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.