January 2009

We took a few pictures around New Year's Day so we could see if the shrubs looked any bigger than they were in the fall when we planted them. They have grown!

Swimming in December

After Christmas, we heated up the pool for a few days and the boys swam in it a good bit. Jay and I enjoyed the hot tub but went in the pool a bit, too. Jay actually got in the pool for several hours working on cleaning off the tile. The calcium deposits from the stone grow on the tiles and have to be scraped off with muriatic acid and a scraper. Jay was probably in the pool more than anyone!

Leaves are falling!

Leaves are falling and it keeps us busy scooping them out, cleaning out the skimmers but the vacuum runs around 24/7 doing the best job! The pool is too cold to swim in but the hot tub is amazing! We are in it several times a week and love it! Even with the leaves falling, we love it and it is not as hard as we thought it would be to maintain.

Propane Heater

This weekend Jay put together a propane heater for us to use in the cooler weather. This is going to be great to have right there near the hot tub.

Jay has been home this past week and finished planting the rest of the shrubs and put out almost all of the wood chips around the shrubs. We still have some more chips to spread but that can be done at our leisure.

Thank goodness we had rain one day this past week because it gave us a break from watering everyday. We had not had rain for 20 days!

Saturday and Sunday

Jay put more shrubs out around the spa and up the hill to the waterfall. Then he planted a few shrubs by the steps leading down to the backyard and I planted a few under some of the basement windows. Then came the mulch and it looks so much better every time we plant. We have planted tea olives, lugustrum, frost proof gardenias and Indian Hawthorne. I love the way he used some of our leftover waterfall rocks to build up and line the planting beds.

More shrubs and more steps!

This past week we have planted about 40 more shrubs around the pool, the waterfall and the pump/filter. Then we decided we might like to have steps going around to the top of the spa and Jay bought 4 of the huge rocks that were used to make our other steps, brought them home and somehow manhandled them enough to get them perfectly level and set! It is really looking so much better now even though we still have a lot of shrubs left to plant, mulch to put out and sod to put down.

The water in the pool is pretty cool now but the spa is awesome! It heats up to 105 degrees and we have been in it almost every day.

Sod and Salt

Today Jay and I laid 50 rolls of sod which equals to about 1 1/2 pallets. This was all we could get from the sod company and it kept us busy for a while. It looks so much better everytime we put down more sod or more shrubs. During the sodding, the pool man came by to give us an orientation on how to operate the pool, the remote to the pool, how to test the ph and chlorine and all kinds of stuff. We actually videoed it so we could refer back to what he said. It is a lot to learn. Then he put several bags of salt into the pool and some acid. We are not using chlorine but somehow the salt system turns salt into chlorine. I don't get it but it is a good thing and we are on board with it.

After the sod was down, we got some nice rocks and outlined a future flower bed. Then we picked up sticks and rocks in the rest of the yard.

THEN....we showered and got in the hot tub!!! Savannah and Jordan also got in and it feels absolutely wonderful!! Jordan came in right after football practice and Savannah did a quick change and got in, too. It was 100 degrees and amazing!!