I’m telling you, I’m gonna be glad when this back yard project is over and I can return to the more mundane kind of activities like filling the tiki torches with lamp oil and staining the tiki bar and tiki statue – now those are my kind of weekend warrior tasks – not so much manual labor! This weekend was spent moving a lot of rocks and using my spade to dig up deep root watering stakes and track down drip lines and electrical lines to ensure that when the Whitfill Nursery guys come a week from today to plant two new queen palms that there is no confusion over where the water and electrical lines are – in this case time is money!

I never realized just how hard clearing a 8′ X 8′ square area of rocks, roots, and dirt would be. The three queen palms that used to inhabit that area left roots like you wouldn’t believe, and I just don’t have the right tools to clear the area properly. Nevertheless progress was made: I found two old drip lines that had never been used and late on Sunday yet another new leak that probably should have been identified by the Hawkeye Landscaping guy when he was here, but I’ll leave it to the Whitfill guys who will have their work cut out for them when it comes tome to plant the queen palms. Here’s a photo of what the area looks like currently:

The two holes to the left of the existing palm is where the new palms are going to go. The cardboard box is what I’m using to toss all the queen palm roots I’m digging up in.