It'll last a thousand years. Forever.

I'm trying to get in the habit of updating on a regular basis and my intention is that each update will be one foot in front of the other. Mind you putting one foot in front of the other maybe baby steps but as the saying goes, Soon I'll be heading out the door! But alas, there will be times that my update will be a, "Hi checking in!" kind of post and here is one. Wouldn't you know it. Monsoon week has hit Central Texas. Rain Rain Rain she's a coming down! It has been nice to enjoy the overcast days and cooler weather but can't do much outside with the rain. The corner where I started however is reacting exactly as I hoped it would. I was able to pull out what remaining grass was there and it is nothing but sweet mud. I even dug a little trench between the tree and the house to divert water away from the house. The tree actually sits a little bit higher than the most bottom siding panel causing water to collect in the very corner of the house. I dug a little trench between the tree and the house and angled it away from the corner. When the rain started it made it's little path away from the house and towards the fence. Yay! my first experiment as a civil engineer worked! Whether it lasts or not, I'm just glad it worked!

What the heck, I decided to brave the rain and take some pictures. This is the corner. That's our bedroom window, the tree in question and that gray long box is the battery backup from our solar panels.

The a/c units are over here as well


Here is my trench doing it's job!

but it does need improvement.

I did not account for water collecting between the backup battery and the house. I'll have to go back and make sure to include that area in The Trench. In that corner, I'm thinking of putting a decorative rain gutter like this. This corner doesn't get a lot of sun and it's kind of tucked away from the rest of the yard so we've decided to use it to dry our scuba gear or if anything needs to be washed outside. I'm looking at various ground covers to start in this area and eventually spread to the yard. I've also ordered my soil testing kit and am just waiting patiently for Mr. Postman to deliver.