Progress!

Little by little, the backyard is finally coming along this year. We got the garden put in, and planted some seeds and plants.

We did put a fence around it, to keep the dogs out.
I had the river birch taken down out front as well. It stinks because it did shade the house. It was dying. The last wind storm we had, it was moving at the base. Growing up in Washington, I've seen too many trees come down. I figured it was better to be proactive. I will plant some new trees next year.

The boys and I made several trips to the dump this past week, we got rid of all the limbs. My boss will come by this weekend and take the rest of the wood.
I then proceeded to weed under the blue spruce, and planted some lilies.

My blueberry plants are thriving

 I'm excited that I have blueberries!
We worked on clearing out the back corner of our lot. It was full of branches and old pieces of wood left over by the previous owner.  We cleaned it up, and then began spreading out the compost from the compost pile I made last year. Truthfully, I didnt think the compost was going to break down. I figured it wasnt wet enough here. I was delighted to see that it did work. We used to to fill in the holes that we had. Our next project will be to take down some trees this weekend. The trees in the back were planted too close together, and several are not doing well. My goal is to next year, plant some new trees (probably fruit). I am not sure what type yet, I have time to plan it out. My goal is to try to get this yard to produce as much fruit and veggies if not more, as I had in Washington. This lot is 5 times as big, so I shouldn't have too much of a problem. The biggest obstacle to to plan, so that everything is functional.

This week

Got a lot done. The weather warmed up. Our riding lawnmower is broken, so I used the push mower to mow the back forty. Our lot is an acre...

It only took 4 hours..that was just the back.

I finished the dresser, I will post pictures of it later. The basement bedroom looks good. We are happy how it turned out. 

Jason and the boys helped the neighbor take down a tree. As the boys were helping clean up, the decided to pull out the stumps. Some were from last year.

As they were pulling the stumps,they pulled up the sprinkler line

See the white line in the middle of the picture...oops! Easy fix..

Thomas decided to try our the lawn mower the neighbor gave them. It's wasn't running when they received it. The neighbor that gave it to them is excited they got it running. 

There is still quite the mess. They boys volunteered to clean it up tomorow.

This picture is just because...rough life

I was in the mood to cook today

Dinner

Who doesn't love homemade bread?!

Projects

I've been working on painting one of the basement rooms. It's looking good. 

I will be refinishing a dresser. It needs some TLC

I believe I got all the holes and gouges filled with putty. Tomorrow I will sand it and hopefully paint a layer of primer.

Little by litte

This week I have gotten quite a bit accomplished.
I have hung several loads of cloths outside to dry
Hubby and I went through our Cd's, we cut our collection by over half.
I pulled out the Lego bins and began going through them, pulling out broken pieces/items that did not belong in the tubs
I patched small holes in the larger basement bedroom. My goal is to paint the ceiling and install a ceiling fan. If I have enough time this weekend, I will begin to paint the walls. The boys would like a gray color
I have a box of clothes I need to mail to my friend. She can use them, I can't justify hanging on to them.
I plan on going through our DVDs and get rid of movies that we are not interested in. I don't see the point in keeping things just to keep them. (Except books, we love books). I am happy with how the basement is coming together.
I am going to redo my work schedule and plan on working two days a week. I will work until lunch then leave. I really want to get rid of items we no longer need, but don't want to feel rushed as I go through things.
Depending on the weather, we are hoping to put our garden in. I am hoping to at least get is set up. I can plant next week. I want to get tomatoes, cucumbers, bell peppers, carrots, and onions planted this year. I miss not having fresh vegetables. I am thinking of planting an herb garden on the north side of the house. It gets some sun, but doesn't get blistering hot.
If I get around to it, I will post pictures this weekend.

This and That

We were going to put the garden in yesterday, but it was super windy this weekend.
I tackled painting the inside of the pantry instead

The previous homeowners dad was a heavy smoker. The seller was suppose to paint the whole house. Apparently his definition was different than ours. He painted most the walls, but few ceilings. I ran out of time last year in painting. I washed the ceiling the best I could ( its texted) with TSP, and used KILZ.

I feel like its a big improvement. We replaced the light fixture with and LED. Its much brighter and I like it better too. I didnt think to take a picture of it. Its flat, the previous fixture was a globe. Not helpful in a pantry. I was worried about hitting it and it breaking.

Friday afternoon, Andrew and I planted the plants I had purchased

These two are blueberry plants. I added peat moss to acidify the soil (our soil is alkaline). They seem to being doing well so far.

I planted two heathers and two dianthus. I don't want to go to crazy out front, as we still need to change out the windows upstairs. We will be renting a scaffeling, I don't want to purchase plants then have them get crushed or broken.

I have four of these boxwood hedges. They have already doubled in size. My hope is that they will grow tall enough to block the sun from the windows, helping in keeping the basement cooler in the summer.

My strawberries survived the winter!
My tree out front however, is looking worse than last year
The left side of the tree has few/no leaves.
Its a river birch. It does shade the front of the house.
I am thinking this fall we will have to have it removed. I don't want it falling on the house or one of the cars. This makes me sick that its not doing well.

On a happier note, my pear and apricot tree have fruit! The limbs are loaded! I don't have any pictures of them.
One of the boys has a birthday today. He had a good day overall. The one sad thing, his bio mom did not send anything. He says its ok, but I know it hurts him.

He picked eggs and cinnamon rolls for breakfast (homemade), and for dinner pancakes, sausage and bacon. Pretty good day overall.