The Great Outdoors

We've spent a lot of time outdoors this Spring and Summer, working on improving the appearance and functionality of the outside of the house. Dave impressed the heck out of me by re-building the back deck with no prior deck-building knowledge and ZERO help. He pretty much taught himself how to do all of it.

So to refresh your memory, back in July of 2010, Dave and Amadou ripped out the old deck because it was covering access to the erosion problem that was causing a leak in the crawlspace.

We lived with this deck area like this all winter, with just a few cinder blocks as wobbly steps

And finally - the completed deck!!!

We spent a lot of time outside and Dave was often seen doing this: 

   

 





And whenever I was outside, usually during short baby naps, I was battling the horrible monster that lives out in front of our house that goes by the name of "garden". I used to think "oh it'll be so nice to have a little garden" I retract that quaint little notion. I weed and weed and weed for hours and everything grows back at an alarming rate - faster than even seems possible. Here's a very small section of the garden that I weeded that is now totally full of weeds again. Notice the plastic lining emerging  - it's everywhere!

Many of the weeds are entangled with plants that I have toyed with trying to save but now my plan is to just dig up the entire garden and start fresh next year. But even that plan is turning out to be an uphill battle. I turn the soil and hundreds of tulip bulbs are unearthed and I have to stop, separate them from the dirt before moving on. Here's a nice sampling of bulbs

I have saved those bulbs in a big bucket, there are hundreds...but who knows if I will ever plant them.

I have to admit that I totally quit working on the garden after about 90 chigger bites showed up on my legs and I itched like mad for 8 days solid. Believe me when I say...this garden is pure evil and it gets worse by the day.

 So I moved onto more rewarding things. I figure if I'm going to put so much time and effort into taking care of a plant, it better give something back to me. Enter: tomato plants.

Dave planted them in a sunny spot near the creek and I've been weeding and watering them ever since. He helped me cage them up once they were big enough:

 I found a beautiful gradient of tomato ripening on a vine but by the next day, something (deer, I'm looking at you) ate all but 1 of these beauties.

The first few cherry tomatoes of the season ripened on my windowsill, safe from the deer. 

  I have a lot of updates coming very soon, including home projects, kitchen upgrades and little baby birds. Stay tuned! 

Finally, Moose sends his warmest regards and best sad eyes to all of you!