Summer 2011

By June 2011, things were happening.  A second woodpile had appeared courtesy of the Elven Axeman (BRIAN)...

The bees were packing the leaning oak with honey, and swarming when I passed too close in that big black and yellow garden tractor.  All I know is that I'd circle from behind and go full throttle past the hive.  I never got stung; I must have looked like a giant bee.

The neighbors were going full-out on their house.  They sure cleared a lot of the trees before they started...and even some more when they started on the bulkhead.  We were eyeing the ones on our lots we really wanted to save and which ones to which we might say good-bye.  Plenty of time to decide.

There's also one going up across the street.  Looks like our end was going to get developed after all.

Big dead live oak that the Elven Axeman took care of...except for the massive stump that is still in place...all of his elfish magic couldn't get it out of the ground.  The rest made most excellent firewood, some of which kept us warm on this year's squirrel hunt.


Big Blue, lookin' good in the neighborhood.

The next post will jump ahead a year to this past summer.

Slash and Burn (and mow)

From July 2010 - Joe and the kids came to check out the possibilities.  The grandkids look so small!  Alice is experiencing the mosquitoes...which was the determining factor for having a screened back porch.

We planted some heritage daylillys and some spider lillies (naked ladies) on the south side of the horizontal oak.  They've survived to date.

February 2011 - a season of clearing is beginning to show...

Note the (first) woodpile...

and the general cleanliness of the place...it was the beginning of a pretty severe drought, but we didn't know it at the time.

A view to the front from the NW corner by the bayou.  Your challenge is to find Waldo Denise.

...and a view to the back.  You might notice some of the trees have an orange ribbon which is indicative of their imminent demise.

After only a year, the place was cleaned up pretty nicely, thanks to Brian the Destroyer.  We already had a good stack of firewood, and most of the shred had been raked and burned.  The next round will take us to June of 2011, when we started getting some building activity next door and across the street.

Interim part 2

Later in April 2010 we secured the second lot.  This picture is roughly pointed down the property line on the west side, from the street to the bayou.  It is very close to where our driveway will enter the property.

...and a little further in on the same line.  Very green in the spring.

Late in the afternoon it was nice down by the bayou.  It will be sweet to come home to this view in the afternoon, although a postage stamp back yard surrounded by 6' cedar privacy fence and shingled rooflines in every direction does have its charm, I suppose.

The inviting spot that just gave us a good vibe...

The view to the front from the bayou bank on the 2nd lot...I can barely see Big Blue up on the street.  Note the big live oak  with the 45 degree lean on the left side of the picture.  It was home to a thriving honey bee colony, as you will see later.  I was a little worried that they were the africanized variety and I would end up sprinting for the bayou one day - but it never came to that.

This is the "twin oak" that will end up just back and to the side of the screen porch.  One of those limbs is crying out for a swing (might end up with a swing by the bayou, also.)

This just about takes care of the acquisition stage.  We'll transition to the "whip it into shape" orchestrated by Staff Sargeant Brian, who determined that about 69 of these trees needed to release their carbon content back into the environment.  Unleash the STIHL FARMBOSS!

The interim...part 1

These pictures are from mid-April 2010 when we had just bought the first lot.  We mowed and started raking shred.  It was on this trip that we decided to try for an adjacent lot.  Things were green and the bayou was full.

The grass by the bayou was in pretty good shape from the start.  It's really filled in with the clearing and mowing these last 3 years.  I guess a lot of it will be torn up during construction,

We bought our little spot about 3 years ago. Two+ acres on a bayou that leads out to the Intercoastal canal/West Galveston Bay. The first couple of pictures show what the place looked like when we first got it; I've also included the lot layout. 160' on the water to the north, 240' on the street to the south, and about 436' deep. Later I'll post some interim shots and finally show what it looks like today, staked out and marked for clearing and house pad.

The lot was semi cleared when we got it.  We thought this live oak was especially cool...evidently laid down for quite a while.

This is roughly the east side property line.  You can barely see Denise through the trees.  Three years later there's a metal fence down the line and a house on the two acres to the right.

You can hardly see Denise back by the bayou on the line between the two lots.  She's the white spot just to the right of the streetlight pole, just above the red tape.  I am forbidden from posting any larger pictures of her without written permission!

Two very nice oaks on the back of the property...this is what caught our eye when we were scoping this out.  This was in March 2010, and the north wind had the bayou low...the leaves were just starting to come out on the elm and hackberry trees.

Here's standing on the bank of the bayou looking back towards the street.

Here's the plat for our two lots.  The neighbors on either side of us did the same thing.  The ones on the east completed their house about a year ago, and the ones to the west told us they were going to start building in March.

I'll work on backfilling the development story and get this up to date over the next week or so, then I'll post progress through the construction phase.  I might even keep up the blog after that if I have some readers.

Testing this puppy out. Will start for real when I figure out how to control access.

I've used this shot as a screensaver over the last few years. Really nice live oak on the banks of Bastrop Bayou in Brazoria County, TX in April 2010.  The St. Augustine grass is naturally occurring.  Read on and share the journey