yard, where high piles of sand wait to dry. 

Another inch of rain a couple of weeks ago kept the sand from drying, but it allowed us to better analyze the rain-eroded areas and revise the dry creek beds I'd started. 

This is a rather odd aerial view of the large creek bed out front.

You've seen Ray's photos of front-yard lantanas, right? But he didn't describe how he came across them at a first-day-of-summer dollar sale on them. 

So far, the wind and salt have significantly discouraged but not killed these guys, so we're encouraged something other than natives born here can live. This was shortly after planting, which isn't how they look now. If they survive, I'll show rebirth photos of new growth. Several DO have flowers, but they may be trying to make seeds before their final days.

Did Ray show you our rain barrel project? 

These babies sit atop a water-collection trough that will have two-to-three creek beds running from it, instead of skimming the surface of sand off every time it rains.

It was hard work. 

Lots of exhausting negotiating and, "Could you explain that idea using different words because I have no idea what you just said."

Another current erosion-control project is the west side of the driveway, which suffers the majority of roof runoff as it comes racing from across the driveway in search of the the pond. We're in the process be putting in a berm alongside the driveway to slow the surge and divert some to the swale at the street.

Before we could engineer and direct that runoff, we had to bury the internet wire alongside the driveway and out to the street. That waited for months for the builder to dig a channel under the sidewalk and put in a conduit for both cable and the electrical for the future hot tub. How hard can this be? Not very, when a determined old woman remembers the best solution to most issues is to handle them on her own. Now the wire is in and buried alongside the drive.

 Wishing you peace (or victory), happiness, and sunshine. With occasional light rain.