Friday, August 14, 2009

The Wine Garden

Here is our yard about three years ago. That's my best guess looking at Caiden. As you can tell the side of our yard had tall shrubs and lots of bushes between us and the neighbor. Also on the side of the yard it had a split rail fence and the dirt sloped down into the neighbors property.

Here is another view taken about two years ago. As you can see the front yard was full of lots of junnipers. There were lots of scary things living under all that stuff. Now there is such a push on having a healthy forest and trees. They are asking everyone to clean up all the overgrown underbrush and thin out the trees to keep the mountain healthy. So Jim decided to finish the front yard area.

What a hugh difference!!!! First we put up a retaining wall between us and the neighbor so that we wouldn't have so much run off and erosion. Then Jim got to work with his railroad ties. He terraced the whole area. It took about two months of hard work. He did hire a helper to assist with the digging. What an incredible job! He calls it the Wine Garden.

We had the Wine Garden opening last weekend. About fourteen of our neighbors and friends attended. We had wine of course and I served shrimp with cocktail sauce, fresh fruit salad, hot artichoke dip, meats and cheeses, spinach dip and a brie wheel. It was a lot of fun. Next time we will have margaritas with a Mexican food theme.