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 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.

Pumpkin patch and Blue spruce

We went to the pumpkin patch this past weekend.
The little kids had a great time.
The pumpkin patch we went to is located in the valley.
It was grey and very breezy

 

 

Epic was a good sport, he offered to push around the wheelbarrow.

FK #2 had quite the time picking out the "right" pumpkin.

As for my blue spruce..
Its in my front yard, not to far from my house. The roots stretch towards the front..

As much as I like the tree, hubby and I have decided to have it taken down. Whats crazy, I have called several tree removal places ( got the names of the BBB. Many aren't licensed and bonded.)
Only two have called me back. Only one has given me an estimate. The other is suppose to come by today. We will see.

Monday was really nice here, I raked up two big brown bags worth of leaves.
Cant tell I did looking at my yard today, lol.

this past week

This weekend was unusually busy. We got up, went to clean the church building. We were there for about an hour. The boys and I then left to come home. The sun was out, it was chilly.

This is the tree in my back yard at sunrise.
I never trimmed the trees this fall ( oops).  The boys and I borrowed my parents pole saw and prepared to trim the trees, in the front and the back.

This is the blue spruce out front. Jonathon trimmed the lower branches. The puppy and Andrew are out front cleaning up.

 We ended up with quite the pile of limbs.

The front yard does get more light with the tree trimmed up.
Jonathon and I trimmed the trees at the side and out back, but I haven't taken any pics of those.
Sunday we made three trips to the dump to get rid of the limbs. We filled up the back of the suburban ( we took the third seat out and put the other seats down).
I am hoping that Saturday will be decent so that we can finish trimming the trees.

The puppy is getting big.

The Seattle Seahawks are on playing in the Superbowl, and this area is full of happy fans. Today on the way home, my coworkers and I ( we vanpool) spotted a house that PAINTED the side blue and had a huge "12" on it. I will try to take a picture tomorrow. We couldn't believe it.
I thought it would be cute to make some banners- who doesn't like banners?

 

I made one for two of my co-workers. One of my co workers hung it up at work. We have had several compliments.

Ideas

So, RJ has decided on the food for his party. It will be a variety. We will have hot dogs, hamburgers, Mexican bean dip.. I am thinking of the them "Love knows no boundaries". I have to play with it in my head some more, so we will see.

Here is a picture of a marshmallow gun here 
These were at a party my kids attended, They had tons of fun with them.
I have been web surfing, looking up other fun outdoor games. I want kids of all ages to have fun.

My goal for today was to clean up the backyard, but we had quite a bit of rain, so that did not happen. I am glad it rained, my lawn really needed it. It looks greener already.

I bought some mulch, and will be spreading that tomorrow in the back. The party is in a week, and I really want the house to look nice and put together ( there's a joke, with 6 boys between the ages of 8-17).

I will post pics hopefully with weekend of my accomplishments.

Beginning of Summer

I love this time of year. The days here have been pleasantly warm. Even when it rains, its not too chilly. Friday I ordered 10 yards of dirt

It was delivered Saturday, before 8am- I couldn't believe it.
We ( my kidlets and I) began to spread it. My parents loaned us their wheelbarrow and some more shovels.

I then decided to remove the side garden fence, and move the garden to the property fence. My older kids were not impressed, but they took it down for me.

 



 The fence they removed was on the left hand side of the picture.

The above picture is what it looks like now..
Same with the below pictures.

 

I have so much more room now for vegetables!

We filled in the garden area around the fruit trees as well.

I planted Marigolds under the trees, in addition to parsley and cilantro.
I am excited to see how they do.
We still have over 1/2 the dirt left, I am hoping that when hubby gets back we can finish getting the cement pad demo'd. Once that is done, we can move the dirt where the cement was. I am looking forward to the yard looking neater.

We also added dirt to the chicken coop.

 

I do occasionally let my hens "free range" in the backyard when I am back there. They are great pest control.

 

 

   Here is a picture of strawberries I picked tonite from my strawberry patch

I think I will be making strawberry jam tomorrow!