Finally finished!

The garden job I've been working on this month is finished! I had a personal deadline of being finished in July, just made it, whew. So from the top left. My garden on the east of the walkway, you can't see them well yet but there are carpet roses planted in front of the bushes, I'll probably add some more next year as it is not as full as I'd imagined. Next up is the top part of my west garden, and then the next lower garden. On the bottom row from the left, again, is next lower garden, the view of the center two areas from my bedroom window, and the view from the drive. I think it looks very nice and am already enjoying it. I know that I'll need to add more plants or move some around but in a couple of years when they are all full sized and lush it will look great. I had the tree guy out yesterday, he'll be taking out four trees (all large and not planted by me--two soft maples that are a disaster waiting to happen, a sweet gum that makes getting the trailer down the drive difficult and the sycamore in front that I am allergic to,) trimming the four oaks and removing the stumps. It will bring a BIG change to my yard.

Besides working outside in the sultry heat (I've decided to use "sultry" instead of the more common "humid, or sticky, etc" it makes me think of Tara and is more elegant, also it seems less nasty.) I've continued the purging and cleaning inside that I began with the office. So far I've done the kitchen, extra bedroom and the hall closet-which might have been the worst. Still have the living room, both baths and the front closet but it's looking good in here! I am nearly finished with what I can do in the garage as well, one or two more days maybe.

Worked on a couple of other long term projects and got out the Town of Kansas Stuff as well, even did a little sewing! I feel very productive, and righteous!

Finally Finished!

This is my sewing room/office in it's finally re-organized and clean mode. I don't know how long the clean part will last :)

So, the top row is the east wall: first a picture with the design wall in place (my "design wall" is some rigid insulation covered with a white flannel sheet) and the second is the storage behind the design wall. The bottom row: My desk and my sewing table. That's the Memories quilt on the table as while purging I found another patch! It's for the very first lighthouse Larry and I visited, Split Rock just north of Duluth, MN. I was pretty sure I'd bought one but couldn't find it, it's been missing since 2007! I'll be sewing it on today.

I took yesterday off from the gardens, so hot and sticky and my asthma is not liking all the pollutants in the air. Last night we had some serious rain, I think the worst of the storms passed us to the North but we still got quite a lot of rain (really do need to put up a rain gauge.) Today the garden is, of course, very muddy. Too muddy to plant, so that must wait. The forecast is for more rain today, more storms firing up on the "juicy" atmosphere. Perhaps they will pass us by and I can plant tomorrow or Friday. That will finish the garden on the west side of the walkway. Perhaps I will finish with two projects this week?  Of course, I will only start something else!

Whatever Have I Been Doing?

I'm not sure I can answer that!

On the garden front, the edging is in on the west side and laid out on the east.  I've filled in some dirt behind the walls.  Took out some grass, etc.  (Wow, that doesn't seem like much.)  I can only spend about 2 hours a day, or less, out in the garden due to the extreme heat and humidity.  Actual heat in the 90's, heat indexes 105-110 F.  I think I'm breathing water sometimes.  I hope to finish the front gardens this week, maybe.

I've been cleaning and organizing my half of the garage for about a month.  Tossing out bent nails, rusted screws and tools that no longer work.  I have sorted all the nails, screws, bolts, etc and found homes (still need to make some labels) and re-organized the peg board,  I had this crazy notion that I should be able to reach the tools I might use!  This is a huge project but I am making progress--you can now walk between the door and the far wall, before you could walk about half-way.  I only work in there about 30-45 minutes a day, that's all the longer I can deal with it!

I decided this week to add another big project.  I hated the way my office/sewing room was set up so I've moved furniture around in there, brought the file cabinets in clearing up space in the extra room.  Began purging and organizing files--lots of shredding there, thought I'd burned up the machine for a little while!  Now I'm sorting through and tossing the school stuff I saved.  (Kids, I no longer have ALL your report cards!)  A couple more days and I'll have this project finished and actual research and sewing can be done!  Yeah!

I'm volunteering one afternoon a week at the Historical Society--computer input at the moment.  I'm hoping to add some other volunteer work in the future.

Mostly, I'm keeping cool.  Hope you can as well (or warm if you're 'down under'!)

Garden walls

The photo on the left shows the wall above the pad for the bench, just barely visible in the second photo under the bench. The right shows the garden from the driveway. The wall closest to the drive has been in for several years. Next up edging.  Once it stops raining, sigh.

Of gardens, farms and bee stings

I can't believe it's been a week since I last posted!  I can't even blame my gardens as it rained A LOT last week.  Gives me the gloomies.  I have finished the walls in the front garden, well I need to cut a couple of bricks and decide on where to step down the longest wall.  I'll try and get pictures up tomorrow.  This coming week I'll add the edging, get dirt in behind the walls and plant--wow that's a lot, might not get that all done.  I can only work a couple of hours a day at most, at 11am the flies start biting!  Flies and mosquitoes are especially bad this year.

My grandsons are spending the weekend with me, at 1 and 4 they keep you busy!  I have tried to plan things to do and eat that I know they like so today we went to Deanna Rose Farmstead.  It is intended to represent the animals, plants etc of an 1880's Kansas farm.  If the boys were older we could do a history lesson there about how people lived but for now it's about looking at animals, feeding chickens and goats, looking at ducks (and other birds but Kolby is particularly taken with water birds as he loves both the water and birds the combination just about puts him in heaven!) Also eating ice cream and sno cones (Kona ices really.)  Thought at one point Kolby was going in the lake but I managed to grab him before getting more than one leg and foot wet!  Brayden rode the little farm tractors and generally ran around.  As we were eating those ices, it was really hot and they tasted really good, Rob (DS2) called and said he'd been stung by a bee and was swelling up and turning into a giant hive!  Now I am a good 40 minutes away from him and understanding the serious nature of this reaction I told him to call his sister (Beth and the boys Mom who I'm giving a break by keeping the boys so she can organize her house) and have her take him to the Emergency room--NOW!  She did,  the MDs pumped him full of  fluids, steroids etc ordered up some meds to take by mouth and an epi-pen. He is very tired but no longer all swollen and looking like a lobster!  Whew, another close call.

Quilts do come in handy, Kolby is sleeping on the floor on one of the denim quilts backed with fleece and Brayden under the Memories quilt,  he enjoys looking at and talking about all the patches!  He does like to talk!

Dad's wreck

I should have posted this earlier, forgot. My Dad was t-boned in his brand new pickup on Thursday. Neither he nor his friend, Lee, were seriously hurt-although Lee does have a broken rib. I am grateful for that as it could have been so much worse. He was driving slowly through a residential area and even slower for the intersection as there were no stop signs when out of nowhere came a big 4x4 with high wheels, hit Dad at the back edge of the passenger door turned him around at least once (Lee says twice), deployed the air bag, then the other truck passed him and rolled twice. Think he was driving just a little too fast? the other driver got a ticket (ya think) and his insurance is paying but dang that truck had less than 3,000 miles on it! Plus at nearly 84 such an event could be really bad, Dad has a few bruises and is a little sore so Whew!

Garden Saturday

I promised updates, haven't much to show on cross-stitch none on quilting. That's because I've been working on the second wall in my front garden! So far I've put in 50 castle bricks, 10 more and I have to go buy more! This has moved along really well, I should have it finished in a day or two then I can start on the third wall. There is just so much slope to the garden that it's time to get it more level, then I'll add more hostas, coral bells etc to fill it in. I plan to edge the gardens in front with the castle topper making a visual separation from garden to lawn. It will also be easier to mow. I plan to add a birdbath as well.

On the other side of the walkway I plan to edge as larger garden than I have right now and put in ground cover roses. That's the July garden projects--walls, edging and plantings.