When we bought this house, it came with a hot tub.

It was pretty gross.  So bad, in fact, that we said we would not buy the property if the hot tub was on it.  Seriously, it was a condition of closing in the purchase and sale agreement.  Anyway, with the hot tub gone, we could get on with our lives and live knowing we would never have to see it again.

But as you can see, the hot tub left a semicircular hole in the deck.  And truth be told, I would love to have a hot tub.  A non-disgusting one.

Well, we kept our ear to the ground and soon enough our opportunistic selves discovered someone that was getting rid of a perfectly good hot tub.  It’s rectangular, so I’m having to build up a similarly shaped foundation for it, and had to do some surgery to the deck to fit it.  It’s got a long way to go but soon I’ll be soaking nicely while I gaze out to sea from the comfort of my deck.

Simultaneously and on the opposite side of the house, I got some pavers to make a path between the house and the garage.  This adds synergy to my projects because the gravel I dig up to lay the pavers can be set into the rectangle where the hot tub is going to go.  Efficient, huh?

I have a theory.  I think that shovel sales on this island are significantly lower than any other place that sells shovels.  The reason is our ground is so rocky that only a complete idiot would try do dig this dirt with a shovel.  You have to break it up with a pickaxe one square inch at a time before the shovel can even touch it.

I also cleaned up the water fountain a bit.  The birds love it.

Not even close to done.  Still need to dig a trench between the garage and the house.  Those pavers are 4″ thick so I really need to dig.  They weigh about 60 pounds each.  I know, what kind of idiot buys these things?  They are such a pain to install in this kind of ground, especially with hand tools.

Eventually the path will go around in front of the garage and go to the house as well.  I’m hoping it helps with the mud in the winter.  We’re kind of sick of tracking it in the house like neanderthals.

A juvenile bald eagle, wondering why it takes us humans so long to build our nests.