Just Old School

I actually was given this by Ms Renee last summer...or was it the summer before that. I love my old black lunch box. I am hoping it is in a good spot for the impatience to thrive.
















My bathtub is now filled with a new bunch of flowers...from Bryce and Tini on our 35th wedding anniversary. I love them. They fill the bed up to overflowing. I just hope I can water them enough for the to even grow bigger.

Wicker Chair

Last summer I was driving Sarah to youth group I think, or maybe Michael, Emmy and I had been somewhere...anyway we were driving up the main street to our house and I saw this little beauty on the side of the road...the other side of the road. Now I get a little excited when I see something that looks like something we might want to use to 'dress up' a little bit for the yard. I could not get turned around fast enough. Emmy wasn't about to jump out of the car to put this treasure in the way back. So I jumped out after coming to a screeching halt, gravels and dust flying everywhere. Picked it up and away we went. I even got a wave from the people sitting on their front porch. I love it. And the flowers are from a little nursery we found on the way back from Hillsboro a few weeks ago. Pretty nice I would say!

FreeCycle Fence Phase II

Mark made a few more trips to our friend in West Chester to pick up the rest of the railings. We decided that Tobi and Parker needed a little challenge when chasing the ball into the next door neighbors yard.Not only does the new fence look good...check out that horseradish....yum!

The fence and the cold frame. And the chives are about to take over there little corner of the raised bed.

The iris bed was stunning this year. The new fence runs the entire length of the backyard to the house.

Split Rails

Oh how I do love FreeCycle.org. I was able to email back within 30 minutes of the entry being posted. I think that is the key to getting what you see. We have been trying to decide what to do in the back of the way back flower bed. It stretches the width of the back yard. And does it ever need lots of work. So yesterday before Mark went to work he made a trip to West Chester, OH.He was able to pick up one pickup truck's worth of split fence railings. Then off to work he went. He wasn't there very long before he called to tell me how much money we had saved. Each railing costs about $9.00.

Then this morning, rather early, he was off to West Chester again for another truck load of rails. So we now are the proud owners of around 100 rails. We put in about a 12 hour day in the yard today. Our goal was to make a zig-zag fence about 5 rails high.

We have been weeding and moving plants around so it doesn't looks so crowded back there. Eventually we will add a brick path made from bricks we dug up. But for now we still need to work on the weeding.

While Mark was drilling holes, I was weeding and carrying rails. We only went thru three drill bits and two batteries. Thank heavens for neighbors with electric drills.

So here is the finished product. We love it! Now to finish the weeding. We hope to take the leaves that we have in the compost pile and mulch them up and use as mulch. Tomorrow , if it is not raining, we hope to put some kind of fencing down the vegetable bed side of the yard...and of course get rid of all the weeds.

If you haven't already checked out FreeCycle in your area, go check it out. Thanks BobbieJo We love our new fence.

Clay Pots

We have been collecting clay pots or years. I 'just love the way that they look with or without flowers. Last summer my neighbor, Kay, gave me all the ones that she was storing in her garage. And then to have this peony just drop in and take up residence beside the clay pots on the old bench in the 'park bed'. Recycle and reuse.

Double Duty

One day, I think it might have been a Tuesday trash day night, Emmy and I had just Taken Sarah to youth group and we were on the way home and decided to take a short detour through a subdivision in our area. There were lots of things out that night for trash but we found an old mailbox still connected to the post. Numbers and all. She stopped and I jumped out (she likes to be the driver so she can hide behind tinted glass) and put it in the van. It has been out behind the barn until last night. Mark and I cut down a bunch of old pines and we for some reason saved one trunk. Now inside the mailbox is stored some garden tools and gloves in the raised vegetable bed area of the yard. Luke likes to have the red flag up because there is something inside. When I forget to put things back in I am supposed to put the flag down. The other treasures in this photograph are awesome finds too. The two screen doors, Betsy and Dewey found them for us. The are the actual screen doors from SEM. Hopefully by the end of the summer some black eyed Susan vine will cover it. And the chair we found in a barn at Serendipity in Waterford, WI. I love that place...almost as much as Tater Ridge. Barns for of old junk. And the couple that run it are hippies from way back. I sometimes take the time to sit int he chair and just look at all the work we still have to do in the yard and dream of new things to do...just making the To Do List a little longer.

'New' Feeder

Last summer Mark and I went 'treasure hunting' sorta over close to his old Circuit City store. It was Large Item Pick-Up Day...and day where it is okay to go through someone else's garbage. I saw the top of this sticking out of a box. It is a National Geographic brass bird feeder. I thought about polishing it up but then saw how much work it was going to be and decided against it. We had it out for awhile in several different places and the squirrels always seem to be able to find it. So this year I saw it again in the barn and decided to try again. Yesterday we had all kinds of birds on it. The 'junk' birds were feeding on the Mercedes 1224 in the back bed. All kinds of good birds, like this cardinal found the feeder in record time. I enjoyed watching them all day. The this morning when I looked out...no seeds to be found. Guess the squirrel nation found it. So do we feed the birds or the squirrels? Just guess it will have to be both.

Love This

Last fall Mark and I got to go to the Country Living Magazine Expo and foud this little bathtub. We had a fountain in it last summer and decided jsut to put flowers in it this year. Now there is a lot of color on the front porch.

A Path Is Born

When we moved back to OH four summers ago our backyard was a jungle...a real disaster. Literally we could only see one neighbor and that was over their fence. We have worked really hard at taming this place. We are getting there slowly but surely. One of the things we did outside was dig up an old ratty looking brick patio and a railroad ties lined pathway to a small fish pond. In place of all of that we now have a beautiful exposed aggregate patio with inlaid bricks (which Emmy and I laid). We still have tons of bricks left over so we keep brainstorming about what we can do with them. So last week we started making a path in the back side flowerbed. I have pictures of each step we took.


In the beginning there was a little path.

Then the man dug out the little path...10 inches deep and 24 inches wide.

Then the woman and the man hauled gravel and put in 4 inches of it.

Four inches of sand covered the gravel and then skirted from end to end by the woman.

The man hauled bricks from the stack from behind the barn...choosing just the right ones for the job. The woman laid them as level as she could and as tight as possible.

The little helper tried it out to see just how great it is.

I was too tired to take a finished photo. So I promise to take it first thing in the morning. Now we have sorta a little park in the corner of the backyard.