Day 29 - Pamela's Request

During a Skype chat with my son, Thad, daughter-in-law, Pamela, and my two grandsons, Julian and Daschel, I was asked to try and post pictures that showed a panorama of the land around the house that Heather and Mike are building.  So with my trusty camera I have taken pictures from the two balconies of the house looking out at the landscape.  I'll give brief descriptions of what you are looking at as the pictures progress.  But first, a look at my son and his family, who along with Heather and Mike, are my pride and joy.

My handsome son Thad and his beautiful wife Pamela

My grandson Julian, 3 years old, with the seal grandma brought home for him from New Zealand last year

My grandson Dash, 1-1/2 years, saying "Cheese" for grandma when she takes his picture

Now on to the landscapes.

Taken from the balcony on the east side of the house, this is a view of the north side of the property.  You can see the tire tracks where the driveway comes through the trees.  The plan is to have the driveway curve around to the east side of the house, continue across the back of the house, giving access to the garage and workshop, and then continue westward to exit the property via the driveway that is on the west side of the house.  You'll see that in a later picture.

Moving to the east, there is some open ground and then piles of brush and tree trunks, and root stumps.  The little structure just to the left of center is the new chicken run (a close up picture is below).  The pile of dirt and rock in the lower left corner is what was dug out of the drainage pit at the corner of the house.

On the east side of the house, are the turkey and chicken enclosures.  You can see the gate at the top right of the photo.  In the lower left of the picture is the soil that was removed for the foundation of the house.

Now looking almost due east, in the upper left hand corner you can see the gate to the chicken enclosure.  Just right of that, between the lines of trees you can see dark poles.  Those hold the wires for raspberry, blackberry, and kiwi plants.  In the foreground are more piles of brush and tree trunks.  Eventually those will be bundled for firewood or kindling, or Mike will just burn them off since he likes to make fires!

Now looking to the south east, at the top of the picture you can see the three raised garden plots.  There will be five more, soon, to the left of these boxes.  At the top right you can see the bottom of the pump shed and running away from it is part of the trench for the electrical line that runs to the garage.  And of course a big pile of brush and to its right the barrel that Mike uses to burn the brush.

Looking south from the house you can see the pump shed in the upper left corner and  next to it the Wee Mansion. Between the pump shed and the Wee Mansion you can see three trellises against the trees.  Heather grows passion fruit on those trellises and behind them are two small garden boxes - one with strawberries and one is our plant "nursery".  In front of the Wee Mansion is the picnic table with most of our plant purchases still waiting to be put in the ground.  Unfortunately, you cannot see the bath tub  because the east corner of the garage is blocking it.

So here is the bath tub along with its supply of wood in the wheelbarrow.  You can see the remains of the fire from the Saturday night bath.

Here I have moved to the balcony on the west side of the house.  The corner of the Wee Mansion is in the top left corner of the picture and the west corner of the garage is in the lower left side.  You can see the drainage ditch running from the back of the Wee Mansion out to the water treatment tank which is partially visible in the lower right side of the picture.  The car is Heather's Toyota Starlet, a model not available in the US.  Beyond the car under blue tarps are piles of building materials, mostly tiles and flooring.

Continuing to move to the west, you can see the shelter for the firewood at the top of the picture and next to the firewood the reddish container is storage for most of Heather and Mike's household possessions.  The bare strip of land that runs in front of the firewood shed and the storage container is the driveway that runs out to the west side of the property, takes a right hand turn and continues out to the road.   In the foreground to the right is the massive pile of dirt and rocks that came out of the ground to make room for the water treatment tank.   Between the rock pile and the storage container you can see two posts in the ground.  That will be the south gate to the orchard.

Now looking toward the east, at the top of the picture is the southern part of the orchard.  Between the orchard and the pile of rocks is Mike's trailer.  Every Kiwi man owns a trailer - it's required : )

The northern half of the orchard is at the top of the picture.  We are adding new trees and they are all growing, but they are still hard to see in photos.

And here we are back at the north driveway where we started.  If you look at the left side of the picture in front of the stand of trees you can see two posts in the ground.  That will be the northern gate into the orchard, once the fencing and gates are installed.

And that is it for today.