Sunday, September 12, 2010

Landscaping 1.0

Some of you have been asking for these pictures--others will find this the most boring post in the world. For those who are interested, I've added about 30 pictures of yard. I started in one corner and worked my way back around. It's nothing special now, but I imagine it will look pretty cool in a few years time.

Starting from the border between my one adjacent neighbor.


Yeah, so the lawn is coming in nicely.


We've got Phase 2 happening there on the right. The road used to end just past my house.


Another angle


Front bed. I added some solar lights. I just barely laid down the concrete steps. I'd like to try and fill in the gaps with various ground covers.


Like this one.


The lighting isn't ideal for this photo shoot.


East side planter beds. The walkway will continue to the back.


The other border of my property bumps up against a landscaped corner. Part of the reason I chose this lot is because I only wanted to have one other house next to mine. These decorative grasses will get much taller.



My Catalpa tree suffered a lot of trauma in the move. I trimmed back all the dying leaves and it is slowly recovering.


That little guy on the right is a lilac bush. One day it will be fragrant and awesome.


I'll be adding a border, weed barrier, and bark to this area.


My new mums.


A navel orange and raspberries. I haven't decided what I'm going to do for ground cover on this side yet.


My apple tree with 6 different varieties grafted on. I have one solitary apple to look forward to this fall, at least until some punk kids snatch it. GET OFF MY LAWN!!!


Back towards the front.


My little clementine on the right, followed by a peach.


Another glance to the front. Bored yet?


An evergreen on the right and my Japanese maple in the corner.


My ugly backyard.


The bamboo in the back hasn't taken off like gangbusters like I thought it would.


Another shot of the back.


This is a dwarf lace leaf maple I think.


One of my next projects is to seal my deck before the winter snow gives it another beating.


That whole area will be beautiful Japanese garden one day.


My composter. One huge Rubbermaid trash can poked full of air holes with a door cut at the bottom. I've barricaded it with rocks to stop it from blowing away in the wind. At least until I have enough material inside to weight it down.


Backyard: west side. This is where I plan to have my garden--in raised planter boxes.



It always seems like a tiny backyard until I start to clear weeds or try to level the ground with a shovel... then it's huge.


My neighbor wanted more room on the other side of his lot, and I wanted more on the opposite side, which resulted in our houses being rather close together. I plan to let strawberries go crazy on this side, with a path down the middle.


When it rained hard, water was flooding into my neighbors yard. I built up the dirt along the fence and dug a trench. Eventually this will be a larger stream bed and collection pond lined with rocks. I'll plant flowers on the sides.


The useless space where I hope to grow strawberries. My side of this fence cost me like $1200.


At least this area hides my DirecTV dish well.


I'll do another update next Spring.

Saturday, September 04, 2010

Alpine Days 5K: Part 2

Alpine City published pictures from the race. I spotted myself in 3 of them. I don't really have anything else to post about, so I'm throwing these up.

The dude to the left of me was the winner, with like 5 minute miles.



The Mexican guy to the right of me at the starting line proved immune to my home stretch sprint.

Saturday, August 21, 2010

What I've been up to

I've been traveling a lot more with my current job than I did with my last one. In a nutshell, I put on entrepreneurial competitions. My company helps start-ups get funding. Our most popular event, called CrowdPitch, has 5-6 entrepreneurs present their business plans in front of an audience, as well as a panel of judges. The crowd and panel invest FUN money at the end with the company they liked best. Winner gets a prize package worth about $5,000.

I traveled down to Arizona for the second time to do a couple events. The first time around, I invited my parents. This time, in addition to my parents, I had by brother Dave and his wife, and my sister Jenny and her husband. It was a mini family reunion.

This is a shot of Dave & Julie we found in another blog post


I've really been taking my time getting back into shape. That translated into my second 5K of the summer. My time of 20:49 in the Alpine Days 5K was only good enough for 4th place in my age group. Some great runners came out.

Why even bother "hiding" your keys under the tire if you're gonna just do a half-assed job. They'd be better concealed in the ignition.


Hot air balloon. Part of Alpine Days.


Deanna is back from nannying around the globe. We celebrated her birthday the other night at a park in Lindon. That's her niece Lola, not our love child.