Well, nothing happens for weeks and then it is all go at once.

Just a couple of weeks ago we took possesion of 14 pallets of paving stones and a pile of fine crushed rock.

The paving stones cover an area of about 115 square metres which is over double what we layed ourselves round the back. So this job required a few reinforcements. We got a bit of slightly more professional help (people who actually know what they are doing!) this time. And with our assistance and Pia’s parents, Lea and Risto, helping we had a newly laid front yard in one weekend.

Risto brought his truck down as well along with a little tractor. The tractor alone saved hours of work leveling the gravel and having the truck with the hoist meant we didn’t have to carry the paving stones from one side of the yard to the other.

The weather didn’t entirely cooperate during the weekend, but it was possible to do some work under shelter during the worst of it.

While the truck was here we also replaced the drainage pipe under the driveway. The old one was crushed by all the traffic when the house was built. So Risto got us a new reinforced one that should survive better. Since the truck hoist also has a digging attachment it took just a short while to replace it.

All said, everything went pretty smoothly, thanks to everyone involved. If only we could get everything else done so quickly…

Speaking of which, last week we got 10 cubic metres of surfacing to finish off the rest of the driveway. The material we are using for the driveway area is a byproduct of rock crushing, kivituhka. Probably the best translation is rock dust. It is fine clingy material that packs down quite hard. We got a dark colour, dark grey, almost charcol. It does lighten quite a lot when dry though. Anyway, with another couple of helpers more and many, many, many wheelbarrows full later we spread most of it around. Unfortunately it still needs compacted and leveled off properly. But first we are going to get some more bricks and lay them around the edges of the gardens and driveway. Then once that is done we can spread the last of the around the edges and rent a compactor for the weekend.

Another job done.

Finished the step to the back terrace today. Also washed the terrace and coated it with stain again since we were going to be working on it. Recoated the front terrace one a few weeks ago already.

We also finished the stone work around the drain a few of weeks ago. It only took a year :-).

Just finished the latest endeavour in our yard the other day. Over the last few weeks we built a picnic table and benches. Building it took just a few days work, but painting it has lasted several weeks with a coat every now and again. But its finally finished now. Hopefully it stands up to the weather lately since it has probably raines more in a couple of days now than we had the whole last summer.

The flower garden that was mentioned in the last entry took a while to get going, but all the wild flowers eventually took off. There is a real mixture there and most we have no idea what they are, but it is certainly colourful.

The truck load of dirt turned up soon after the last entry. That was put to use around the grass out back and to make the new garden in the front.

The grass and flower seeds were planted about two weeks ago and the grass is already growing and the flowers are coming up quite well. The remaining land out the front still needs cleaned up and brick edging put in place, but that can wait a while longer.

The next thing on the schedule was to replace the rough netting we put up to protect the new fruit trees last autumn. After a winter they looked pretty bad, so we bought some plastic coated wire fencing and put up new fences around each tree. The fence is definitely needed. The rabbits peeled off the bark completely around one of our neighbours adult apple trees during the winter. The new ones look quite a bit better too. The trees have come out in leaf quite nicely and in the last few days some are even coming out in flower.

After that came the greenhouse. We ordered it early last month and it turned up a few weeks ago. Since the last entry we have cleared the ground where it was going to sit, dug holes for the foundation, poured some concrete piles, set the foundation in place and assembled the whole thing. Putting it together took the whole of last weekend and was an exercise in patience. Being the typical product of that type all the instructions consisted of just pictures with numbered parts. Unfortunately few of the parts themselves were actually numbered and many of the steps needed were skipped over in the diagrams. And of course, Sunday evening, when it came time to finish the whole thing by fitting the doors we found out that a couple of parts for the second door were wrong. So now we have a greenhouse that we can’t close… grrrr!!

The greenhouse itself is aluminium framing with some kind of polycarbonate sheeting like corrugated cardboard. Supposedly it keeps it a bit warmer and stops the sun burning the plants. We will see. We also got some automatic window openers. Bit hard to fit, but they seem to work.

Since the ground where we put it is full of tree roots we put plastic around the sides and water permeable matting across the bottom. Hopefully that will keep the willow roots out. Now we just need dirt, lots of dirt…

And so it begins for another spring.

During the dry spells over the last few days we spent the time outside spent digging holes in the yard and pulling out old tree stumps. The holes were for the outside lighting on the back patio and next to the driveway. The stumps are in the front yard where there will be a garden.

Yesterday the electrician was here installing the cabling for the lights and connecting them all up.While the electrician was here he also installed the full warning sensor on our septic tank and did a few repairs to the thermostat system that controls the floor heating. The electrician’s bill was already in the mailbox today. I didn’t believe that the post could work that fast.

During the evening after work yesterday we set the lights in place and filled  in the holes. Everything seemed quite vertical at the end, hopefully they will stay that way.

So now around the back there are two lights along the end of the patio. The edges where the cabling is buried still needs tidied up and grass sown.

Sometime in the next couple of days a truckload of dirt will arrive. That should be enough to get the flower garden started and cover over the worst of the rough ground out front. The two lights are mounted along the two ends of where the garden will go. The rest of the area will be covered with dirt and some grass sown there to fill in between the trees. Eventually there will probably be some sort of path and steps up the right to near the top of the driveway. Hopefully in winter it will be a bit better than sliding down an icey driveway. Along the edge will be some brickwork like there is starting from the rubbish hut. Those need to be ordered soon as well.