Plans and Plants

This morning started early with an appointment for me with my rheumatologist.  The good news is that my strength is fairly good and the current medication dose I am on seems to be working well for me.  The plan is to reduce my medication in half, perhaps, in three months if the blood work comes back with positive results.  Hooray!  I am more tires and achy at night, but perhaps that has to do with a different routine now that we are back to walking and working a little outside.  (Actually, much of the walking and working of late centers around running to stores for half the day!)

We were home by 9:00 AM and waited around half of this morning for the Schwan's delivery man to arrive only to discover that our delivery time had changed from 9 - 11 AM to 11 AM to 2 PM.  He actually came in the middle of that time period, so we once again have a freezer full of good food.  We have spent a king's ransom on food in the last week, but we should have several meals to choose from for quite a while.

In looking at financing, I guess we are back, once again, to putting pavers in the front for our sidewalk.  Rick and Steve ripped the uneven, hazardous front walk out almost three years ago, so we knew that this year, once we have the palm tree removed, we would have to put in some kind of permanent sidewalk.  We have changed our minds ten times over whether to go with cement or pavers, and whether to do it ourselves or to have the sidewalk professionally installed.  If we were to choose a poured sidewalk, that would have to be professional.  However, we could do it ourselves with pavers and be much more cost effective.  The latest vote is to use pavers for a front porch and sidewalk.

A friend who used to teach masonry told us
to always lay out a paver design with a hose first
to plan the project.  This rough design shows where the
porch and sidewalk will go.

Once the palm tree is gone, the sidewalk will lead
out to the driveway and provide a border for a
flower garden in front of the kitchen windows.

We know for certain that the two main trees in the front yard will be removed this year.  That is already contracted and scheduled for late in November.  After that, we can work on the sidewalk and then plan on the front yard landscaping.

Steve came over today to tell us about the "trumpet tree" that he and Chris just purchased at an area nursery.  He told us that they saw a beautiful bottle brush tree there and thought we might be interested in it.  We have planned on planting a bottle brush in the back yard to replace one of the trees we removed a couple of years ago.  After lunch we went to the nursery, looked at the tree, and purchased it.  The price was good and installation charges were very reasonable. They said that they could deliver in a week or so, so we are excited about taking the first step toward actually growing something in our yard instead of just taking overgrown plants and dead trees out.

This bottle brush tree is beautifully shaped and will provide bright red
"bottle-brush"-shaped flowers this winter.  It will fit well in our back yard.

Today was a turning point in many areas.  We finally feel as if we are moving forward with our plans for our future and for Gladys' future as well.