Our View…boy has it changed.

This was our view last May about three days before the tornado hit us.  You can see the two ancient pecans that were destroyed in the storm and the backdrop that was the 100 year old barn.  You barely notice the cars parked because of the fence that ran between the old wooden shed (destroyed) and the gate just the other side of the pump house (destroyed); the fence was covered in Confederate Jasmine and had a lemon tree, a cumquat tree and a large rose bush on the yard side.  You can barely see the chicken coop sitting just in front of the old barn and between the two sheds.

This was our view (taken the same day) looking from the barn to the house.  All of this was changed in a storm that barely lasted 4 minutes but has taken us 11 months so far to even begin to set it all right again.  The next photo was taken the day after the tornado and after we'd spent about 8 hours with chainsaws cutting our way from the back porch to the barn.

And the next one is what we've been staring at for the last four months.

A slightly different angle…shot just after we'd spent our first day on a Bobcat moving dirt and rock and the shed.  Note all the junk on the slab behind the fence is NOT ours.  That constitutes the remaining contents of the old barn that has been there since September without him doing much of anything except walk around with his hands on his hips.  WE cleaned up all the trash debris from over there in November - glass, wood, broken pottery, and bits and pieces of barn wood.  

And this is the view we saw after another day on the Bobcat……at least the Barn Junk is out of sight for the most part….

But this is what had us slightly depressed after spending the day moving dirt to form what will eventually be our new driveway and parking area….and had us doing a bit of re-thinking about the layout of it.  There is yet another boat to come in the fence plus three vehicles.  There just isn't room the way we have it now.  Something that looked big enough and "should" have worked according to measurements just won't work after all…plus, I have to say that I don't want to be looking at boats and kayaks from my back patio.

So we walked around and did some more measuring and decided that we'll move the old metal shed (that is only temporary until the new barn/garage is built next spring) forward to line up with the front of the pump house.  This will allow us to hang the kayaks on the back of the shed and park the fishing boat behind the shed hiding them from any view but from the back driveway and allow room for two of the vehicles to pull in right beside the RV. The third vehicle will park behind the RV.  

I immediately knew that for me it was the lack of trees and other landscaping that was bothering me the most…although it is not really noticeable in the photo, it is a sea of various shades of brown.  The grass has been so trampled and damaged from all the reconstruction that it is mostly weeds right now.  Removing one of the paths (the one that sort of leads to the shed but used to lead to our back gate) and replanting grass there will be a big help.  Moving my stone planters in front of the shed to hide the bottom of it will be a temporary solution to looking under the shed while sitting on the patio.  And finally, once the rock is brought in to mark the parking area, adding a black edging and planting a foundation row of boxwoods or something will break up that "sea of various shades of brown".  

You also can't see in the photo, but we've already planted Confederate jasmine on the new fence just the other side of the RV and down the new driveway.  Once that takes off, that will provide a back drop and again draw the eye away from the "sea of …" …you've got it.

And if the Farmer's son ever gets all his junk out of here….