ESCAPE FROM COVID CALIFORNIA

After having spent a hectic summer replacing the landscaping in my front yard and building a patio at Matt's house, I quietly left California to return to Mexico on November 17, 2020, just as covid-19 cases began to surge. The number of cases in California and Mexico had been running neck and neck, but California began to pull ahead as the weather cooled and people remained indoors.

Matt's Sauna

My entire reason for returning home, in the first place, had been

The Offending Tree

to replace the fence between my house and my neighbor's. We both had many projects to complete before we could begin the fence. I got started, right away. My first task was to remove a tree planted too close to the property line. The roots of this tree had raised the otherwise intact walkway nearly a foot, making it impossible to close the gate. There were also five tree stumps remaining from trees that I had removed five years earlier. I contracted someone to remove the tree and stumps. They removed the tree but their stump grinder was out of order. There was a two week delay while it was repaired. Then there was another two-week delay when they realized they would need a ramp to get the grinder up the front stairs (even through I had asked them repeatedly if this would be a problem.)

Meanwhile, we took truckloads of junk from both our yards to the dump and built a patio and sauna at Matt's house. We also began the arduous process of removing my front lawn. The giant ash tree in my front yard had surface roots that had grown so large that it was impossible to mow over them. The city was constantly nagging me about my water usage, anyway, so it was time for the lawn to go. We dug two truckloads of dirt and sod out of my front yard.

Front Yard with Lawn Removed

Matt's New Patio

Chipping Out the Concrete

The other large project facing me was to remove and replace the damaged walkways. Originally, there was an aggregate concrete walkway in the front and patio in the rear that were joined by a flagstone walkway down the side of the house. The front walkway had been partially raised by the tree roots and the roots of the five trees I had removed in 2015 had made a mess of the flagstone walkway. I decided to extend the replacement concrete walkway all the way down the side of the house to meet up with the rear slab. This required removing the flagstones. The quote for the walkway was much greater than expected, so I needed to tackle the removal myself.

The first two thirds of the walkway was easy to remove. There was only a thin layer of concrete under the flagstones and it was already broken into manageable pieces. However, as I approached the rear, the concrete got thicker and thicker. It was a good six inches thick at the back. Matt was helping me but we needed to rent a jackhammer to break up the concrete. The flagstones were salvaged for later use at Matt's house, but we ended up hauling two tons of concrete to the dump.

The Giant Root

The concrete contractor didn't want to have to schedule two days for my job, so we had agreed that he would remove the large root under the walkway after cutting out the raised concrete. This root was much larger that expected, being nearly the same diameter as the tree trunk. It took three chainsaws before they were finally able to sever the root. A photograph of the root was blacked out on Facebook for being a disturbing image. It had certainly disturbed the concrete guys. In the end, they did a lovely job of matching the existing concrete and I was finally able to walk from the front of the house to the rear without risking a broken ankle.

Once the new concrete was in, it was time to finish the front yard landscaping.  We hauled six yards of pea gravel up the front steps from the street in buckets and wheelbarrows.  We put in two sets of posts to hang hammocks, planted herbs and grasses along the walkway, and cleaned and mulched all the flower beds with red rubber mulch.

Matt Shoveling Pea Gravel

The Finished Project

Even with all my delays, I was done with my projects by the end of September when we had originally planned to begin fence construction. My neighbor, however, still had not begun his projects. Covid-19 had delayed his contractor. He finally did begin but, when November rolled around and he still had not begun the paint job that would take several weeks, I finally told him that I wasn't going to wait any longer. He admitted that he wasn't going to get to the painting until the end of January, so we agreed that he would have to handle the fence project alone. I finally booked a flight to Mexico.

While I normally avoided flying Southwest, I had heard that they were not filling middle seats, so I elected to fly with them from Oakland to Phoenix and then on to Puerto Vallarta. I packed my mask, face shield, hand sanitizer, and disinfecting wipes. I wiped down everything before I touched it in the airport and planes. There was no one in the middle seat on the flight to Phoenix and I had an entire row to myself on the flight to Puerto Vallarta. With all my precautions, I felt relatively safe. My housemate picked me up at the airport in Puerto Vallarta. It was good to be home.

Sunset at Destiladeras