With all the spring storms this year, one of our power poles collapsed unexpectedly when the weight of the snow on the line above was just too heavy. We had power lines down all over southern Alberta and we were without power for close to 3 days. Due to the expense of replacing the pole, Don decided to bury the line to the house instead, so here are a few photos showing him digging the trench. The line had to be buried 3 feet deep, so it took a lot of effort to get the line from the barns up to the house. (I know, these photos are out of sequence!...sorry!)
Back in March, Don began working to rebuild our south deck. He removed all the old wood and replaced it with composite decking. We extended it to include a hot tub that we put in last November. Pictures of the finished deck follow.
Also in April we had such a bad storm. At the beginning it hadn't done too much damage, but by the end, it was vicious. You can see a small, thin weeping birch tree, just left of the big pine tree on the right side of the photo. This poor birch tree snapped about 2 feet off the ground. By the way, bad weather doesn't keep us out of the tub! We put the umbrella up and jump in!
You can barely see the top of the birch tree on the ground, in the far right of the photo. I was so sad! This tree had been replanted 3 times and it was doing pretty well. It had just begun to bud.
This is the same tree today. We pulled the tree back up off the ground and duck-taped it back together. We poured a bunch of liquid honey into the 'wrap job' and left it. The buds opened and it leafed out. It is growing and looking good!
When Tyler arrived, he generously offered to help Don put a sprinkler system into our large lawn. They rented a Ditch Witch and went to town digging trenches in order to lay the pipe. It took all day, but it worked really well.
Hard at it, in the warm sunshine.
After Tyler and his family left, we went to work on the ditches, trying to get them back-filled and looking good so the grass can grow back in.
I don't work the same as Tyler's crews!
Behind Don you can see the finished deck, with a different arrangement of stairs. They head west, down to the fire pit, and it works really well.
Looking west...
Looking east...
I have worked hard for several years to establish a perennial flower garden. The dirt is so much clay, that it is difficult for many things to even grow. I have worked many bags of peat moss into the soil and it is finally paying off. Things are blooming this year and I love it!
An old chair my friend was going to throw out.
Same bed, just a week later...and I changed the red tub on the chair for a blue watering can.
This is the rock garden in the front of the house. The panels are up around the bed to keep the ambitious deer from enjoying the tasty blooms. So far these fences have kept them out.
One of the most different flowers I've ever found. This is the first bloom on the plant.
I love growing flowers and enjoying them all summer long!
Two of the glass panels were slightly cracked.
A very broad leafed plant that got shredded.
My zuchini plants that were just starting to bloom.
Don drove up to Beazer to see how the hay crop was up there. When he returned, he said the hail was local to our home. There was only a slight bit of hail nearby our home, but none in the surrounding area. Definitely not at Beazer which is a huge blessing as we have a lot of hay up there, waiting to be cut.
I did enjoy my flowers for 3 weeks, but we will see if they can recuperate from this disaster. It's times like this when I do wonder why I love here!
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