The pergola project continues. Last week I got the 12×12″ red pavers installed. Lots of knee work, which in my case is difficult. I’ve been a ‘sit-at-the-desk’ guy for a long time, and haven’t had any requirement to do any outside work until we moved here. But I’ve got lots of spare time now, so the pergola project has kept me busy.

This morning we grabbed the truck from the Jensen’s, and wandered over to J&J; Nursery. Great place, and since it is nearing the end of the growing season here, there’s lots of stuff on sale. Since the first frost hits usually here about mid-October, we needed to get any plants in quickly so they can get established before the frost.

So we grabbed about 15 mums of various colors, and 10 purple asters. Those are both perennials, so we’re hoping they survive the winter here.

I took four of the asters and planted them on either side of the pergola. The mums were positioned to the left of the pergola, between it and the future garden area. I laid down some weed-blocking fabric, cut holes for the plants, and got everything in the ground. There’s some shredded bark to be placed around as ground cover. We didn’t get the plants until a bit after lunch, and I got finished with the planting about 6pm (there were a few Kool-Aid breaks in there).

The result looks pretty good. Tomorrow I’ll spread around the bark, clean up the materials a bit, and take some pictures.

I have also been working on a few new web sites. One site is a ‘play’ area for testing out designs. I’ve installed a couple of WordPress sub-sites, and a simple and complex ecommerce add-ins. The result is almost ready for viewing by the masses.

I also have installed a Drupal sub-site so I can compare the features and customizability of it and WordPress. Haven’t come to any conclusions yet, as I am still working with both.

And I am working on a new site for a niece-in-law, who makes custom beaded jewelry. Right now, it’s WordPress-based, with a WP ecommerce add-in. That’s still a work in progress. I got a big file of product pictures this morning via my FileHurl site (absolutely free no-size-limit file transfer at www.filehurl.com ). I’ll grab a dozen or two of those for the ecommerce product area.

But at the moment, the muscles (especially legs and knees) are a bit sore. And there’s some good new shows tonight to watch.