Lake Arrowhed cabin exterior improvements 12-2012

Okay. 1269 Yellowstone Drive, Lake Arrowhead December 5th, 2012, despite what any video date tag on the video might show. I'm just showing you what's up at the house. Okay, base of the stairs. I recently added the completed top walkway section. Drainage ditch on the left, along the property border. . . . trimming up the apple trees, the main stalks; and . . . so, these 3 tiers of rocks, too, take the water away from the house, down this way, as well as going, actually, back downhill, toward the back of the rocks; so that completely reverses the situation where that was just the slope, and everything drained down here; so each level also has more ground where we could plant more trees, for securing the ground and absorbing water, or just plants, or, if you wanted we could put in more stones for paths or other brick work, stone work. Down here, Kevin sealed below the window, at the base of the siding. We tested it by filling this up with water, before and after our gluing. and it was sealed and there is no longer water that goes in, that can ruin the floor, like it did before, and there was no adequate slope, according to code, which requires 6 inches drop, from the edge of the footing of the house, away from the house. So, it's now dropped back down over the 6 inches, to the level I dug out, all the way, under the steps, and past the front porch. I've got a couple of big, old rocks up here, sort of as corbels for the base area to be developed, here at the top of the steps. Just a simple little walk way and bench encircling this tree, that was added since the last photos I sent. I added this walk way in the front, down to our driveway, as well as adding the gravel to both sides of the porch, here. Set in some large step stones, down to this path. So, we do get a little gophers, still, coming up underneath, but I just shovel the dirt back down into the planter, in front of the porch, here. We needed room for the drain off of the roof, which, because of the zigzag edge of the roof we don't have any rain gutters, so I'm putting in gravel here along the side of the house, and then this stone pathway; and leaving a passage for the water under the edge of the stone path. I extended the stone wall to this side of the steps, in progress. And trimmed this oak tree so it wouldn't be interfering as much either with the cars or with the walking path. So I cut off a diagonal branch, here, and a big main trunk, down here. I added a level landing, for solid ground access to the shed. Steps from the driveway down; put in gravel here, again, to carry water, next to it, still in progress. I have a footing down to a path, with an easy, rising slope up to the water spigot and the hose, so you don't have to walk in dirt and mud there. And then putting in another little winding, serpentine path around the tree. I'll probably finish that today. So, again, these are staked underneath the course of the path, and along the sides, and filled in with the strong clay soil, which all of these have been too, and have endured the rain, and retained solid structure. You know, we can put in quick-set concrete We can sweep across the top with that, if you want to do that, or adjust them, or swap out stones for bricks, or lay in mosaic designs. Then, in the back we've got all this cleared. Oh, after the Forestry surveyor came last week, if we can see back here, if I can zoom, there is one of the property signs saying, "behind this sign is national forest." So that is one on our property. But, about half a dozen that were installed on the neighbor's property, over there. And I see one, down the way, down this way, too, with more survey markers. And I've got a small, kind of garden wall, retaining wall going here, to help keep the dirt from blowing and falling and flowing onto the driveway. There is some gravel and leveled walk way in front of it, and some steps in progress here, and again, the little pre-patio area here, leveled out in the back. and I've got large rocks, which don't necessarily look so large, but those are each probably 100 pounds or more. Most of the stuff, the rocks I've used, have come from the property. I've found lots of roadside stones, falling onto the road, so I just clear them away. Let's see. . . I dig lots of gravel here, so I use my filter screen that I've got, square frame with wire mesh, and filter out the gravel from here, to resupply use of it next to the house. Let's take a look at the top of the path. Oh, I have photos of the process of the wall collapsing here in the last stretch. I've already sent photos of this showing the bulge. Here's the 1, 2, 3, 4 stones were here, and then boom, second largest, only, to this one, that was put on there while I was trying to excavate. These 3 rocks were all underneath this topmost apple tree. I had 2 more rocks, about that size, plus this large one here, next to the base of the stairs, and 1 down in the wall, in the front. So, here's the top of the stairs [path] here. Drainage, right next to the driveway, to go down. the stone path to keep you from walking in the dirt. A view from the top. The gravel along here is actually to, catch the rain and prevent natural trenching and hole digging by the droplets of rain off the roof. And it tended to be dropping at the peaks, so about every 4 feet was where the holes would start to develop. But, this could be replaced with, complete stone, brick work, or masonry, or just planting, garden planting. A bunch of neighbors have been telling Kevin and me that they have pear trees growing up here and lots of other fruit trees. and I'm going to bring up some pomegranate trees from the house on McNally. I've got lots of sprouts of those. That's it. I've reassembled and glued the breakfast nook benches. This one back here is still in progress, but the front ends have already been repaired; some the pieces were stored down below, under the deck. And. . . that's it for the outside. OK-bye.