the back yard

 Have I shown you much of our backyard?  Yesterday Emma and I went plant shopping. The nursery in town was having the best sale so we got quite a few plants. I went looking for herbs and a couple hanging baskets, but left with more for the same amount I had budgeted. We have a bunch of deer that visit the yard from the forest behind, so I knew that until we can figure out what sort of fence to put up, most of our edible plants will need to be up on the back porch in pots.

 This is a tangerine tree. It needs to be re-potted, but I am not sure if doing it now would shock the tree or be good for it. It will live in our sun room during the winter. Emma carried it across the nursery announcing that it would make our yard JUST like the one we had in Australia.

 This is a Meyer Lemon that will winter in the sun room as well. It is not doing much right now, but the leaves smell heavenly.

 Here are the hanging plants I brought home. At $10 a pot, maybe I should have bought more?

 This is the far end of our yard. The stream bed is quite dry right now with the drought, but the neighbors said that when it rains the stream does indeed flow.

 Speaking of rain, this is a rain turtle. My kids made it. I told them that if they dance around it singing about how we need rain and then the boys void in it, then it will indeed rain. A bit pagan I know, but it was something to entertain the kids with. Needless to say they needed NO convincing. My boys are all to happy to have an excuse to pee outside. And it did work by the way. We had a very nice thunder storm on Friday morning.

 Stu is all finished with the floor and today he is putting up the trim. It looks so good. I am so proud of him. I never doubted that he could do this. A more determined and motivated man I have never met. I am blessed to have him as my mate. We finally got into a rhythm on Monday. I would pick the boards and open the boxes of wood, and he would nail them down. I was the go-for.

Not to make light of this project, it was physically demanding and both of us have lost weight and have slept like the dead at night. If you are considering doing something similar there are tutorials all over Youtube. You can buy the flooring materials at any hardware store and we rented the flooring nail gun. We didn't get an estimate on how much it would have cost to have professionals do it, so I don't have that information. But I do know that the cost of this renovation and all the materials to do so (Rip up carpet, put in wood floor, tear down wallpaper and paint) has been less than the closing costs of buying this house. The seller paid the closing costs, so in the end I suppose we came out even. I estimate it at less than $5,000.00.

OK, I need to go touch up the painted areas that messed up when I removed the tape and I want to prime the wood paneling in the basement before our movers come tomorrow to deliver our household goods. I have missed sewing a bit....my little featherweight sits lonely in her box, but there is too much else to do!

Oh, and the cats are very happy in their new home.

xo,

Tia