Snow day in the Pacific Northwest

So its a snow day in the Pacific Northwest... something I love a couple of times a year here.  Yes, people here don't know how to drive in the snow, but that just means its a good excuse to stay home, make a fire in the fireplace, and read or surf.  But did we do that this morning?  No... we thought we would try and go to church but after an hour of bumper to bumper traffic on the 405 we turned around and came home.  We literally saw maybe 8 cars slide to the side of the road or lose control.  People try to drive their corvettes and BMW's in the snow and then wonder why they get stuck.

But enough about that.  This is the beginning of my blog about my experiences with our property this year.  My husband and I have about .75 of an acre of property in Western Washington.  We have lived here for about 9 years.  Initially the property was very hilly and filled with blackberries.  Over the years we have beaten the blackberries down... quite literally hiring people to pull them out by hand and me working every year to keep them at bay.  We have quite a few large evergreen pine trees and some nice landscaping done by the previous owners (like the maple shown in the picture above in snow).

Last year we did a lot of hardscaping.  This was something I have been wanting to do for years and we finally had the time, money and someone to help us.  We built a garden shed and a "clubhouse".  The clubhouse is more of a glorified shed for my husband.  We'll see this year how much he uses it and whether or not he really moves much form the garage into the clubhouse.

We built a huge retaining wall.  This was the major hardscaping as it created a more level surface on our hill, and provided some definition.  But I have yet to plant a thing.  I am waiting for the soil to settle over the winter and dreaming of what I want to do there.

I also personally build a retaining wall out of the concrete retaining wall bricks you get a Lowe's.  It was a lot more physical work than I thought it would be... but it was worth it.

This year I would like to continue on with the wall, but we will see.  I did plant about 100 bulbs during the fall so we will see how they come up.  I planted some lillies there 2 falls ago and I think a mole got to them.  I hate moles.  A lot.