We’re on the cusp of “Arizona winter”, so the property was abuzz with activity for three days starting on Friday. Carmelo and the crew are jazzed about getting the winter rye down on the front, side, and back yards, so the first order of business was to get the large mesquite tree in the back trimmed down to size so that it once more stayed within the bounds of our property and allow sufficient sun to get through. After a hour of work we had enough branches trimmed to: a) fill most of the front lawn with branches, and b) create a winter’s worth of nice mesquite logs for burning in the chiminea.

Saturday was my turn, getting up on the 12-foot ladder to finish the trimming of the lemon and lime trees to allow a little more sun into the side yard. I got scratched up pretty good around the head and ears when a large branch with thorns hit me as it fell., but that’s what they call taking one for the team. Shortly thereafter, Carmelo and crew were back to collect the mesquite trimmings from Friday’s work, lay down some topsoil on the side and back yards, and spread the winter rye seed. You could see the excitement of the mourning doves just waiting for that seed to be spread!

Sunday was just taking care of a lot of small things that needed to get done once the hard heat broke: trimming a bunch of bushes, cleaning the pool filter for the last time this year, replacing dead bulbs in the tiki bar and back patio lights, refilling the tiki torches around the back yard with lamp oil, and washing down the patio and pool deck areas. Once November comes around it will be time to varnish the tiki bar and generally clean the sandbox area and replenish with beach sand.

We’ve got some lovely weather coming in this week, and it always feel good to be doing yard work in anticipation of the start of “Arizona winter” and the holidays that follow. The first big winter storm of the season is about to hit the Sierra Nevadas, and Carmelo believes we’re in for a relatively wet and cool winter, with a freeze to kill back the bougainvillea – the caterpillars he’s soon tell him so. We’ll see – that would be good after the warm, dry winter we had last year with little rain and no freeze.