Back Yard Babies

What we usually do for Memorial Day

Only this year I'll be up at Cub Camp

Wow. The week wiped me out. I've been spending lots of time outside fixing up the back yard. It has looked so hideous for so long, that it almost seemed daunting to try and make anything from it. Part of the reason is that nobody wants to brave the elements and go do anything out there. It's ugly and hot. We hibernate like winter bears--only in the summer.

Sort of what it looked like before. I'll have to hunt down a better picture. It was hideous-looking.

We moved the old roll of fencing we're holding onto until we can find a way to sell it. We put the boat atop the Station-Wagon-of-Stowing-Crap (which is a monument to the neighborhood of all the things we keep for no apparent reason). J sifted through the gravel near the gate for a bit. I made a raised flower bed near the wall at the side of the house (the wall the neighbor put up illegally a couple of feet on our side of the property line in spite of my instructions to the opposite) until the cinder blocks ran out. B dug about half of it up. We'll add in the compost in a bit. I filled most of the holes in the yard, and have raked half of it (it's mostly gravel and weeds and ants, so not an easy task). I also sifted through all the rubbish for a tiny black bit of plastic with my pictures on it, to no avail. B took out the boxes and I swept the porch.

Right now I'm hiding out in the coolth with a fairly dark tan, waiting for the sun to lose some of its potency so I can avoid getting heat stroke.

But here I stand, a testimony to hard work and determination. In a few minutes I'll go back out there and work on it some more. B needed a family project to fill out one of his last merit badges before he does his Eagle project for Boy Scouts. So what better idea than to make our outdoor spaces more livable.

Also I'm still trying to find my camera sim card. That thing blew into the dusty winds of time down some unfindable crack or something, because all of my varied efforts have come to naught.

And lastly, it's bulky pick up (which I call Ragpicker's Shopping Day). We traditionally don't start to really find things to toss out on the roadside until it's passed. (Actually someone in the family goes out and takes much of it back inside for some strange reason.) So this time I was determined to get it right. There's still some muck to sift into the many boxes that litter our front porch, (Two birds! Yay!) but there's also, apparently, still time.

This morning, much to the dog's chagrin, I gave the wind chimes back their voices. I would have liked him to at least pay a passing attention to the new squirrel we have chiding us from the orange tree, but he hid instead in the house from the sound of the chimes as I worked on them. What a great watch dog, that one.

Now I need to go put the screen door back together. It has been torn and flapping for a long time. Hopefully it will look newish. I sure wish I could find a new door that doesn't cost as much as a new car. I want to paint it red. Or maybe indigo.

THIS door. Or maybe a brighter red

(By the way, I picked up a ladder for the boy's bunk, and a lovely new basket. It's HUGE. I have no idea what I'm going to use it for or where I'll put it, but I'll think of something. Thank you, Ragpicker's Shopping Day.)