The backyard

Once we got the siding project "done" (okay, so technically there's still some work to do, but nothing that absolutely can't wait), I guess I was pretty eager to get to work in the backyard. Last year we moved in just before the start of winter, so the only thing I managed to do outside was to plant some tulip and daffodil bulbs. When spring (finally!) came, it was great to see them start sprouting while the rest of the yard was still covered in snow. Then when the flowers started blooming they were such a nice splash of color after a long winter of white, greys and browns.

But that was all Beth and I got to do last fall, and as the snow melted in the rest of the yard it revealed all sorts of branches, unraked leaves, trash, hoses, a swinging chair canopy, rocks, fence posts, a pot filled with small animal skulls (!), lost tools, utensils, fishing lures, shoes and other assorted crap that was left behind by the old owners. As busy as we were this summer, we didn't get to do too much to fix this up*, and we even ended up adding a bunch of extra branches, logs and construction debris to the mess.

* Although when I think about it, we did put in a fair bit of work. Beth spent about 3 days raking, we cleaned up the trash, built raised garden beds and planter boxes, filled in low spots with topsoil, planted grass seed, trimmed trees on our own and hired a service to cut down 7 full trees. Its just that with our siding project and the rotten midsummer weather we never got caught up.

So anyway, by the time we were done siding I had a bit of a bee in my bonnet about making the yard look nice. Here's what I did about it:

Task #1: Plant bulbs along the front of the house

Beth and I did this one together after work one day. I raked leaves over the top as insulation, and now we just need to hope there's no windstorm before snow falls. I should also not that part of the reason we had to replant is that we not only trampled the old flowers during our window and siding adventures, but we also dug up all of this dirt while burying blueboard. So some of the old bulbs got smashed, split or buried 2 feet deep. Anyway, here's photo evidence (at least of the raking part).

Task #2: Winterized the raised berry beds:

In order to protect our berry bushes from cold weather and foraging moose, they needed to get covered, too. Plenty of leaves in the backyard, but the trick was avoiding dog poop. Fortunately Bella likes to pick just a few predictable spots, so I just avoided those areas.

Task #3: Mow the backyard

I'll start this out by saying that I think throwing leaves away in trash bags is about the dumbest thing in the world. Trust me, leaves don't need to end up in a landfill. But our compost bin is nearly full and in the spring it will have to fit all of the leaves from the last couple of pictures. So instead of composting, I mowed the lawn even though the grass is pretty much dormant by now. By mowing the lawn (and by lawn I guess I really mean leaves), I'm basically just shredding all of the leaves and twigs so they can compost in place and in the spring the new grass should just grow around and through the chopped-up leaves. I got the idea from the gardening column in the local paper, which recommends this as a natural way to fertilize the lawn, and honestly it took a lot less effort than raking would have.

Task #4: Cut down broken tree

Although I clearly don't like this sort of job (Note: not true), I was ready for it even though it cropped up unexpectedly. After a recent windstorm snapped a fully mature birch tree in half 20 feet off the ground, I figured it was best to take the rest of the tree down myself rather than letting it smash our shed, or the fence, or Bella, or one of us. I cut off the still-dangling top and all of the branches with our extendable pruning saw, then had to figure out how to get the trunk down without crushing any of the things that I was trying to protect in the first place. I opted for tying a rope around the very top of the tree and looping the rope over the base of a branch of a nearby tree. After cutting most of the way through the trunk I pulled the rope tight, leaning the broken tree into the living one, an

d tied it off. This held the trunk up while I sawed the rest of the way through, and then I was able to use the rope to gradually lower it to the ground. Later, I dug around the stump and used a chainsaw to cut it off nearly at ground level. All-in-all it went quite smoothly, with the notable exception of Beth's hammer ("Stanley") having to spend a cold and lonely night hung up in a tree branch.

Task #5: Get rid of all the sticks, roots, branches, stumps, twigs, etc. that won't be used in our wood stove this winter

Between pruning trees last spring, getting rid of brush to build our garden, our recent windstorm, digging up roots while burying blueboard insulation, some construction debris, wood that was down when we moved in and whatever other sources, we had some pretty big piles of branches in our yard as well as a scattering of random branches. All this led to a 2-day bonfire to get rid of it all. I hope our neighbors can forgive me for day 2, when I dumped a box of wet leaves and dirt onto a raging fire leading to 3 hours of a massive smoke cloud settling over the neighborhood. My bad everybody. I didn't want to compost it because of nails and other construction debris that were mixed in, and for some reason I was actually convinced that it would burn easily. I guess you win some and you lose some, right? Anyway, after the bonfire (and another two days before the coals were totally out) the yard was a much cleaner place.

Task #6: Dump run

Because you can't burn everything, and because Beth has the good sense to not even try, there was a whole lotta construction debris that needed to be taken to the dump. So last Saturday Beth and I jam-packed Chris' trailer with junk, but there was still more. So we put a tarp in the trunk of the Camry and loaded it up with junk, too, which took care of nearly everything. Finally, we strapped our old dining room window to the roof and took it all up to the landfill in Eagle River. With a net weight of nearly 1500 pounds it was by far our biggest dump run - equal to the first two runs combined!

Task #7: Cut, split, stack and cover firewood

This is the part that makes me feel all Alaskan and manly. I think I even grew a beard while I was splitting wood. Anyway, here's what I was dealing with:

• Logs from the trunks of 7 trees we had cut in early summer
• Logs I collected last fall that had never been cut or split
• Logs from the tree that just got blown over
• A stack of the bigger branches that were pruned in the spring
• Logs from several smaller trees that we cut down ourselves last winter/spring

Anyway, this took a couple of days even though I had started splitting some of the wood in August. But thanks to some gorgeous weather (the state high temperature of 56 degrees was set at Merril Field, which is where our neighborhood of Airport Heights gets its name) and a state holiday (hooray for Alaska Day!!) I was finally able to finish this up last Monday. Now we've got a couple cords of wood ready to go for the winter. Here's our backup stack:

Task #8: Plant grass seed

It turns out that right before the first snow is actually I great time to put down grass seed, so that it starts to germinate as soon as the snow starts really melting in Spring. I haven't actually done this one yet, but I'm ready to go once snow is in the forecast and I've thought about it enough that I feel good writing it here.

Task #9: Final Tidying

This is just tying up the loose ends: coiling ropes, folding tarps, storing things for the winter and just generally cleaning up. I'm already looking forward to next spring when the snow melts and we can go straight to enjoying our beautiful backyard. Not that we won't enjoy it over the winter, but the thought of long summer evenings out there is a big part of why we bought the place.