I got a lot done over the holiday four day weekend.

Borrowed this from a neighbor, and on Thursday, I knocked out the new caps for the extended retaining wall. I had to get it finished up for the next step.







The reason for getting the wall wrapped up was so I could finally install landscape lighting. The M12 cutoff wheel with a diamond disc made quick work of creating wire channels.









On Friday, once all the new lights showed up, I was able to knock out the bulk of the project. Except for the wall lights, I used Volt Lighting for everything. They have a really good discount on it if you have a Costco membership. Needed a second transformer from the one I already had for things on the left side of the driveway. I don't use timers on any of them as I use ZWave plugs instead.





I am a big fan of landscape lighting. Really happy to have this back and working as the old lights were falling apart before the garage project, and when they redid the stone on the front of the house, most of the existing lights didn't survive. I have a little big of dialing in to do with the fact that the bulbs have adjustable spread and additional control with an adjustable hood, but overall happy with the first effort.









Saturday was finally the first mow with the tractor. It is amazing how much better of a cut it creates than the hand mower, even though I am mulching with both machines.





I also finally got the permanent hardware installed on the doors in the breezeway and the rest of the garage build.





I really like the clean look of the Yale Touch 2 Locks with touchscreen. Still trying to figure out how I utilize them besides autolocking each night for sure. I have not decided if I will do a location based automation or just leave the garage always locked with quick access since they do finger print access.

 

Lights look great!
I need to re-do mine, cheap solar post lights. Mostly there to stop people parking in my grass when they park on the street. It was wearing down the ground at the roadside pretty badly.
Thinking about doing wired lights, but hate the thought of them getting run over & having to replace. I've probably lost 4 in the last 12 months to errant wheels.

 

Do the most southern thing and put a 1ft tall white picket fence all along the road

In all seriousness, I actually have 4 wooden stakes 1.5ft tall, near a sprinkler head that is on a slight bend in our street. I had the way it looks but it was the only way to stop people from cutting the corner.

 

If I didn't have a ditch, maybe
Then I could put lights on the fence

 

Dude, that lighting on the retaining wall is chef's kiss

 

This weekend was mulch weekend. I started with cleaning out all the beds along the house and the garage. I normally do a full cleanout every 3-4 years, but this year it was even more important to do it cause of all the construction mess contractors had left around both.

I had 19 yards delivered on Thursday. This is the most I have ever ordered but I really just didn't want to run out with some new beds and some temporary spaces I need to reset what will be my normal order.




I wasn't sure what I was doing with the second tier, as I have begun using pine needles in places touching the woods for a more natural appearance. I ended up deciding, since it was still inside the retaining wall and also touching the driveway and the building, to go with regular wood mulch here.




Seems crazy, as I have had this loader now for like 6 years I believe, but this was the first year I was able to do the mulch fully with it since the first two years the hydraulic valve unit failed. JD ended up getting a bad bad of them and I got unlucky that my original unit was one and then the repair ended up also being one.




This marks the completion of landscaping for the most part till I can plant plants in the beds and continue the reseeding project in the backyard, and the little I need to finish on the left side of the driveway now that construction has been cleaned up.






Did end up overshooting the order a bit. Not sure what I will do with this. It's like too much to store extra and too little to offer for sale.




I decided this was the weekend to finally take down the temporary fence splitting the backyard, while I let the new grass establish itself without the dogs running all over it. I half-debated on waiting till the fall to do it, but I was getting sick of the path to get the tractor out to the front yard. We will see if I regret this decision or not.

 

"where should we shit!??!"

 

It will all be dead in no time. It is the only place they are pissing now.

 

We trained our dog to only pee on a big rock we have out in our front yard unless he's out playing with us so minimal pee spots for our yard!

I love seeing the pics of your area, so much green and it looks amazing. Everything around here is still brown and dead.

That's definitely not too little to put up for sale. People will buy anything lol. either that or put it around the woods or something.

 

I did seven yards of mulch 5 years ago with a shovel and a gorilla wagon behind my lawn tractor. Never Again.

Beautiful yard!