More digging, leveling, gravel, stone dust and now the blocks. Block-by-block, pin-by-pin, the stacked blocks take shape into a a beautiful retaining wall and then another and then another. Now it is getting monotonous and repetitive news. Pictures coming soon..... I promise, stay tuned.

Mostly diggging, leveling, laying gravel and stone dust. I have kept some samples as a reference of what was used (I know, it is silly, but it is so cool to be able to say, this gravel type and this stone dust and that rock, and actually show samples). And of course, we make a field trip to get the Granite Gray Versalock blocks and caps (for the enthusiast: 248 blocks, and 237 caps). We ordered them and they had it all in stock, but no delivery until next day afternoon. Wah! But, just as we were walking out, we crossed the delivery man, and our delivery was scheduled for that day. It arrived one hour after we reached home. Wow! So we went from Wah to Wow in a matter of few hours. The blocks find a new home!

Measuring and digging starts. I am glad that I was home, during the process, because I could keep a watch over where, what, who and when it was all going to be done. Especially, the initial measurements and planning, to ensure that I was getting what I want, and be there to make decisions as needed. My conclusion for doing any project in and around the house is that you have got to be there, it removes all the frustration of not getting it exactly as you want it and avoid the 'cowboy' behavior of contractors and work crew doing what they think (sometimes they just don't think!). Sometimes they do think and they do bring experience to the table (well, thats why you hired them!). So, it is a tight balance between not aggravating your crew and trying to understand why they want to do something a little differently. Ask them, take an interest in seeing their point of view and you know, you get best of both worlds.

Thank you, father, for I am following your example and applying what I remember you doing. I remember both the times when you were managing the construction for both our homes. I could not fathom the amount of time and patience you had going through getting the house just right brick-by-brick, tile-by-tile and wall-by-wall. Now I do, and am in awe that you managed it all to get two homes built from design to implementation. You were there at the construction site everyday and everynight (as needed), ensuring you got it done exactly how you wanted it to be. My project is peanuts compared to what you have done.

This has been a great learning experience for me. From ground zero, where I had no experience to actually be able to understand retaining wall design, materials and construction. I measure the end result of the yard with terracing done, as just about 20% of the happiness. The rest 80% was the journey from concept to completion is a thrilling roller coaster ride, with its ups and downs.

Whoa! But I digress, Most of the day went in digging and digging and more digging. The interesting thing was that we hit river rocks. I expected rock ledge, which we definitely hit, but river rocks? One thought is that previous owners, perhaps, filled with a mix of soil and rocks and they used river rocks. But then we should have found some other crap too, but we didn't. I have a more exotic theory. Perhaps, way back when there was no town, perhaps there was a river/stream or something that flowed through and this is remanants of that. When I told my sister, she asked me to look for dinosaur fossils! (My 6 yr old nephew is all into dinosaurs and has declared that he is a paleontologist)

Finally the week arrives when the plans made in May and getting rolled into implementation phase. This is one project I am glad is following a waterfall methodology.  First the concept to design, requirements gathered, and actors lined up. Then the detailed design with inventory of materials and tools needed. Finally, the implementation and deployment. Thankfully any other methodology and the project timeline would slip, deadlines would have been messed up and cost increased exponentially. But, it all worked..... All the planning makes sense, and emotionally ready to be flexible with minor alterations.

Anyways, day 1 begins like any other project with cleanup crap that is there already. Cleanup begins in all earnest, tall dandelions get the axe and say bye-bye to the dead lawn. It would have taken me a week to clean up the mess, had I done it on my own. But three workmen cleaning up goes pretty darn fast. Just the clean up brightened up the space so much.

The season for picking fruit continues with blueberries. I had it on my to do list, but I think I was getting a wee bit tired with my trip to New York and then preparing for the major terracing project at home and major project delivery deadlines at work and starting training for WW Leader. I think that was a lot to do on my plate already for the month of August. But, encouraged by a colleague at work who went blueberry picking, I decided to go. By and by, I got another friend who wanted to go too.

So, we went blueberry picking at Turkey Hill Farm, Haverhill, MA. I am so very happy that we went. The day was perfect, with warm sun, and cool breeze. The entire blueberry section, must be about an acre or two, was neatly planted with rows of blueberry trees about 4-5 feet tall. The entire farm was covered with mesh at about 8-10 feet height to protect the fruit from birds and other predators. Each tree had a personal water connection connected to the main pipe neatly placed alongside each row. The blueberry trees were loaded. There were more fruit than actual leaves (ok, I didn't count). But when you see a blueberry tree that appears blue, with a tinge of green, and not the other way around, you know, it is going to be great picking.

How can you refuse this tree?	Me, and the blueberries

There were about 5-6 other people picking blueberries, all mesmerized with their tree and the blue marbles. The general chatter about what we were going to do with our personal stash; freeze them, make cakes, make pies, and oh! of course eat them. I don't think we were allowed to eat as we picked, but I did, all the ones that fell to the ground, I ate them. My rationale being, they are going to waste any ways, as no one picks fallen fruit, so may as well, invoke the 10 second on the ground rule and pop them in the month. I must have gobbled at least half a pound. Not that I am saying that I was a poor picker and many of mine landed on the ground (grin!) for me to eat.

The owners (at least we think it was the owner) walked around, chatting with us. I found from him, that the trees were planted in 1980's and some were older. Hmm, So, if I plant a blueberry tree in my yard, then my imaginary children will be able to get a decent harvest. Nah! not planting blueberries..... although.... hmm.... nah.... we'll see. The picking for blueberries, will go on till Labor day, this year, due to the fantastic crop. The farm also has sections for blackberry and raspberry. I did not know that while picking blackberry, we should not be picking the good looking ripe ones, but pick a ones slightly over ripped ones with little mushy feel. Interesting, who knew? Anyways, no blackberry or raspberry picking this season. I want to pick peaches..... and make gingered peaches..... but, I need the freezer space now.

I loved every minute of my time with the blueberries. Between my friend and me we picked two buckets (one 11.4 lbs and the other 9.5 lbs) of blueberries. They are delicious and now they are going to be frozen in smaller packets for the winter time.  What I need now is a freezer. I have my eye open for a good upright front loading freezer.

Allegra (Allegra Pattern First Post) back is completed and now comes the front. The front is same as the back for about 6 inches as the back, then we add (and knit at the same time) the left and right sections, and miter the center, so as the rows are added, the center closes in together and left and right sections grows. The added convolution is that the left and right (on the outer edge) are decrement (not at the same rate) so as it turns inwards with the center mitering, it levels off to form (in theory) the next level.  To show if off, I have loaded the right hand section on a stitch holder, but it is really on the same needle (as shown on the left side) that the section is loaded. I don't believe it, such a simple concept, but the result is stunning. Cannot wait till it is done. I am hoping this week or upcoming next weekend. I think though, I have made to minor mistakes, but I think no one will really know.

Oh! Baby! This is nice.
The back, done!	Fancy mitering and left and right

I am home again!! I love my home and went around each room (most of the them empty), just to make sure everything was in its place. It was. Thanks to my neighbor, my herb plants are doing really well. Basil is growing strong, tomato plant has baby tomotoes, the chocolate mint is growing strong. And all the pothos (indoor) are growing nicely.

I was great to be a part of my sisters move, but I am happy to be back where I belong. My Home!

My 6-year old nephew runs over to me and says: "Why don't you get married, so, you will not be alone and will have a family like ours?"
Completely taken aback with this question, I asked: "Why do you want me to be married?"
He responds without a second of hesitation: "So, I will have cousins to play with".

How does one respond to something like this. I had absolutely no idea where this question came to his mind. So, I told my sister that her insightful 6-yr old wanted me to be married. She laughed and told me what transpired between the two of them, before he ran over to pose the question.

(Setting: My sister and her family just moved from an apartment to a large and lovely single family house. She and my nephew were sitting in the living room, while I was in the kitchen)

Nephew: "Ma, I am scared"
Sister: "Scared? What has scared you?"
Nephew: "This is such a large house and and I am all alone"
Sister (trying to explain that he is not all alone but we are all together in the house with Ma, father, little brother): "You are not all alone, but we are all live in this house, and we can see each other in, even if we are in different rooms."
Nephew: "How many rooms do we have?"
Sister: "Lets count how many rooms we have, shall we?"
My nephew and sister, count the number of rooms and come to some random number 7-8 rooms. To which my nephew continues
Nephew: "How many rooms does aunty (aunty = me) have?"
Sister: "She also have 6-7 rooms"
Nephew: "Who lives with her?"
Sister: "She lives all alone"
Nephew: "All alone?! She does not see anyone in another room?"
Sister: "Yes, she stay in her home, with no one else."
Nephew: "Why doesn't she get married, so she can see someone else in another room?"
Sister: "Why don't you ask her?"
Nephew: "No, you ask her"
Sister: "No, you have the question, you ask her."

At this point (my sister reported to me), my nephew walked out of the living room, and into the connecting dinning room, wandered around in circles for a few mins and then dissappeared. This was the point where he came upto me asking me to get married.