guilty

okay, so old habits die hard.
and despite humid 89 degree weather...

yes, i was in the garden weeding.
and yes, i did have to use a pick axe to get the last of the weeds up.
and yes, my back is very sore and tired.

and yes, i am still aware that i'm pregnant.
so yes, i did in fact lay down after i finished so i'll be able to walk later.

AND
yes, i'm guilty. 
BUT
i had help this time!

dave's parents and sister are in visiting from indiana, and they like to help with projects (so you can imagine why i love them so much).

dave and his dad have almost finished painting the garage doors black (from white). the shutters used to be white, and we did those over in black last year, and the doors were white, and are now a fabulous puke-y yellow, and now? the garage doors will be finished to complete a front of the house face-lift.

next up: the house trim needs a new coat of white, and the house will get a grey/blue/slate paint update. it gets a lot of full morning fun, so it's faded a lot in the 4 years we've been here. i need to find just the right shade, though- not too light, and not too blue. i'm open for suggestions :) 

dave transplanted this arborvitae from it's random spot on the other side of the garden to here to the front left side of the house (where it can hide the propane tank and canoe until we put a fence up. don't get me started on my desires for a fence, though...)

and look what i found hiding under, i don't know, eight inches of tall grass and a thicket of crawling weeds:
OUR GARDEN!
we weren't actually going to do a garden this year, but when my friend deanna had extra plants that she didn't have room for? well, i couldn't say no to that!

it's actually kind of fun, because some of the plants are mystery plants, so eventually, we'll get to find out what they are! i do know we have tomatoes, roma cherry tomatoes, cucumbers, pumpkins, zucchini, basil, strawberries, and...maybe squash?

later today and tomorrow while i'm at work we'll also finish installing an attic staircase in the landing upstairs. our 163 year old home, though lovely, has no storage. we have a dirt basement and not even CLOSE to enough closets, so the attic, albeit small, if accessible (and not via a 2x2 portal in our bedroom), will add a lot of value to this old house. and make more room in the garage again, so maybe, just maybe, i'll be able to park my car in there before winter :)

what can i say?
i love life in the projects.

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when you ask for a trim...

i love lilacs.

although their life is short-lived, it is deliciously fragrant and beautiful...and enjoyed immensely by yours truly. much to my delight two years ago, i realized our home is full of lilac trees. or are they bushes? it remains to be seen, because the previous owner was a structural engineer, not a gardener. cool for the addition he put on the house. not cool for the rest of the grounds.

i'm no expert on plants, trees, flowers, and the like. i only aspire to be. i read and research when it comes to these things, because i am very aware that my thumb is not green. even if green is my favorite color.

enter: my dad, ray, one night last week. he had stopped by to see the backyard (that post is coming soon, too) and since my dad is a project kind of guy (apple didn't fall far from the tree, eh?), and i mentioned pruning the tremendously overgrown tree, seen here below, he offered to help dave (read: he thinks he is the only one who knows how to do things "right" so he inserted himself into the project quickly. especially because it involved chainsaws, and he loves chainsaws).

this is my lilac tree on the right.
actually, this was my lilac tree.

things seem to be going well. branches are being trimmed, i'm getting excited about shaping the tree better so i can reach the blooms and see some new growth...

eli's helping his "gp" (of course, he needed his own hand saw and ladder to work on the maple tree)...we're having a splendid good time (leave me alone, i get really excited when projects get started AND finished).


my dad's got his american flag bandanna, dead limbs are dropping, i am well pleased with the progress...

piper's loving it. nothing like a loud chainsaw and branches crashing to the ground. haha, she's hilarious...

"mom- this is NUTS!"

and then...

i take piper inside to start dinner, and when i come back out to check on the boys...one of the branches i had wanted trimmed had been cut off, so my lilac tree looked ridiculous. i had to have them take the tree all the way down to 3 feet. so instead of my 1/3, 1/3, 1/3 pruning approach...

i ended up with what is considered a hard prune:

yup.
there she is, in all her glory.
it's like when you go to the hairdresser for a trim, and she cuts off 10 inches. not exactly what you asked for.

luckily my husband and father were gracious with me when i berated them for destroying my tree. i don't know what got into me. i mean, it's a tree...it will grow back.

it's just going to take a few years.
ohhhh lordy.

earth day

happy earth day, everybody!

the earth is the LORD's, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it; for he founded it upon the seas and established it upon the waters. psalm 24:1-2

don't you think this is pretty much what i think our earth would say if it really could rock a t-shirt? i do. this is God's green earth, isn't it? and if anyone should be taking care of it, it's us God-lovers! so, reduce, reuse, recycle, replenish, and restore :)

it only seems appropriate that on earth day i share a little bit about our new garden. i love the part in the book of jeremiah where God says: "build houses and settle down; plant gardens and eat what they produce" (jeremiah 29:5). good advice. very practical. i love that about the Bible.

the four of us spent our monday outside, raking, shoveling, digging, wheel barreling, and getting our patch of earth ready for some seeds. okay, well piper mostly sat around and played toys, and elias climbed dirt piles and helped here and there finding rocks and throwing them into the wheel barrel. it was such a fun way to spend our monday, all together, working in the yard. fun. so what's on the menu for our very first garden?

cherry tomatoes

green beans

carrots

broccoli

& cucumbers

just enough to manage...and truth be told, i didn't exactly get a green thumb in the gene pool. mine is, like, pink or something. so i'll try. and hopefully we'll grow some, as elias would say "dewicious" vegetables. and i'm taking a stab ot some perennial flowers, too. some delphinium, rock soapwort, salvia, and a whole slew of wildflowers. i love flowers, and i don't want to have to buy them and plant them every year, so we'll see if i can grow them!

there's definitely something, i don't know...organic about having your hands in the earth, isn't there?

how are you all out there taking care of our earth?

anyone have any good tips for making a garden grow??