Rain barrel project in the yard

I finally started working on getting one of the two rain barrels situated - this one in the front yard.  I had to ask my neighbor for his saw and he was kind enough to come by and even take care of the downspout for me!

It was a bit tricky for me to level the ground but hopefully the cinder blocks will be sturdy enough.  Still have to secure the barrel and hopefully no earthquake between now and then because it would be a bad thing seeing this barrel pummel our neighbor's car and/or rolling down the street to the main road! YIKES!!! I guess I really better get to it tomorrow!!!

I couldn't figure out how to deal with the overflow from the rain barrel but decided on putting on a hose and burying it under the dirt.  The hose is now also hidden under the trench along the side of the house.  I hope this idea works!  Although I still have to figure out where and how to redirect the water as I plan on putting a rose garden out front as well.

So the hose is underneath these river pebbles.  I have moved some succulents to this part of the yard and started mulching.  Although I found a whole ant hill in the big bag of mulch.  YUCK! Looks like putting the mulch for months under the trampoline was not a good idea.  Now I know!  I am also recycling Bob's newspapers instead of using weed/landscape fabric but might be messy if the newspapers start rotting when it gets wet???!

I am so glad I didn't procrastinate in getting the downspout ready and redirecting it into the rain barrel as rain came down the following day once it was set up!  With as little rain as there was that day, the rain barrel is already 3/4 full:

Can't believe all the rain we have been getting this year although it is starting to dry up and the temperature is rising.  I will have to send photos to the City soon as they require it to make sure we are actually installed the rain barrels properly.  I hope I pass! There is also the other rain barrel that needs to be set up properly in the backyard.  So far it is just collecting water from an overflow from a section of the roof-line and the barrel is already full!  So obviously too heavy to move at this moment.  More updates to follow then :-)

Drywall repair

Since the roof leak is now fixed (fingers crossed it is!), we decided to get our drywall fixed.  Plus, the previous job on the ceiling was not looking very good either so it was about time to get that repaired as well.  Here is the before... you can sort of see that rectangular patch on the ceiling.  And oh, we decided to get rid of the two flush mounted lights as well. One of them would constantly go on and off. Even the electrician didn't want to fix it! You can sort of see the 2 circles:

The guys did such a good job covering everything up!  And here is the other spot in the kitchen that needed repair.  Our electrician accidentally walked straight through the ceiling while working in the attic:

And we also discovered that there is a huge hole behind the dishwasher! No wonder we had mice when we first moved in!!!  I actually had the plumber pull the dishwasher out recently as we were checking another stain/leak and also told him about the draft I was feeling in the kitchen.  No wonder! But hey, check out those orange color tiles.  Talk about old school patterned tiles!

Okay, the guys go to work.  He mentioned that there wasn't any tape to seal the edges where the patch job was.  Sheesh!

Somehow, the skinnier contractor got the job behind the dishwasher.  The dishwasher could only be pulled out that far so looks like he got the shorter end of the straw. Funny enough, his nickname is El Camaron which means "shrimp".  Ha ha!  I had to confirm with the other contractor as to what I was actually hearing and I was right!  By the way, thank goodness for Google Translate.  "Shrimp" does not speak a lot of English and somehow I managed to talk to him on the phone and got him to get the job done.  Phew! :-)

Ta da!  We haven't had any more mice issues since taking care of it last year, so hopefully this will just be another peace of mind for me as that hole was open to the bottom of the house!

After patching, the guy is now texturing the ceiling.  This is the only area where the ceiling is textured.  After they were done, they were talking about how they could make it smooth.  Hmm... maybe they could have mentioned that before??!  Looks like I need to practice my Spanish some more.  LOL!

You can see still where it was repaired but now that a few days have passed, you can barely notice it!  I still may have to paint the ceiling but definitely it is a project that is low on the to-do list:

The patch job in the kitchen is barely noticeable too, although you can really see it in the photo.  I am just glad there is no blue-tape on the ceiling anymore! I am now having to deal with the electrician in making sure he takes care of his part of the payment.  Fingers crossed this will all be behind us soon enough:

Yay!  So glad the drywall is no longer an eye-sore.  Literally!

Whale o'clock!

Every day I would drive along the coast to school for drop-off and pick-up.  Last week, I spotted a whale blowing out of its spout!  So once I picked up the boys, we headed back down the hill and over to the Point Vicente Interpretive Center for some whale watching.  We were not too late thankfully and Graham and Charlie were able to borrow a couple of binoculars from the Center as well:

We spotted one whale and 3 dolphins.  This is actually our first sighting for us this Spring.  My phone couldn't zoom in very well but I swear there's a dolphin in that photo below!

The boys had a really good time with the binoculars.  We didn't stay for long though as the Center was closing at 5pm and they had our car keys as a deposit for the binoculars.  So, we had to before to return them before closing time:

Graham loves reading the statistics on the whale sightings.  I think it's funny how on that particular day, there were 40 whales going Northbound and somehow 1 whale is going Southbound??!  What could that whale be possibly thinking?  Did he forget his keys or something??? Ha ha!

We are so lucky to be in this part of the country!

Go Pirates! Go Angels!

So Graham is with the Pirates and Charlie is with the Angels this season!

Here is Graham at bat - our #9!

Here is a video of him at bat.  Not quite the best hit but he got it on the first try!  I was working the Snack Shack that day so didn't get a lot of videos:

And while he is not at bat, I guess the coach moves them around the field to different positions.  Last Thursday, Graham was by 3rd base.  Not a lot of action going on, so he was sifting his glove with sand.  Hmmmm.... ha ha!  I could tell he was still sort of paying attention to the game :-)

By the way, when I was working the Snack Shack, Charlie was so happy because he got an ice-slushie for free, and a bag of pop-corn for free, and then he even tried to sneak some sort of candy without me looking!

Here is Charlie in his uniform - he is our #3!  The team printed the last name on the shirts.  Cool! And oh, made the boys wear their long sleeve sun shirts too.  Glad it is coming in handy, not just for the beach.  Thank you Grandma and Pop-pop!

Charlie seems to be one of the taller ones in his team too.  I think a lot of the kids are only 5 years old.  Charlie is 6 turning 7 years old this July (Yikes... 7!!!):

Charlie is ready to go on the pitcher's mound.  He actually caught a line drive and everyone was astonished!!!  That's my boy!!!  Definitely a proud momma moment :-D

Here is Charlie at bat:

Some parents were asking if Charlie had played baseball before as they were all quite impressed with him.  And just tonight, Charlie is saying how he is almost ready to go into the next level of Little League.  Glad he is building up on that confidence!

It was only in the mid 80s on Saturday afternoon but phew, it was hot!  So glad I had my umbrella and I wasn't the only parent with one.  I can't imagine what the middle and end of the season is going to feel like. I might have to go out and buy one of those spritzer fans. LOL!!!

More backyard update

Okay... this has been quite a long project but Bobby says he needs to keep up with my progress on my blog.  Ha ha!  So here goes, honey! ;-P

Lately, there has been so many butterflies!  Driving home one day via the coast and hundreds and hundreds of Painted Lady Butterflies were flying north. Supposedly this really wet winter has boosted their population.  They migrate from the deserts of western Mexico to their breeding grounds in the Pacific Northwest.  Which reminds me, I need to get some milkweed for the Monarch butterflies for our garden!

Here is the latest update on the foliage around the patio area.  I thought I would try and save the Poinsettia but it is still looking rather sad! I think it definitely has to go (or at least go to a different part of the yard).  There are so many of these tree like plants - I have no idea what they are called but collectively, I think they all look quite cool :-) 

And I moved some other plants next to the bench and under the bench.  I don't think these need a lot of water so should be good!  Or... I guess I shall find out later this summer:

Having these lights on at night makes the patio look quite nice actually!  They were lights from our Christmas decoration/stash.  If only these mosquitoes are not so aggressive though.  I bought some citronella plants but there are bugs on it now so I didn't want to move them to the patio area.  Boooo.... :-(

Looks like someone is enjoying his papers in the backyard on the patio.  At least he is using the umbrella too!

So glad the patio is done!  Now I have moved on to the trench again on the side of the house.  I had to re-do it since water was still getting to the neighbors during the rain.  I had to mix some cement and repair the step-down.  Hopefully that will help the flow of the water.  I dug the trench deeper too so the pavers wouldn't fall over to the neighbor's fence.  Phew!!!

I am hoping this will be it with this trench!

As you can see, pavers are lined up nice and straight now.  Let's see what happens after this next rainfall.  It is suppose to rain again on Wednesday!  The plants are already needing it.  The soil is already drying up and cracking. 

That's all the backyard update for now! :-)  Oh, the city wants photos of the rain barrel installation.  One barrel is still sitting at the side of the house although the other is collecting rain water, but not as efficient as it should be.  I have a few more weeks to get this act together.  Aaahhhh...!!!

Los Angeles Maritime Museum

After Little League Opening Day, instead of going to our usual brunch spot, we decided to venture out into San Pedro for breakfast.  We found a random restaurant not too far from the Cruise ship terminals. Although Graham and Charlie was more interested in seeing the artifacts across the street.

So.... after breakfast, we venture to see the propeller from The Queen Mary!

There is also a massive double steering wheel from an old ship:

And old anchors from the 19th century.  Nope, can't lift it!

And a real gunner from a Navy ship!

We are right by the San Pedro harbor and there is also the Fire Station boats.  Graham ran all the way to the end of the pier and waved to the boat as it was driving out of the harbor.  And the Fireman tooted the ship's horn!  Too cute!  Always so happy when the servicemen do things like that to please the kids :-)

And oh, look at this thing... can you imagine going deep under what in this thing!?!  It's called a Bethoscope. 

I don't think you could pay me to get into it:

The LA Maritime Museum was not very big but it was neat to see lots of miniature sized ships and the boys enjoyed this little play area as well:

Look at what you can do with knots!  Maybe something to venture into???  Hmmm.... ;-p

After an hour or so in the museum, we head out to see more artifacts:

If you haven't noticed, Graham and Charlie LOVE to climb on things!

Okay, one last thing to climb on.  Actually this missile was the main reason why the boys wanted to cross the street. Ha ha!

Photo op with Mommy!

There is also a memorial for all the fisherman lost at sea:

Who knew this was all here in San Pedro!

Further down the road, there was also a water fountain which Bobby had spotted.  But when we drove down there, we didn't see anything!  And then, I did see a huge pool by the entrance close to where the cruise ships are parked.  It's called the Fanfare Fountain and it features 58 choreographed water jets. I am just finding out that the designers of this fountain also designed The Fountains of Bellagio.  Pretty cool!  And it was really neat - the fountains and music comes on every 20 minutes between 12-1pm and that's when we saw it!  Otherwise, it only comes on every half hour.  What timing!  I don't have any photos as of yet, but will be sure to post some the next time we go there again.  It is literally just about 5-10 minutes down the street from us.  Best of all, it is FREE!  LOL!!!

Baseball Opening Day

Little League Opening Day was just this past Saturday.  For this Spring, Graham and Charlie have decided to play baseball!  We have moved away from ball hockey and swimming/water polo and now trying a new sport:

I have the say, the boys are looking pretty good in their new uniforms!  Graham is playing the Rookie League for Pirates and Charlie is in Tee-ball for the Angels.  Looks like Bobby and I will need to get some new gear too!

Actually, Graham has been wanting to play baseball ever since we moved back to the US (a year and a half ago) and Charlie has been wanting to play soccer.  So looks like baseball first... and from the looks of things, it's going to be really busy!  Each boy will have one game during the school week and one game on Saturday as well.  Phew!  I feel tired just thinking about it. Bobby has been busy taking the boys to practice at the park.  With what ever little practice the team has had due to all the rain, we'll see how Graham and Charlie does! Obviously, more updates to follow :-)

Backyard patio project

This backyard patio project has been going on for perhaps a couple of months or so now - from leveling to laying pavers and now laying paving sand.  Instead of a vegetable garden (like what the previous owners had):

... we have decided to transform this section of the backyard into a patio area instead.  But first, we needed to get pavers!  And oh, the previous owners had removed all the vegetation and frames prior to moving out so that was one less thing to worry about.

I had recently downloaded a neighborhood app on my phone and managed to find a really good deal on pavers.  Only thing is we had to go pick it up - about 500-700 of it!  We didn't want to ruin the minivan so we decided to rent a truck.  Who knew there was actually a weight limit on these trucks.  And we obviously forgot to account into the weight of the driver a.k.a Bobby. Ha ha!

Now that we have the pavers unloaded to the front part of the house, we had to transport them towards the backyard.  Phew!!!  The boys were more occupied in making their walls. LOL!

Here we go! I started out just laying down one paver snug next to another.  Graham even built a little fireplace pit (bottom left side of photo below):

By the way, our patch of grass where the huge tree stump was, is slowly but surely coming along:

It was a bit tricky laying the pavers as the space was not very symmetrical as I later discovered.  I looked up for some ideas online and somehow managed to come up with a pattern that just might work!

Ta da!!!  Okay, not quite done but we are making progress!  Sort of used our apple tree as the starting point instead:

The whole process was a bit tricky because the ground was not very even and I only did so much to make it level.  Graham was out of school a few weeks ago with a cough and spent part of his morning sifting through some chunky soil with his badminton racket. This kid just thinks of the weirdest things to do:

Another trip to pick up more pavers although this time, there were no trucks available to rent. So we ended up loading the pavers into the minivan and even Daddy's little car.  2 trips later with the minivan and another couple of weeks later, the pattern is done! 

Just have to look past the unevenness. LOL!  Guess we will find out exactly how uneven it is once we actually put the patio furniture on it:

Graham and Charlie have been busy again building with leftover pavers:

By  the way, we used up the exact number of perfect pavers that we picked up from this neighbor/lady for this patio.  What a weird coincidence!!! And she even came by and told me how great it looked.  We actually offered some of our succulents for her landscaping project, so it's been working out quite well :-)

Now that the pavers are all set in place, we can start putting down paving sand.  We have only been picking up 6 sand bags at a time since it is so heavy.  It is definitely a good workout!

And since we don't have a proper brush, a broom will just have to do.  And a couple of weeks ago, Charlie was sick again so he was home helping me out in the backyard:

By the way, those poinsettias in the background are still looking quite sad and the new papaya trees I had recently bought and planted next to the poinsettias are look like they are on their way to Veggie Heaven!  Boo hooo...!!!

I'm not exactly sure how sick Charlie really is when he can jump around like this.  But it sure beats renting one of those machines to get the sand settling down into the pavers:

12 bags later and after the heavy rain, the sand has compacted and looks like we need more paving sand! 2 more bags to be exact.  And more rain came so the sand settled again. It is coming together!  We moved the patio furniture up this past weekend and thankfully the furniture is sitting pretty nicely - not too wobbly. Ha ha!  And we have moved the fire pit up as well, although covered up so rain water doesn't get in.  We can enjoy s'mores soon enough on this patio once the weather cooperates!

I have been working on moving some plants around. I thought this corner with the aloe vera looked like it was meant to be!

The aloes are starting to flower too.  So exciting!

I moved the bench that was under the grape vines to the back of the patio and moved some other ground cover/plants under the bench.  We'll see how the plants do there since it might not get enough sun.  Only time will tell:

We can now enjoy the view of the harbor even more since we are another few inches higher than what the previous garden was at.  And also enjoy our new umbrella! The blue patterns reminds me a little bit of the batik prints that are popular in my home-country of Malaysia:

By the way, what do you do with so many lemons???!

And an unexpected surprise in another part of our yard.  So pretty!

Woohooo...!!!  Now, onto the next project!  Hmmm... what will that be? There are so many on my list!  Oh wait, still have to work on the trench on the side of the house.  I actually emptied out all the pebbles from the drain today and moved the big pavers out of the way so I can dig up the trench even more.

And then, the forecast changed and it is raining again tonight!  So I had to quickly put everything back (some of the pebbles at least) so that the mud doesn't wash away into the neighbors.  Urgghhh...!!!  Well, "supposedly" all sunny the rest of the week.  Fingers crossed!