So there was a lot of big talk at the beginning of the year when resolutions were being made that I was going to post more blogs more often. And as most resolutions go, I started off good and then let the ball drop in February....and March.............and April. So here are the updates.
February was cold and dreary with lots of time spent at work. For Mom's birthday we drove down to Kennewick and did a little yarn shopping, a little book shopping and then met up with my Uncle Fred, Aunt Carla and cousins Pat and Jon and ate at the Ice Harbor Brewery. I was initially thinking about doing a short weekend trip to go to a brewery and I was hoping to hit up a farmer's market, but it was February for heavens sake! Can you tell I want it to be summer already?!? But after doing some research online and seeing good reviews on their beer, we decided that it was a better plan than a long drive somewhere. Besides I thought she'd enjoy celebrating her birthday with the people she likes best! And I managed to put my camera in my jacket and then not take a single picture!! Not even when we left and the cable bridge was all lit up and beautiful. Lame sauce.
March was more productive. The first weekend we had off we took a couple of extra days on the end to do some spring cleaning. We had a 20 yard dumpster brought, one that is big enough to walk in, so that we could clean up all that we needed to around the yard. This was the year we needed to replace the wood shed. The roof was pretty solid but the walls were slowly relinquishing to gravity and falling outward. We tore the entire shed down, first by removing the walls and then by taking off the shingles and the lower pieces of the roof. We tried to pull the entire structure down with a rope tied to the pickup, but the rope just came out of its bindings. After the roof pieces were off the whole structure was pretty shaky so then we just pushed it over. Mom had to pull the roof to get it down to the ground and then we took the whole thing apart and loaded in to the dumpster. As we were pulling the shingles off the top pieces of the roof there was a whole bunch of yellow jackets living underneath. I pulled back the black paper, saw the writhing buggers and high tailed it to the deck screaming.
We also pulled the dirt away from the side of where the shed was and leveled out the area under our willow tree. There was a pretty big hole that had started to appear next to the playhouse and we got it all filled in. The picnic table that had been under the tree was also pretty rotted and so that went too. We thought we would want another picnic table and actually use it again, but looking at the costs of picnic tables and the space we have, now we are thinking of getting a cute garden bench. We removed a lot of branches and tree debris from under the willow. There was a huge pile of branches on the outside of the fence and as we got to the bottom we started finding some big rocks. Turns out there was a bunch of rocks that had been brought back from the cabin and dropped back there! I saw a long skinny flat one and thought one thing...pondless waterfall. I have a place in mind next to the pergola that I have been wanting to spruce up and while a waterfall sounded nice, it was pretty pricey. Most of that cost is the rocks and since I've got those now, the rest should be pretty affordable!
Along with all of that we needed to take down a couple of trees around the yard. We took out a dead spruce tree and three poplar trees that were growing in the wrong place and hauled that debris back to the dumpster, which pretty much filled it up. That was a good thing because we were pretty spent. I cleaned off the concrete pad that would be the new home to the Tuff shed we got to replace the wood shed. Mom cleaned out the herb garden, because guess what! Oregano and sage are perennials and had grown out of control over the last few years, so they were cut back vigorously.
The next Monday we had off our Tuff shed arrived and was assembled in 3 hours! I love the Tuff shed guys, they make it look so easy. We got a primed shed that we needed to paint because we were going for a color that they didn't offer. I had kept a picutre of a lavender door on a house out of a magazine that we both agreed was really beautiful and would be a great color for the shed. The following Monday after the shed went up we started painting it. We got the front and one side done, but as we started around the back I saw that the yellow-jackets had already started to make a nest under the shingles of the roof! What little demons from hell! So we abandoned the painting and went out that night and sprayed them to death.
There are still outdoor projects left to do...I'd like to put in a PVC underground watering system into my garden. I started it with a slightly cheap drip irrigation system when I wasn't sure I'd be keeping the gardening up. But last year I had a couple of elbows crack on me and I was using drip hoses rather than the little drip lines the original irrigation system offered. It seemed like a rational idea to move on to something more permanent. We have a gate to put in next to the new wood shed and a bench to find for that spot under the willow tree. I am thinking of putting mulch underneath there to make it more appealing and inviting. There's the large deck we do outdoor dining on that needs to be stained and refinished. Thanks to that Save-on-Crafts website I've got a couple of summer party ideas. And then there's that pondless waterfall that's tumbling around in my brain...so much to do and so little time.
