When moving into the Lariat Drive house, Jim's writing and art studio looked like this - filthy walls, stained carpets, mold and all kinds of gross stuff. This room would require a total makeover.
When clearing the property, not one fir needle went to waste after the trees were dropped. Here, the branches were chipped and shredded. The landscaping bark was later used on sculpted pathways around Jim's garden.
As stated elsewhere on this page (and in the blog), Jim W. Coleman doesn't have good luck with chainsaws. Here, after watching Keith drop trees with incredible precision, Jim thought he could do the same. He did, but lacked the precision.
As Jim W. Coleman doesn't have good luck with chainsaws, he hired American Tree Service to cut down some trees and to clear the property. The condemned trees were tagged with bookmarks so Keith Gates could identify them. BTW, his services are highly recommended. Great guy to work with.
Jim W. Coleman cut down three large, old apple trees out in the tiered area of the Back 40. Later, he planted two apple trees and a cherry tree to replace them.
Here, while the garden was being built, Jim shot a photo of what he called "The Dam" - a combination of pilings, plywood, concrete and all kinds of other crap shoring up dirt near the RV parking structure. This was all later torn out and replaced. But back then, it was a frightening mess.
One of the most important parts early in the project was to build a garden. This was the very start of it, a horseradish plant transplated from the Rocket Lane garden.
When starting the huge Lariat Drive home cleanup project, Jim W. Coleman had several loads of lumber, landscaping and building materials delivered to the house and dropped in the yard, which had been used as a parking area.
Out in what is called the "Back 40" area of the property, a huge mess had to be cleared. It included blackberry bushes, shrubs, a broken down, abandoned greenhouse, fencing, posts, gravel, old buckets, trash and stuff we couldn't identify.
To clear the mess from the Lariat Drive property, one fire pit was no sufficient. Here, Jim W. Coleman builds a new fire pit in an area cleared of brush and blackberry bushes waist-high.
After purchasing the Rocket Lane home, there was a formidable task ahead, removing many loads of junk left on the property by the previous owner. Here is one of the trailer loads.
A view of how the back part of the Lariat Drive property looked when we bought it. This run down mess was quickly cleared, but it took many many long weeks and months.
