This past week the North side fill & sidewalk was completed. Our fill & topsoil was delivered by a high tech, 40,000 lb. truck with an articulated boom & conveyor belt. The driver was able to control everything from a console that looks just like those used for RC models. Very impressive to see that huge truck backed into place with no driver in the cab. Lynna supervised everything while she was planting our new landscape. All I had to do was write the checks! The dogs soon got used to all the strangers working around our property & watched from a safe distance.

The four doors we purchased most recently were unfinished & Lynna wanted two of them hung ASAP. It was difficult to find room in my workshop & took most of the week for me to apply the multiple coats needed, but all four are done. During the periods they were drying, I got the grass mowed, helped my neighbor John tow his work truck to downtown Stayton for repairs & hung two more doors.

Last week we drove up to Garden World near Woodburn & picked out some plants. They were delivered Thursday & Lynna has been working at getting them in place while I continued to hang doors. Tim came back Friday & all the rocks are placed now. We just need to pour the sidewalk to finish that project. Home Depot called to let us know our custom shower enclosure had arrived & we picked it up Sunday. I will probably install it when I finish hanging the doors.

We have been having some beautiful, warm weather & the dogs are enjoying the sunshine.

Tim called Monday to let us know he & his "Rock Man" would start our job Tuesday. They arrived early & made good progress until early afternoon when we had a hailstorm with thunder & lightning. The heavy rain that followed brought everything to a halt but they will be back Thursday or Friday.

Stones were delivered Thursday but nobody showed up on Friday. Maybe Monday will see them placed & fill delivered for our front sidewalk project. I ordered our baseboard moldings & they are here but probably won't be delivered until our final set of gates arrive. I've been cleaning up the mess on the tractor side of our garage, almost done & then I can pull up the roofing felt I put down to protect the new concrete.

Lynna has been working with Tim Lowery to finish the remaining back fill & final cement work for our front walk. We had to suspend last Fall when things got wet. There should be a delivery of large rock soon & then Tim will get to work.

We couldn't find two varieties of the Apple trees (Criterion & Wealthy)we wanted at any of the local nurseries & they claimed there was no way to order them. This was surprising as the Wealthy is well known with an interesting history and the Criterion continues to win taste tests although its not popular with commercial growers because they bruise easily.

Lynna joined a couple of orchardist web forums and through their help, we found a nursery in New York that sold them. Their web site indicated orders placed after March 1st would be filled the following Spring, since the bare root plants are shipped while dormant. But, New York had record breaking cold weather and a late Spring this year (so much for global warming) and we were notified of shipment last week. Tuesday evening we came home to find my fruit trees on the West porch. This meant I had to prepare the planting sites for 3 bare root trees plus the 3 potted trees we bought last Fall. I finished planting today. I'm nursing a sore back & doubt we will see any fruit this year but the Italian prune plum appears to have blossoms budding out so we might get lucky. Lynna got some pictures while I worked, then she burned some scrap.