Friday, April 30, 2010

Mother Nature is Awesome!!


Snow, cold, rain and wind, its all par for spring time in Colorado!! I know what I'll be doing this weekend!!!! It sounded like and explosion when the tree came down, and I am grateful it fell away from the house!!!!

Sunday, April 25, 2010

Rained out

Its been raining here since I think Thursday, which of course we love, but it manages to get us all to stay inside for a few days. Colorado has so many sunny days, we tend to really get into these sullen cloudy days, and just relax and enjoy guilt free inside tasks. This week a friend and I made Hulla hoops out of 1" 100 psi flexible pipe, and decorated them with electrical tape. It was so much fun, we listened to music, laughed, got the hoops made then went out in the rain to try them out. I need much more work to be a good hooper, but my friend took right to it. She rocks the hoop!!! Here's some shots of the family enjoying the hoops yesterday when we finally got a sunshiny day, they were a big success, everyone could do it except me, so now I really have my work cut out to get good at it! Theres also a shot of my super talented Dad and Brother doing some serious work to my truck, they are the best! A evening with great family and friends to remind me of what its all about, what a great life I have! Hope your out there ejoying yours too!

Chad and McKenna working the hoops, McKenna is really good!

Maggie gets the hoop going, she actually was doing two hoops at once....awesome
More of Mckenna and her Daddy getting the hoops rolling
Grandp and Chad decide to start walking with the hoops, so funny!
Grandpa and Chad having fun with the freshly minted hoops woohoooo!

Grandma, who, btw, is queen of the hoop, and Mckenna get 'em spinning!!!! it should be noted, this was the first hooping for Mckenna, and Chad, and they both took right to it.

Greg and Dad pulling the transmission among other things out of my truck to work on it! Not only world famous Punkin Chunker, but my very own personal mechanic, I am so lucky!
One last photo, this is my basement and my soaking wet carpet and pad. This old house has so many things that need work, and I finally managed to find the smelly musty spot I could never quite figure out. I had a huge fan in there all day yesterday and it is not drying out, you can tell by the stains on the carpet this has been happening over and over, so its time to rip out the carpet and start over down there. I think I figured out the water problem and will get that fixed too, but for now, the stinky carpet needs to go!! On an up note, checking other floors around my house I discovered wood flooring under the carpet in my spare bedroom upstairs!!! WOOHOOO!!! Exactly what I needed, more projects on the house hehehehehehe. Well, I am off to rip out carpet like a mad woman, more snow and rain are forecast for today, so its good I have so many indoor projects!

Monday, April 19, 2010

Weekend Warrior

This weekend kicked my ass, emotionally, physically, mentally, I was beat! What better way to shake of the blue funk then by heading into the yard with my ipod and my thoughts. I felt like I did not get much done, but looking at the pictures, it seems I did! The flowers were from a friend, I love them. Not sure why, but Pink seems to be a color I have never really cared for, lately however, I am beginning to love it. That's freaking me out a bit, but maybe it's just all the change in my life right now manifesting through colors :).

This house has treasures hidden all over, especially in the yard. This is an old bird house that has been screwed do the fence in the corner for who knows how long. Many times as I sat in the yard, I thought to myself, "I really should go get that off the fence and fix it up." Something always got in the way of me doing it, rushing from here to there, just not having the time for the simplest things that take only minutes. I finally retrieved it this weekend, and to my surprise, its in much better shape than I thought! It has a fun saloon look to it, even used to have a little sallon sign on it, I'll have to fix that and give it a new name :). Other then that, I think the birdhouse will be just great the way it is! It has an old weathered look about it that I love!
I have had many let downs in the last week or so, some very big, some very minor. My seeds not germinating was a let down for sure, but on the bigger scale of things, not so bad once I really thought about it. I used a new seed starter this year, that I just did not trust from the beginning. When I was planting the seeds, the dirt did not feel right, smell right or hold water right. I knew I should not have used it, but did anyway. It's coming to my attention that this spring is quickly turning into the experimental garden, so chalk that one up to a learning experience, and move on. I tossed out all the old dirt and seeds, and started over. I still have a few weeks before the last freeze, so I started a new fresh batch, I'll will just have to wait and see if this works better. I know there are problems with my seed box this year, and keeping my garage warm enough over night has also been a problem. I will have to work on that for next season. Add that to the nasty dirt, and here I am back at square one just a few weeks before the last freeze (hopefully). (I've been researching hydro growing, and am afraid that looks like TO much fun....might have to post more on that soon)Once I got the seed box replanted, I moved on to what is going to be the herb and flower garden in the back yard. I worked out here for about 6 hours on Sunday and felt I did not get much done. After reviewing the photos I took, I feel much better about how much I really did get done. Moving from back to front, removing all grass, weeds, and other debris took a lot of time, I am pleased with the way it is coming out. Last year this was my entire garden, now that I have no big dog in the yard to worry about, I moved things around and will use this space for things that need some shade, herbs, and flowers, and use the rest of the yard for serious growing. I am very excited to see it all taking shape! These two shots are the before and after :) My body is hurting today after all the clearing of this space, but hurting in the best possible way!
This is the after shot. The grass was so long I ended up using my push mower to trim it back so that I could rake the leaves out of it, then I could get to pulling the grass and weeds. It was about a 4 step process, but it worked very well. The other project I worked on that I spaced getting photos of, was the concrete patio removal. I loaded up one very large truck load of broken concrete debris and took that to the dump, that pile is finally getting smaller, but man, was it a lot of work! If you look at some of the older photos you'll see that pile in some of the shots, I will have to go out tomorrow and get a photo of what it looks like now. :) I almost forgot to post a follow up to the sprouting post! They take a little TLC, but they are totally worth it! its fun to watch them grow, to check out the roots, and see them fight for their place in the sun! i think I am going to love sprouting! They also taste super yummy!!!

(note to self, need to work on a new funky gardeny hat!)

Saturday, April 17, 2010

New planting beds




Heres a few photos of some of the new planting beds I got done last weekend, and this week. I have so much to do! Spent this morning sitting with all my seeds and planning what to plant when and where, very exciting stuff for a garden geek like me. :) It's been a long tough week, and getting in my yard is going to be especially good right now. :) Happy Day!

Saturday, April 10, 2010

Cleaning and organizing

With a wonderful spring day, I had plenty of work to do to try not to stress out about none of my seeds popping up yet, here's a few shots of some of the work my Mom and I did. There is so much to do, but first I needed to clean, organize and power brain storm about the things I want to to. It was great to have my Mom's help, and to bounce ideas off of her. She has a fantastic backyard, and I'm super excited she came up and helped me get mine going :).


This is the before shot, much junk on the patio clogging up the creative powers!


This is the after shot, we got the wood pile gone with two truck loads of that stuff to the shop, Mom raked most of the yard, which made it look super clean. We picked up all kinds of trash and junk and reorganized some of the things I had just sorta stacked all around. This area is under a large aspen tree in the corner of the yard near the house. I have designated this area as my new work area. You can see my cool score of a couple of tables to work on, and one very cool cabinet with drawers and lots of storage space! I love how its coming together.

This is a view is from the far corner of the yard where I put the new nostrovia table. Very cool, shaped like a bean for a service person to sit kinda in the middle and pass out the drinks. I just need to get some wicked cool cushions made and some decor around the pavilion, and it will be fantastic! this is the view from under the new pine tree seating area! very cool shady spot that will be wonderful when the summer heat wants to drive me out of the yard! Look at all that space out there for planting and garden fun!!!

Sunday, April 4, 2010

Easter weekend in the yard

To start my weekend off Saturday morning, I decided to try my hand at sprouting. I got some seeds, and gave it whirl, what do you know, in only two days the peas are starting to sprout!! Very cool to see, I love to see seeds and plants begin to grow, I am such a nerd, but this is very exciting for me! After I got my sprouts going, I began cleaning up much of the junk in my backyard. While doing that, I noticed one of the many giant squirrels in the area, hanging out in the tree, just chattering away at me. Needless to say, I had a bit of a conversation with the dubbed, King of the Squirrels. I told him if I catch him eating my seeds, bulbs, flowers, corn, or any other said veggies I will be growing, that he just might make a tasty little meal. He quickly reminded me, that he can dig up any bulbs and seeds and replant them wherever he wishes, AND that he will eat whatever he wants. About that time, Sir Artemis himself graced us with his presence. I think the king of the squirrels got the idea of just who I meant the tasty meal for, and bounded out of tree to the squirrel super highway (aka the power lines above the yard). He scurried off to the neighbors tree where he belongs. Somehow, I feel I lost that battle, I'm going to have to figure out how to deal with the squirrels at some point. That being handled for the time being, I managed to load 2 full truck loads of old wood, concrete, trash, and other debris from the yard. I still have many more to go, but it was good start.

After the squirrel debate, I decided it was time to tackle a few things in the front yard. The first being the old mailbox post, it had to go. I got my trusty shovel, and began to dig that sucker out. It came up pleasantly without much of a fight. I moved on to the large evergreen shrub, I don't know what the real name of this plant it is, its just what I have always called them. I got my sawzall, shovel, ipod and got to work. It took me 4 1/2 hours, and 3 truck loads to the recycling center to get to the roots of this nasty bush! I don't know why anyone plants these things! In cutting it back to get to the roots, I pulled out one whole garbage back of trash, things like beer bottles, beer cans, shoes, combs, baseballs, a whole Mcdolands bag full of trash, and other fine things people stuck in there as they walked by! ugh!

It was monster! It grew at least 3 feet up into the yard, and a couple of feet into the neighbors driveway. I broke two blades on this bush, but I managed to defeat it!

WOOOHOOO! here is the yard without that bush taking up the entire corner. Even though I had a lot of cleaning to do, and the roots to still get out, I was very pleased with the days progress!

Arty (aka Sir Artemis) seemed pleased too, or he was just taking a break from taunting the squirrels! After this hard work, it was a much needed break, a cold margarita and a quick dinner with Mom, then home to rest for more work in the morning!
The next day I got to pulling out the roots. Obviously, I am not strong enough to just dig them out, so lucky for me, I just had to get the chain from work and use my truck to pull them out! Such fun!!!

Here is my second root, I actually got two roots with this one pull, it was awesome! Yes, this is me pulling the roots and taking pictures at the same time, am I talented or what! hee hee, I am sure the neighboors think I am nuts, but who cares!

This is a shot of the bottom of the big ass root I just pulled up, that one took a lot of rocking back and forth and gently getting it to come up, but in the end I won!
This is the last root ball I got up, this one almost got away from me, but I managed to get out and rework it so I got the whole thing in one bite! It's so much fun pulling out these damn evergreens, I really hate these bushes! It felt like a great accomplishment to get this done! I was impressed that I got this done over the weekend, and even more impressed I managed to get these giant roots into my truck by myself :).
Here is the last breath for the bush, it tried to hold on to its cozy spot in the ground, but it was a losing battle for Mr. Stinky Evergreen. Four pulls of the chain, and viola that sucker is no more!

AAHHhh now, I can stand back and look at my yard dreaming of all the things I want to plant and change now that those two big eye sores are gone. I can't believe I forgot to get a before shot of the mailbox post, but you get the idea :). Finished the weekend off with a quick, and quiet Easter dinner at the folks house. I took many pictures, but this one for some reason speaks to me, I call it Peeps under glass...poor peeps :) Happy Easter everyone, and happy happy Spring!

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