Just diggin’ in the snow...
We spent a few hours at Linda’s house in Granlibakken laying pipe and backfilling the trenches. Nancy had dug the trenches with a backhoe a couple of weeks ago, but then two feet of snow fell, preventing her from finishing the job.
We worked most of yesterday digging the snow out of the trenches, gluing pipe and backfilling, and finished the bulk of the work today. Nancy had problems cutting pipe because the cold makes PVC brittle. Backfilling took a long time because the dirt piles had consolidated and were covered with a foot of snow.
A light rain in the morning gave way to moderate snow in the afternoon, so we stopped at 3:00, saving valve installation for a drier day.
By the time we drove back to Truckee the roads had a light cover of slippery slush. A tow truck was busy pulling a mini-van up the embankment of a corner of 89, halfway between Tahoe City and Alpine. The mini-van driver obviously didn’t recognize how slick it was and nearly landed in the Truckee River.
Despite the snow, some flowers are still blooming at the Nelsons’ house.
Nancy and I spent the day wrapping trees and shrubs. This is done just before winter to prevent the snow load from snapping limbs.
We staked and wrapped some trees at a couple of houses in Glenshire, and then worked for about four hours at the Nelsons’. It was a warm, sunny day, with a stiff east wind on Donner Lake.
The Nelsons’ front yard now looks like a forest of green mummies.
Step 1: Dig out the bushes.
Another day of wrapping trees and bushes. We started in Tahoe Donner, where the bushes are buried in snow because the roads are cleared with snow blowers instead of snowplows. (It’s an ordinance—less wear and tear on the asphalt.)
This house is besieged by snotty neighbors on both sides. Nancy got an urgent call on Saturday: an aspen, bent over by the snow, was almost touching the neighbor’s roof. He called the owners, demanding immediate action.
Step 2: Wrap ’em up.
You see a lot of this attitude in Tahoe. I think it’s because the second home owners come up here for vacation, not to be neighbors. As a result, their goal isn’t to get to know anyone, but to block everyone out.
We worked all afternoon at the Nelson’s again, finishing their yard for the season. Dick Nelson is at it again—his contractor has started tearing apart his dock, initiating another big project. It looks like the planter beds that we just overhauled (and the lawn we just repaired) are about to be torn out.
Dick can’t go very long without tearing out whatever’s been done and building something new.
Lunch on the lake.
More wrapping, this time on the West Shore. We stopped first at the nursery to get three more plants for the Vandertoorns (planting in November?).
We had lunch on the Helgans’ dock. No boats anywhere, glassy water–all you need is a good wetsuit and you could waterski your butt off.
We finished off at Ken’s house in Timberland. Practically every house we go to has a broken aspen. The big storm two weeks ago did a lot of damage.
Building terraces.
Last summer we built an artificial creek in the front yard of Lynn’s Mom’s house in Brockway. This work was TRPA-mandated; something needed to be done to control water runoff.
(The Tahoe Regional Planning Agency is in charge of maintaining Lake Tahoe's clarity and appearance. They have a zillion regulations, from banning dock building to deciding whether or not a homeowner must/must not pave their driveway.)
Mr. T’s rules!
The size and number of rocks we put in last year overwhelmed the yard, so we moved a lot of them to the back yard to build terraces. I pushed about 50 wheelbarrows of cobble up the hill while Nancy built pathways and rock walls.
Since we were so close to Incline, we went to Mr. T’s after work for chicken tostadas. They have the best Mexican food in Tahoe.
Gotta love that cobble.
We went back out to Brockway to finish reducing the artificial creek at Lynn’s Mom’s house. Fortunately, all the rock moving was done–all we had to do was knock down the dirt berms, chop up the sod and cover it all with pine needles.
Leveling the sides of the ‘creek.’
After that we went to Linda’s to start hooking up the irrigation. I backfilled trenches while Nancy put in the valves. It was a lot easier working in the yard without a foot of snow covering everything.
Celebrating the end of the landscape season.
Nancy finally got all her plumbing work done, which means she’s done landscaping for the season.
I spent the day reading weird post-modern fiction.
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