"Cry Havoc And Let Slip The Dogs..."

Of Washington?  The Huskies beat the Nebraska Cornhuskers?  Too bad I didn't watch that Holiday Bowl game.  We did, however, sit through the half-time fireworks because the stadium is right down the hill from our house and the cats all wake up and run for cover whenever the popping and booming starts.  It sounded louder than usual last night, for some reason.

The really important thing about last night was that it did not freeze after all, so the plants are safe.

Pine Tree Branches "Before"

We're continuing with the back yard project this week.  Last week we had the overhanging branches of the neighbor's pine tree trimmed off and the big Jade plant taken out; it looks almost bare out there behind the garage now.

Greg and Brian are also making good progress toward preparing the area behind the fence to put in a retaining wall and walkway up against the bank, and ultimately we will probably put in a mini orchard in that area to help with additional erosion control.  We want to get more root mass back in there to keep the soil in place, especially since we've been hearing about landslides and hillside collapse in the area.  There's no question that the ground is saturated and it will undoubtedly take it a while to dry out.

As far as we can tell, there hasn't been any more slippage on the slope behind the hedge, but it may be a while before we know for sure.  The ground is so soft right now that we're reluctant to walk around back there too much.

Pine Tree "After"