Stair Stone

Smith Rock (the stone retailer in Portland, not the climber's destination in Bend) dropped off one and a half tons of gray Oregon basalt curbstone. The average stone is about seven inches high, ten inches wide and twenty inches deep. We'll spend this weekend arranging and setting them in that dirt runout peeking out from behind the pallet. The project will require some excavation to level things out and we'll use 3/4 inch minus to backfill the rock beds.

Black Gold

Rachael and Grimm's Fuel spent a couple of hot hours this afternoon (it reached 104 F in the 'hood today) blowing in four inches of new soil, covering the entire back yard, side yard and some areas in the front yard.

Trim Paint

Chano and Leo pack up after another long evening of painting. Tonight they worked on soffit and trim. The soffit stain is coming out darker than we expected, but we like the look so far.

In case we haven't mentioned it, our neighbors to the north cut down their laurel hedge a few weeks ago, and now our north side is really exposed. They say their plan is to put in a new wooden fence along the property line this summer, which will provide a nice gardening backdrop for the planting strip along the driveway.

Here's a shot from about the same spot before the hedge was cut down.