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10 years ago
Showing posts with label outdoor projects. Show all posts
Showing posts with label outdoor projects. Show all posts
We were so excited about this little guy. He's the first of hopefully many more garden goodies right out of our own backyard. When I say we were excited I mean excited...like the kids were jumping around and screaming...I was trying not to, but I did do a little heel click. Then I had to run inside to call my mom and dad. They're garden people and I knew they'd be proud. They didn't even laugh at me for getting crazy over a cherry tomato. Instead, they got crazy with me. Now that's parental love.
Ty and I are the only ones in the family who can appreciate the sweet deliciousness of a fresh out of the garden tomato. I picked it while he was at school, and I wanted it BAD. I knew I'd better wait for him. As soon as he walked into the kitchen he spotted it on the counter and yelled, "I want that!" Hmmm. Two of us - one tomato. One cherry tomato.
I cut it in half and we feasted together. And we savored every bit of the 1.3 seconds it took to chew and swallow.
We're good at growing lots of stuff around here.
Growing blonde kids.
Growing laundry piles.
Growing dirty dishes.
So we're putting our growing skills to the test.
We are GROWING A GARDEN. A full blown green and living (for now) vegetable garden. Of course, it's a little small compared to some. But hey, we're working with what we've got: that is, limited yard space, native dirt that's about as vitamin rich as a bucket of gravel, and scorching temperatures. Can you sense my overwhelming optimism?
This journey began a few weeks ago. I'll just say lots and LOTS of bags of Miracle Grow were involved.
And now...we have some green baby tomatos!!
Wish us luck. It's going to be a long, HOT summer.
Wow! After all the preparation that goes into laying sod, I now see that the actual laying of it is the easy part. Our little work crew consisting of Reas, his brother Keith, and two of Reas' co-workers, managed to finish out the job in only a couple of hours.
And the finished job is WONDERFUL! Every time I see a glimpse of green as I walk past the windows my heart gives a little flutter.
Here's one last look and goodbye to the old dust bowl just minutes before the sod came in.
And hello, Your Lusciousness!
We can hardly wait to go rolling around in it. Maggie says she wants to run it. Ty says he wants to play baseball on it (surprised?). And Claire says she wants to push her baby in the stroller on it. It's going to be a long two weeks before any of that can happen.
We are so anxious to spend lots of time out back during Las Vegas' long and perfect Fall.
A backyard lawn will soon be calling to us to come and lounge in its grassy goodness. For the last year and a half we've looked out our back windows to see a whole lot of nothing. Just ugly, brown, dusty, dirt. It's been good for digging in and making mud pits, but that's about it. Here's a picture of what the yard looked like shortly after we moved in. And believe me when I say that it hasn't looked that good since. Somehow we've managed to suck the life out of just about everything back there. I'm having trouble uploading the pictures that show the yard at its worst, so just imagine this but really much much uglier.
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Our very own backyard makeover is currently in the works. It started with ripping out the weeds and dead stuff.
Next came the little tree incident.
Then we, I mean Reas, repaired the old sprinkler system.
In came the rototiller. I didn't do much here either.
I snapped the pictures so I wasn't standing around looking lazy.
...and a whole lot of stinky fertilizer. I'm sure the neighbors loved us for this one.
Finally we, and I honestly can say WE for this part, put in this fun little border that will separate the grass from the sand box area.
The sod is coming on SATURDAY, which is by far the most exciting part.
Last year I tried to get on like every dang HGTV show that would possibly come do all this for us, but I guess they have more sense than to choose scorchin' Vegas for their work. That's what I keep telling myself anyway. I mean obviously we deserve it. And I poured my heart and soul into those online applications. And our yard is sooo ugly. And Reas is so busy. And we have so many kids. And I try to be a good mom. And we are good citizens in our community, who even report graffiti. Yep. Must be because it's Vegas. It's YOUR loss HGTV.
But I will say there's something to be said for pushing up your sleeves and doing it yourself. We've learned a lot along the way. And the kids have learned a thing or two about hard work. Just look at them cheering on their ol' dad.
Maggie proved to be a great hole filler.
And I have come to know the sprinkler aisle at Home Depot like a good friend. I'm not one to be scared off by home improvement warehouses, but sprinkler systems are one thing I was pretty clueless about. Not now. oh no. Here is my last Home Depot shopping list: couplers, risers, and elbows. I actually knew what to get and where to find them. I was in and out in 5 minutes!
We'll still have some work to do post sod, but this is the part we've really been waiting for. In just a few days, I'll be back with some grassy green lovliness to share, along with some other little backyard projects.
Once upon a time there was a man and his wife. The man and his wife had a tree. It was a good tree, but over time its leaves began to turn brown and fade. The bark on its branches began to peel, and it became very, very sad. One day, the man said to his wife, "I have consulted a 'professional,' dear." He suggests that we cut the tree's branches back, and then maybe it will begin to revive itself and will be a good tree for us again.
Now, this man and his wife were sometimes a silly little couple. Silly because they often felt that they could do everything themselves. Particularly the wife. She would begin a new project and then exclaim to herself, "What the heck was I thinking?!" Yet somehow, she never learned from her mistakes and would continue to get in over her head. This dying tree presented such a situation. The man excitedly said,"Hey! I'll borrow a chainsaw from Bro. Taylor!" And the wife said, "I'll help you!" They were very happy about completing this project together.
Now, this man and his wife were sometimes a silly little couple. Silly because they often felt that they could do everything themselves. Particularly the wife. She would begin a new project and then exclaim to herself, "What the heck was I thinking?!" Yet somehow, she never learned from her mistakes and would continue to get in over her head. This dying tree presented such a situation. The man excitedly said,"Hey! I'll borrow a chainsaw from Bro. Taylor!" And the wife said, "I'll help you!" They were very happy about completing this project together.
The man was happy because he was going to be able to use a fun power tool. The wife was happy because another "project" was about to begin. Yes, it was a joyful day. The process began smoothly by cutting back one branch at a time until one very large, very top heavy, very angular branch remained. The wife observed, "Dear husband, I think we might have a problem. It appears that this large branch may fall directly into our neighbors yard when you begin to cut it." The husband agreed. But because they were a very silly couple, they decided to attempt cutting back the branch anyway. They devised a plan.
"Dear wife," said the man, "I think that if you stand here in the corner on the stepstool and push the branch away from our neighbor's yard as I begin to cut, we might be able to keep the tree from falling into their yard."
"Ok!," said the wife, excitedly.
But all too soon the man and his wife could see that things were not going as planned. The man began to saw. The wife began to push. The branch began to fall. In the wrong direction. The wife, overestimating her ability and strength, decided to grab hold of the branch as its end began to soar upward, hoping to keep it from falling over the wall. She thought somehow she would be able to defy gravity and the weight of a 20 foot tree branch. Fortunately, somewhere between the time her feet left the ground and the time she was suspended 8 feet in the air she realized maybe she should let go before being catapulted over the wall into the gaping mouths of 2 rottweilers. Very fortunate indeed.
The wife landed with only as much as a scrape or two.
At that moment, the man and his wife looked at eachother and burst out in uncontrollable laughter. "How silly we are!" cried the husband. "What the heck was I thinking?!" laughed the wife. You see, the silly couple was in quite a predicament. Now they must devise a plan to retrieve the branch from the neighbors' yard. The rottweilers' yard. And we all know how good they were at devising plans.
Just then, the neighbor woman came out to see what all the barking was about. The man and his wife apologized, laughed, and apologized some more. She put her two beasts away and the man went next door to cut the branch into smaller, more manageable pieces. He painstakingly threw each log back over the wall. There were too many to number.
Moral of the story: It's ok to ask for help when cutting a tree down for the first time, but if you decide not to, at least fetch the video camera.
In case it wasn't obvious enough already, I have no blogging mojo lately. Could it be the 110 degree weather? maybe. I catch myself thinking "please don't talk to me, breath on me, or touch me." That's a tricky thing with four little ones. And there's just not enough air flow at the computer desk to sit here for very long! And the mouse gets all sweaty. If only someone would bring me a cherry limeade or something (thanks Laura. I think I'm hooked), then all my cares would flutter away.
Despite the blasted heat that I'm just going to have to deal with, I'm beginning to get back into project mode once again. Projects? PROJECTS? Yes, I know. Don't yell at me. I still haven't started blogging about our trip, but I can tie it all in. Watch this.
Driving half way across the country (see? I told you I could do it) led us through so many little cute towns with little cute houses and some very BIG cute houses that I was drooling over. Whether they were big, little, old or new they all had one thing in common. The most beautiful and charming front porches. I was too busy dreaming to think to take any pictures, so you'll just have to believe me on this one. I came home inspired to do something about THIS (the porch. not the kids):
Months ago, I found two of these chairs at DI for $5 bucks. Hmm. Imagine that. Definitely in need of some updating. That fabric was even uglier in real life. Sorry about the blurry picture. Don't stare too long or you'll start going cross-eyed.
I hadn't gotten around to painting or recovering them, but was totally inspired to do so while we were gone. I'm such a sucker for toile. Anything toile. If I could find toile toilet paper, believe me, it'd be in my bathroom.
I potted some more flowers for the umpteenth time and am praying really hard that I can keep them alive longer than a week or two. It's amazing what a little color can do.
A rustic wooden crate for extra seating with a little personal touch by moi.
There's nothing like a welcome sign to say um... "welcome!" to your guests.
...and there we go!
Not too fancy or frilly, and maybe doesn't compare to the lakeside estates in Missouri, but it makes me smile nonetheless. So go ahead. Plant some flowers and home-ify your front porch. Your neighbors won't be able to keep the cookies away. I'm sure I'll hear knocking any minute now.
Next on my list - PAINT THE FRONT DOOR! Can't wait.
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