Smores anyone?

190/365 - First fire in the firepit.

And we made smores too.


Unfortunately the fire wouldn't get going too well. The wood we have is from the tree we removed to put in the patio and firepit and it is very dense wood and therefore still green, even after sitting outside for a year.

Tomorrow the kids and I are going to attend a writing workshop our library is having.  Adam announced a couple weeks ago he wanted to write a book, but he is struggling with where to start, and with naming his characters.  Carus decided years ago she wants to be an author and has actually penned and illustrated a few books...however, none of which have endings.  I'm excited they could be the next big authors out there selling tons of books, but even more excited that I will most likely be the first to read anything they write. (I better be anyways!)

After the workshop and some lunch we hope to go lavender cutting and berry picking with some friends, and if there is enough time and we have enough energy, we might even go to the free swimming session the local pool has on Saturdays.

I am so glad we are done with that patio project. I can sit back and relax the rest of my summer away.

I can never think of a title so now I'm stuck with this one... TITLE!

Progress on The Patio Project:

We are in the finishing touches phase and this weekend we put in bark mulch.  It cleans everything up and finishes it off a bit. What I got Friday afternoon (2 yards) turned out to be not quite enough and I had to go back Saturday morning for 1 last yard. Bark mulch is infinitely easier to wheelbarrow and it took us no time at all to get it all done.

We didn't do the full yard either, just half leaving the other half since it is still in progress with plans for Robert's shop this summer and the moving of my garden next. We'll get there eventually.


Now to just get some plants and flowers planted to green things up a bit.

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365s

181/365 - Adam mid sentence.


182/365 - My bday roses. I don't like the colors on this one with the flash, but the one without the flash didn't look any better. I need to try to get my 365 in earlier in the day.


183/365 - My not-a-daisies are blooming again. I was worried that they were all done blooming after the last flowers had faded and fallen off. But I just dead-headed them and hoped and now more are blooming. I call them not-a-daisy because, while they look like a daisy, they are not; however, I can't remember their name. I know it starts with an S.


184/365 - Yoda pug loves his toy caterpillar.


I was going to break out my new tripod and attempt to take a photo of the moon tonight, but we are just one day off of a new moon so there is no moon to photograph.... Next weekend looks promising though.

No, you can't touch the dead snake

177/365 - Vivid blue flower

 

178/365 - My red, white, and blue pots. The pots are actually metal concrete forms for in-ground light fixtures. Robert got them from work for me.

 

Today, while shopping for red, white and blue flowers for my planters (I wanted to go all patriotic on my yard since we are having a 4th of July BBQ party), I picked up this little red hot poker. It's not too big right now, but I'm hoping it will soon get as big as some my Granny and Gramps have in their yard. And hoping it will attrack some hummingbirds. I've seen a couple of them buzzing around, but haven't seen any at my new feeder.

 

Saturday we put the gravel in the patio area.

 

Some stats on that gravel:

• It took us about 3 hours to move.
• Robert and I (mostly Robert) made 22 wheelbarrow trips from driveway to backyard, up two hills to get to the patio.
• We loaded, hauled, dumped, and spread 3,750 pounds of gravel for an average of 170 pounds each trip.

 

Firepit update. Robert painted the inside of the firepit with fireproof paint. We also put a bucketful of gravel inside the pit. That should help keep the pit from becoming a muddy, ashy, pit. It should also be easier to build fires and keep them going.


Not quite done, but all that's left is the finishing touches, cleaning things up and making them pretty.

 

* * * * * * * *

 

Earlier, when planting the new flowers with Carus, she found a snake down the holes of some cinderblocks we have stacked in the garage. (We have cinderblocks stacked in the garage because that was what we were originally going to build the retaining wall out of, but then Robert changed his mind and now we have a bunch of cinderblocks hanging out.) I moved the blocks out of the way thinking he was stuck, but noticed he wasn't moving.

 

Weeellll, he wasn't moving because he was dead. He might have climbed in there and wasn't able to get out, or Simba caught him and was playing with him on top of the blocks when he escaped from him, but wasn't able to get out of the hole. Either way he was dead.

 

I picked the snake up to dispose of it outside of the garage. Carus followed me all the way to the yard debris bin asking repeatedly, "Can I touch it?" "Plleeeaasseee."

 

I then uttered something I never thought I'd have to say to my kids: "No, you may not touch the dead snake."

 

* * * * * * * * *
While grilling dinner, Robert found another snake on our screened in porch area hiding under the grill cover. When Robert uncovered him, the snake rushed under the grill. While Robert moved the grill out of the way, I grabbed the snake (which was a squirmy little thing) and removed him to under the porch.

 

I let Carus touch that one.

 

Don't worry about the snakes, they're just garter snakes. Since our screened in porch doesn't have any large holes near the bottom (at least, not that I know of) I don't think they are coming in of their own free will. Simba likes to catch them. I haven't seen him eat one, but he does like to bring them onto the porch to play with until I catch him and rescue the snake. They are good for my garden so I release them.

 

I have caught Simba trying to recatch - or just play with - a snake in my house who was trying very hard to get away from him and under some furniture.

 

* * * * * * * * * *

 

Robert gave me my birthday present early. He doesn't seem to be able to keep my surprises to himself too well, which is okay by me.

 

I got a tripod. A really good one too, though don't ask me specs on it. I don't happen to have it next to me right now and I'm not going after it now either. I know it has a level on it to make sure my camera is straight, all the adjustable locks are extremely strong, is made of carbon fiber so it is nice and strong, and has its very own carrying bag.

All done and almost done

All done - 7Days for the summer go-round. Now to wait for the fall run.

176/365 - 7days, day 7: Guess where I'm going tomorrow?

I love that Starbucks gives me a birthday gift. It makes me feel very special.


Carus's 7days, day 7: Playing Scribblenauts. Carus picked out this game all by herself and is actually educational. She has to spell words to get objects in the game to move through the game (for example, if she can't jump high enough, she has to spell out trampoline to get one so she can jump higher).


Almost done - The Patio Project.

I'm so excited, SO EXCITED, to be almost done!

We got the landscape fabric down. Tomorrow - rocks. 1/4" river rock to be exact.


How's the sod doing? Pretty darn good. It is almost completely blended in with the old grass.

First day of summer and patio project continued

173/365 and 7days, day 4 - Helping Adam make dinner. He picked out a recipe from a cookbook he checked out from the library and I was helping. It needed a few tweaks to make it so we would eat it - or rather so a picky eater in our family would eat it. He was having a lot of trouble with tweaking and not following the recipe exactly. It might come with experience, or he might just be a recipe follower...only time will tell.


Also - can you find me?

Carus's 7days, day 4 - Just her being goofy. She didn't give me a description for this photo so make of it what you will.


This evening we squeezed in a little more work on our patio project - finishing the walls of the firepit.



TA DA! Now we just need to figure out what stones we want to cap it with and morter them in place. We were going to do another level, but decided as we finished this one that we liked the height as it was.  We can change our mind again and put it in later, but I don't think we will.

It's looking very promising that we will be done with the patio this weekend!! *knock on wood*crossing fingers*

The Patio Project

After dinner tonight we went out to the yard to see our dirt donut/firepit base.



We then grabbed some concrete and started mixing it up.



And poured the concrete into the form.



We originally grabbed two bags, thinking that's all it would take, but it turned out to take 5 bags. Then we let it set for a bit. Watching concrete dry is as fun as watching water boil...it takes FOR-EVER!



After about an hour we started placing the base layer....



Still placing.




At this point, I sent Carus in with the camera and Adam after flashlights and the kids and I held flashlights for Robert as he mortered and placed the stones. A quick check with the level revealed that the stones were level (amazingly just by him eye-balling it).

Since our hands were busy, that means:

NO MORE PICTURES FOR YOU!

You will have to wait, with me, to see what it looks like tomorrow! Also tomorrow, we'll finish the other layers and we'll have a firepit! And I'll use more exclamation points! Which I probably do too much of anyways, but it's okay because I really am that excited about what I'm talking about!