Busy busy busy

I skipped my workout today, but made up for it by doing yardwork.  I'm working on cleaning up the backyard and getting the space ready for my garden.  I've decided to plant an actual garden this year.  Last year I planted a container garden, and it didn't do very well.  I might still plant a few things in pots, but the majority of it will be in the ground.  I started some seeds inside today: corn, green beans, pumpkins, cantaloupe, cucumbers and lavender.  I have seeds somewhere for tomatoes, and some herbs.  I'll start those tomorrow, maybe.

I haven't knit a stitch today.  Yesterday either.  I need to do that this evening, but I'll have to wait until the kids are in bed.  They're driving me crazy.  But now I have to go; it's bathtime.  Which will be followed closely by bedtime, thank God.

My deck is done!

My deck is done! My deck is done! My deck is done! My deck is DONE!

Here's a picture from right after it was finished:

 And no, it isn't built on an angle; I guess I just wasn't holding the camera straight.  Oops.  The deck is perfectly level and straight.  And gorgeous!

Here's a picture with a few things on the deck:

We're gonna need a bigger table.  We got that one when Angel was a baby, so it was perfect for just Hubby and me.  We didn't think ahead.  I'm hoping to, at some point, get a table with six chairs, and an umbrella. ☺

Deck-In-Progress

Framing...

 Framing done...

 Digging post holes...

 Walkboards routered and put in place, but not nailed down...

Today we're going to nail down the walkboards, cut off the ends(see where they're hanging off the end of the frame?) and router them along that end.  And it'll be done! ☺

Before and After Demolition

I finished tearing apart the deck today!  I worked all morning, and most of the afternoon, and my muscles are protesting already.  But the deck is gone!  All except for one board that is trapped under that palm tree...

To refresh your memory(haha), here's the "before":

 And here's the after!

We still need to gather up all the boards and put them in the fire.  And we're planning on starting the new deck in the morning!  I'm pretty excited, can you tell?

We're going to get a new deck!

I told Hubby three years ago that I did not like the deck we had.  It's a strange shape, and has a lot of wasted space.  He vetoed the idea immediately, without even really looking at my suggestions.  Fine.  I'm adaptable.  I still hated the deck, and wished he'd let me build a new one, but I decided I could live with it.

♥

A few weeks ago, Hubby shot a skunk on the deck, and it crawled under it to die.  So it was stuck underneath somewhere, and we had no way to get it out without tearing up boards.  And our carpenter friend Kerry told Hubby he could build us a great deck for a pretty good price.....so Hubby agreed, and told me about the idea, as if he'd thought of it himself. (Can you just hear me rolling my eyes?)  Whatever.  As long as I get my new deck, I don't care who gets the credit for the idea.

♥

So yesterday, Kerry helped me locate the dead skunk by ripping up a few boards....

 And Hubby decided to participate in the project by tearing apart the first half of the deck himself.  Yeah, I was shocked.

 You'll notice that he didn't tear apart the step I had built a few months ago...

 And we put the wood in the fire!

Actually, that's only about half of the wood from the first half of the deck.  We'll burn the other half today, and hopefully get the other half of the deck demolished today too.

♥

I can hardly wait to get started building (with Kerry) on my new deck!  Woohoo!

Not knitting...

I haven't been knitting. *blush*  I've been working outside instead.  There's just something about Spring and Fall that make me want to be outside.  I've been helping a carpenter friend build a deck for my next-door neighbors.  It's almost halfway framed, and I'm planning on helping tomorrow afternoon, after church.  I didn't get to help today, except for unloading lumber from a truck.  I had my monthly "day off" today.  I went to one of the LYSs in my city, and bought just a little bit of luxury yarns.  Then I went to Walmart and treated myself, to two pairs of jeans that had never been worn by anyone else!  Haha...I usually shop at thrift shops, but I haven't been able to find any jeans lately that I liked and that fit, so I decided to bite the bullet and pay full-price($12 each).  I also got a very cool stepping-stone for my "shady spot" in the back yard.  Then I went to the garden center and bought 4 cubic yards(which amounts to a huge pile) of brown hardwood mulch for the same "shady spot" and other spots around the yard.  I spent hours this week, preparing the "shady spot".  I pulled up all the old landscape fabric, and killed all the weeds and ants that were under it.  I trimmed the trees shown in the picture below, and cut down two others.  Then I put the border pieces in place, and put down new landscape fabric.  And today, I got to put down the new mulch.  With help from Hubby, Angel and Princess.......

 And here's my very cool stepping stone...... I think you can guess what state I live in, if you didn't already know.  I'm also going to buy a very cool bench with a star on the backrest of it, and put it right back there against the fence.

And since we had plenty of mulch, we put some in the side yard, where I had previously laid stepping stones...

I'm pretty happy about how both areas turned out.  Now we're talking about tearing out our old(weirdly-shaped) deck, and building a new(rectangular) one...which I wanted to do three years ago, but Hubby vetoed.  It took a suggestion from our carpenter friend to convince him it was a good idea.  He(the carpenter) is my new best friend. ♥

Angel's birthday

Yesterday was Angel's birthday.  She's nine years old now.  I can hardly believe it.  They grow so quickly....

It was a fun day.  She went to breakfast with Daddy, and he gave her a pair of beautiful Black Hills Gold earrings.  Then we all went to Chuck E Cheese's for lunch, and had a lot of fun.  I gave Angel the shawl I made while we were on vacation, and a little wooden box for her knitting tools, and a bunch of stitch markers and such to keep in it.  Princess gave her a t-shirt from Mount Rushmore, and Kitty gave her a really pretty necklace from the thrift shop.  Angel helped make the cupcakes, and iced them herself.  So all in all, it was a good birthday.

I did a bunch of yardwork yesterday afternoon, and my muscles are still protesting today.  Now that we know we're not moving to Florida, we're going to fix up our yard and make it nicer.  We're going to trim trees, and sod the front yard, and mulch the shady area in the backyard, and create a stepping-stone path in the side yard, and plant shade-loving perennials in the stupid planting beds that are too close to the house to get enough sun for most plants, and build a little storage shed for the rakes and shovels and such.  And when I say "we" I mean mostly "I".  Which is just fine with me.  I like building stuff.  Other yardwork, not so much, but it's worth the effort, now that the weather is cool enough to do it.  The forcasted high for today is less than 80 degrees.  I love it.  It's sunny, but breezy and cool.  Fall is here!

My fence is done!

As a reminder, here's what my fence looked like before...
Here it is after all the pickets were pulled off...

Here it is, with the bottom boards on, and the posts cut down to size(and the bushes cut down)...

Here it is with all the new pickets on...

And here it is, finished!

It's a little more than half the height of the old fence. I like being able to see out; it really makes our yard seem bigger. Oh, and I did most of the work myself! :D

Argh!

As hard as I tried to avoid it, it seems it was inevitable. I've got poison ivy. Again. I had it a couple years ago, and it was awful. It's not too bad yet, but it is spreading. I went swimming this morning (today was opening day for our neighborhood pool) and that seemed to help a little; must have been the chlorine in the water. When I started itching again a couple hours later, I diluted a little bleach with water, and dabbed it on my itchy spots. I think I made it too strong. Wow, that hurt! I'll dilute it more for the next time. And I'm planning on going swimming again tomorrow, if I can manage that. Because we still have no fence. The guys were busy today, and didn't come. They'll be here first thing in the morning, so I'll miss out on a little of the work, while I take the girls to church. I'm hoping they'll have the doorframe put together and installed before we get home from church. That would be nice, but I'm not holding my breath.

Fortunately, I don't have any poison ivy on my hands, so I'm still able to knit. I'm just over halfway done with the blue "Posy Patch", and I've got my test knitters working on theirs. Once I get a little more feedback from them, I'll send the design proposal to Knit Picks. I really hope they like it. It was very disappointing last fall when my cardigan pattern was rejected by Knitty. I worked so hard on that design, and I love it so much. That rejection hurt, as rejections usually do. Naturally, I don't want to be disappointed again. But..."nothing ventured, nothing gained"...so on we go!

Busy, busy, busy

Well, here it is Friday again, and I haven't written since Sunday. Oops. Again. Well, I've been busy this week. I started on the blue "Posy Patch" to go with the pink one, and am about 1/3 done with it. It's such a quick knit. And easy enough that I was able to work on it while watching the series finale of the best show in the world: 24. I'm so sad 24 is over, but I think they ended it pretty well. I would have preferred (spoiler alert!) for Jack and Renee to live happily ever after, and for him to spend lots of time with Kim and her husband and daughter. But that sort of everything-will-be-great-from-now-on ending just wouldn't have worked for 24. I think that Jack-on-the-run-with-everybody-and-their-brother-after-him works much better. I can't wait for the movie. :)

I also worked on "Posy Patch" at the dentist's office; I had two appointments there this week, to get fillings. Ow. My last dentist was a quack; he always raved about how I had great teeth, and no cavities. So why did I suddenly have seven??? Anyway, they're filled now, and I'm so glad that's over for this year. The dentist's assistant seemed to think I was a little strange, because I was holding a skein of yarn in my hands and squeezing and petting it while the dentist was drilling in my teeth. But it helped keep me relaxed, so I don't care if she did think I was weird.

♥

I did a little brush-clearing and stump-sawing and raking each day, and now the fenceline at the back of our yard looks terrific. All ready for a fence. Kerry should be here tomorrow morning to help us build it...which reminds me I need to call him to make sure of that. I got tired of chasing cows out of the yard; I actually chased out five one afternoon....so I dug out some bright orange Caron Simply Soft, and strung it across the posts. And it worked! Apparently the cows aren't smart enough to tell the difference between yarn and barbed wire. And I'm glad I finally found a use for that ugly acrylic yarn! I don't know what I was thinking when I bought it.

♥

And today I decided to tackle my mending basket. I hemmed two pairs of shorts, repaired four rips, and sewed on one button. I still have a silk shirt that needs the sleeves hemmed, but I don't feel like doing that one today. I still have a bunch of cleaning up to do today. I don't want Kerry to think we're a bunch of slobs when he comes tomorrow...

Demolition :)

Remember I mentioned my to-do list yesterday? And that ripping pickets off the back fence was on the list? Well, hubby surprised me by coming home from work early, so we got started on the project. ☺

Here's a before shot of the fence. It's served as the backdrop for many of the pictures I've posted here on my blog. Say goodbye to the old fence.

Here's hubby, ripping off pickets:

He preferred the pry-them-off approach.

And here's me, ripping off pickets:

I went with the pound-them-from-the-back-with-the-hammer-until-they-fall-down approach. Both methods worked well. (Yes, I know my pants are too tight. I'm working on that.)

And here's what the fence looks like now:

...except for the pile of pickets on the ground. I took care of that after I took the picture.

Moo.

Yard work and house work and knitting, oh my!

Oops...once again, it's been a while. I need to get back into the habit of writing. I don't like this writing once or twice a month stuff. And yet, I keep doing it. Oh, well.

♥

Anyway, we did more outdoors work this past weekend. Most of the window trim on the back of our house was rotten and/or bug-eaten. It had gotten to the point that it needed to be replaced ASAP, or the rot would have started to get into the framing of the house, which would be really expensive to fix. So we hired our new friend Kerry to come and replace all of the rotten trim, and Hubby and I worked alongside him, learning as we went. Then Kerry's employee John painted the whole back of the house, and all the trim around the whole house(the front and sides of the house are brick). My house looks so good now! Well, on the outside, anyway. I need to do some serious cleaning and de-cluttering(as my mom calls it) inside. Maybe I'll do some of that today.

♥

We also did a bunch more yard work while Kerry and John worked. Hubby went behind our back fence, into the poison-ivy-overrun pasture, and cut down all the trees and vines behind the fence. I can see the sky behind my fence now! I am so happy about that. And he sprayed some "vegetation-killer" on everything that was growing back there. It's pretty strong stuff; the fumes were giving me a headache, and I was next-door talking to the neighbors when he did it. Hopefully it'll kill all the poison ivy, poison oak, and poison sumac; we've been assured all three are back there. Inside the yard, I did more trimming, and raking. Hubby cut out the roots of the bushes and trees I had cut down, so we'll be able to plant grass in those spots.

♥

I'm not really much of a gardener, but I'm making a valiant attempt this year. I'm doing a container garden on the deck right now, and I might move some of the plants to prepared ground if I think it's necessary later. Here's a pic of my baby tomato plants; I just transplanted them to these containers, and I'm hoping they survive the shock.

In the largest container in this picture are pumpkin plants, and the little one to the right of that has zucchini.

In this last picture are my bean plants. I love fresh green beans! I also just transplanted these ones; I had about 15 plants in one pot. I picked the best 10, and split them between two pots. The ones in the right-hand pot have perked up some since I took this picture on Saturday, thank goodness.

The next thing on the to-do list is to burn all the brush; once again we have piles. We won't be able to work on that today; it's supposed to be windy. Safety first. But another thing on my to-do list is to pull all the pickets off the back fence. We're going to redo it, as inexpensively as we can, which means leaving the posts and some of the supports that are already there, as long as they're level and square. We're also going to make it about half the height that it is now, to take advantage of the great view of the pasture, now that all those trees and vines are gone.

♥

In knitting news, I've made a bunch of squares. ☺ And I'm working on more. I also got yarn to make baby blankets for a friend of mine who is having twins. I'm going to make a pink and a blue blanket, both with the same pattern. I'm designing the pattern, and I'm going to submit it to Knit Picks, for their Independent Designer Program. I'll be using Knit Picks Swish DK yarn, which, I've been told, is a lovely, soft superwash wool. It definitely feels soft in-the-skein; I can't wait to get it knitted up.

♥

And I have a new favorite yarn: "I Love This Cotton" from Hobby Lobby. I got some for making squares, and now I'm wondering why I waited so long to try out this lovely yarn! It's incredibly soft in-the-skein, and even softer in the knitted fabric. It has great stitch definition. It's a much smoother, softer cotton than the "Peaches and Cream" that Walmart sells, or the "Sugar and Cream" that Hobby Lobby sells. And the price isn't much higher than that of those yarns. If you haven't worked with this yarn yet, go get some. You will love it, too.

Yard work

Wow, it's been a while since I posted anything. I've been pretty busy the past few weeks. The fence that separates our back yard from our neighbors' yard has been leaning since a hurricane hit a year and a half ago. Our neighbor's business has been slow, thanks to the economic downturn, so he finally had time to work on the fence. I've been helping a bit with the demolition and building; since Hubby is working these days, he can only help in the evenings and on the weekends. Anyway, the fence is almost completed, and it looks great!

♥

There hasn't been a whole lot that I could do, so I've been doing other yard work. I've trimmed our crepe myrtle trees, which I really should have done two or three months ago. I trimmed our Mexican fan palms...which needed a lot of trimming. I cut down several bushes and trees that were dead or dying. I dug out roots from those bushes and trees. I planted a few new plants. I raked and bagged leaves. I carried all of that brush to our back yard, to await permission from a nearby farmer to burn it in a small section of his field. Once we got permission, I carried brush from the piles in our back yard to the burn pile. My tasks for today are to mow the lawn in the back yard, and kill whatever poison ivy/oak/sumac I find, and maybe dig out some more roots in the back yard. I'm trying to get our back yard done so that I can set up the new wading pool I got for the girls. It's not technically summer, but summer weather has already arrived, as it usually does this time of year in our area.

♥

In knitting news....not much has happened. I had an idea to make felted oven mitts that my girls could use, since the ones I have are really much too big for their little hands. I used size 15 needles, and three strands of worsted-weight wool held together. I started by making a very large swatch and felting it, to test the felting properties of the wool. That swatch became a potholder. Then I began knitting a basic (huge) stockinette stitch mitten. I felted the mitten, and it became the perfect size for my oldest daughter's hand. It was still drying yesterday, so she hasn't tested it out yet to see how well it actually protects her hand against the heat of a hot pan or baking sheet; maybe it'll be dry today, and we'll have the opportunity to do that. I haven't got the pictures downloaded from my camera yet, so I'll have to wait to post them.

♥