Here's what our front yard looked like when we bought the Chocolate House (we brought that lone saguaro cactus with us and planted it during the first week):


                       


Then Ethel did a lot of research on desert landscaping, spent a lot of time with a landscaper to talk about how the job is done,  spent a lot of money at the nursery, and got a Jackhammer to keep Silas out of trouble:


                                                      

...and now, after two weekends of exhaustive and exhausting work, here's what the front yard looks like now:


                       


What you're seeing is three trees (a Mesquite, a Palo Verde and a Desert Willow), various Birds of Paradise, some desert bear grasses, some aloes and yuccas, golden barrel cacti, an ivy against the wall that's supposed to grow up and cover a good bit of that, some desert brooms, milkweeds, and the added-earlier Dead Saguaro, the Fountain, and the Boulders. 

There's actually a lot in the front yard that you can't see from this angle, so Ethel sent more for me to choose from. Here's one from the porch area, looking south:



                       

which may help to give a better idea of just how crowded the front yard has gotten.

This isn't all of the landscaping that we've done, by any means - we've got two more trees on the east side, along with a lot of cacti and shrubbery (feather dusters, Mexican honeysuckles, and the whole eastern side will be covered with Queens Wreath ivy; we've got sage and rosemary (no parsley or thyme, though - and the sage was already there :) and, on the west side, three citrus trees - lemon, orange and grapefruit.

That, by the way, is just a partial list. I really don't know all of the names of all of the plants that Ethel has had us put into the ground. I do know that I'm tired. Saturday, after my run, I helped Silas with two trees on the east side (although he did most of that work). That left me tired.

Sunday was sort of a marathon, starting at 8 AM and finishing at 5 (with a sort of siesta in the middle, although we didn't sleep) with both of us going full time; we'd swap out with the jackhammer and shovels. We would have two holes going, and  one of us would be hammering in his hole while the other would be shoveling what he'd just broken up, then pass the jackhammer back across and dosey-do. That left both of us incapacitated; Ethel was exhausted too, and all she did was watch us work and eat bon-bons.

Now what's left is the plants to be planted on the hill (which will be really crazy, as the hill doesn't actually have any "dirt" or dirtlike substance - it's pure calichi, with boulders and stones and rocks and gravel) and then trenching to install the irrigation and lighting. Ha - did you read that? "....and then trenching to install the irrigation and lighting". That takes a few seconds to type, but it's an eternity of work and suffering - sort of like typing "...and then the Roman Empire fell...".

I'm taking next week off from work - this is called a "vacation" - but I have this funny feeling that I won't be getting any rest at all.