Mamaw's Grey Wood saves our weekend of camping

Each year about this time, we take Fran the Van on a weekend trip to a nearby campground to fine tune our packing list, make sure all supplies are stocked up, etc. This year we headed to Parris Mtn State Park, a nice park about 20 minutes from the house.

We were able to squeeze in a 2-hour hike on Saturday morning, but then the skies opened up (good thing we brought our big awning). We got absolutely dumped on for hours on end, but the load of Mamaw's Grey Wood we brought along ensured we didn't have to stay cooped up in the van all afternoon/evening. Pictured is Rhonda (sitting under the awning) warming her feet in front of the miniature inferno. I'm quite certain a lesser grade of firewood would have made for much soggier weekend. Most of our fellow campers weren't as well equipped to deal with the elements, and we had our end of the campground pretty much to ourselves (the other end was all big trailers and motor homes whose drivers probably weren't looking to spend too much time outside anyway).

Doing some landscaping

Don't look for us to start a second career in landscaping; this may not look like much, but it was pretty exhausting! It took us about a week and a half (2 weekend days plus quite a few after-work sessions) to prep the beds in front of the house and by the driveway, build the retaining walls, plant new bushes and spread mulch.

The whole project started innocently enough, with the planting of a cluster of azaleas. Before they were planted:

After the planting:
Those bricks laying in the driveway were lining the bed before. Rhonda had just pulled them up.

Here's Rhonda putting the finishing touches on the bed by the driveway (not pictured: the hours of digging/chopping/cussing involved in getting the bed to this point. That's 2.5 tons of stone sitting in the driveway that will soon become retaining walls.

The driveway bed from the front end:

The wall beginning to take shape:

Getting close to making the turn:

It got much easier after turning the corner, since we didn't have to worry about maintaining a straight line anymore.

The bed to the left of the steps without a wall:

The bed to the right of the steps without a wall:
The wall to the left of the steps (and getting ready to plant a couple of rhododendrons beside the azaleas):

Still on the left side of the steps:

The wall on the right side of the steps, with a newly planted rhododendron underneath the bird feeder:

Lots of mulch waiting to be hauled/spread:

Mulch in the driveway bed, with a row of newly planted hydrangeas:

Mulch with the azaleas/one of the new rhodies:

Mulch to the right of the steps:

The front of the house with the new plants/walls:

The plants are small now, but with some TLC will hopefully look a little more impressive come this time next year.

The "public hearing" sign is a necessary step in attempting to get approval for our new windows. The sign has to be displayed in front of your house for 2 weeks before the hearing (ours is on May 6th- keeping our fingers crossed). Sometimes living in one of the historic districts can be a bit of a pain.