Sunday, June 27, 2010

Backyard Farming

Okay maybe backyard farming is a stretch but we do have a tomato garden that's doing quite well!

The previous owners of our house covered most of the backyard with gravel and the large area on the side of our house looks like this:

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Nice huh?!

We thought we could use up some of that space by building planters and starting a vegetable garden. Initially I planned on growing a variety of veggies but I got a little over-excited at the HUGE selection of tomato seedlings at the local garden center and bought so many that we didn't have space for anything else! Next year we'll build a few more planters and grow some other goodies.

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As usual the dogs had to check things out :-)

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The neighbor's cat likes to use our yard as a litter box so we had to put chicken wire over the soil to deter it from leaving 'gifts' among our plants.

We moved our compost bin from the other side of the house over to the vegetable garden side - lugging wheelbarrow loads of compost from one side of the house to the other wasn't much fun so having it right by the beds will be much better when we top the beds up next spring.

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This is earlier this month - they are so tall! They grew much higher than the top of the cage so I had to stake them - the short stakes are 5 feet and the taller ones are 6 feet - I had no idea they would get that tall! My dad is a master gardener so I am following his technique where you pull a lot of the leaves off to encourage the plant to produce more fruit and so far its working. Plus they are much easier to take care of with less leaves.

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A bunch of little tomato seedlings sprung from the soil - probably from tomato scraps we threw in the compost bin during the winter. I pulled a few out and planted them in pots and they are doing well. I was so excited about these surprise plants! We don't know what variety they are but they are just starting to produce fruit so we'll know soon enough.

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As much as I enjoy growing and eating them, I LOVE to take photos of the pretty shapes and colors so here are a few (probably too many) of my favorites ...

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The other day we found a lady bug (or lady bird as I grew up calling them in South Africa) so I had some fun following her around on her travels ...

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Hope you didn't fall asleep - that was a LOT of photos!

Thursday, June 24, 2010

Out of steam

Every evening at around 8 pm the energy level in the house takes a nose dive. Why? Because that's when our 2 mischief loving doggies call it a night. Its amazing how accurate their body clocks are - they can be wrestling on the rug and as soon as 8 pm hits they get on the couch and go to sleep.

Zeke prefers to sleep on at least 1 pillow.

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Zoey prefers no pillows.

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There usually isn't much space left for us ...

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Its a rough life these dogs lead :-)

Wednesday, June 23, 2010

Yard work!

As I mentioned the other day we've been doing a lot of work in the back yard this year. I've lost track of how many hours we've put in at this point but its a LOT! Yard work can be frustrating because for a long time it didn't seem like we were getting anywhere but finally its starting to look better ... finally!

We are by no means done but I thought I'd share the progress we've made on one side of the yard.

I don't think I've shown many pictures of the backyard (because its been such an eyesore!) so here's a pic from shortly after we moved in:

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Just imagine its taken from the opposite direction because that's what all the other pics will be of (apparently I forgot to take a before shot of that area of the yard). Note the mangy rose bushes and patchy, weed infested grass.

We knew the rose bushes had to go but thought maybe we could save the grass. Unfortunately the weeds just kept getting worse and worse so we made the decision to replace it with new sod at some point.

You know how sometimes 'during' shots looks worse than the 'before' shots? Well this is definitely one of them:

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The rose bushes have been removed but the 'lawn' is a hot mess. We actually don't remember it looking this bad - I think we've blocked it out :-)

This is a pic from a little further back and shows the strange privacy screen the previous owners put up. In theory its a good idea - given the close proximity of our rear neighbors - but it really closed in our small yard and was incredibly rickety.

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One Saturday afternoon Josh went to town on that screen and it was amazing how much bigger our yard felt!

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We put all drought resistant plants where the rose bushes used to be. We get no rain in the summer so plants that like sun, heat, and very little water are a must. I did plant a hydrangea in the one and only shady spot we have. I have a feeling its not going to last long because they don't really do well here but I wanted to give it a try because I love them so much. So far so good ... although its only been a week since I planted it :-)

This morning our sod was delivered!

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Neither of us was prepared for how hard we were going to be working to get it all in place. Oh and let me also mention that it was almost 100 degrees outside. It was wretched!

As usual the dogs were no help at all ...

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We were chasing the light trying to finish - here's Josh using the roller at 8:45 pm.

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We left clean up for tomorrow.

I have a feeling we're going to be in a lot of pain when we wake up tomorrow morning!

Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Happy puppy

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How cute is that smile?!

Monday, June 21, 2010

Its the first day of summer ...

... and the african irises are finally blooming (and being snacked on by bugs).

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... we had our first good harvest from our tomato garden. Up until this point we've just been picking a cherry tomato every couple of days but today we picked fruit from 6 different plants! I've seen some weird looking heirlooms but that one on the right is the craziest one ever. It was also the most delicious of the bunch :-)

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... I came home from work early today because Josh and I had a date with this guy:

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We have been working in the back yard on and off all year and the next phase is replacing that dirt and raggedly grass/weed combo with new sod. Hopefully all goes well!

Saturday, June 12, 2010

Puppy love

Bored + camera = dogs forced to take awkward pictures!


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Don't they look like they cant wait for it to be over?

Tuesday, June 1, 2010

A Kitchen update

I think back in November I said I would have the upper kitchen cabinets finished within a month. Clearly I was delusional because here we are 6 months later and I just barely put the last door back on. I probably could have finished in 2 months but the weather wasn't good for painting and then I just got burned out.

When I start phase 2 (the lower cabinets) I'll do it in small sections to hopefully prevent burnout. I love the end result but getting there is a LOT of work!!

As a reminder here is our kitchen circa October 2008:

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While it wasn't hideous we definitely weren't feeling the oak-on-oak color scheme we had going on in there. On top of that we had a cracked microwave and a dishwasher with rusted racks that was so loud we had to crank the TV volume while it was running.

We replaced the fluorescent light with a pendant, and slowly saved up and replaced the appliances one by one. It took a year to replace them all and while the wait was hard for my impatient self it was so nice to pay cash for everything! And then the cabinet painting started ...

Without further ado here it is today:

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Even though it still has the oak lower cabinets I am so happy with how it looks. Its such an improvement!

At first I was disappointed that the oak texture showed through the paint but it has really grown on me. I think it adds some nice texture.

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I don't think black cabinets can work in all kitchens but luckily we get a lot of light through the 2 windows by the sink so that keeps it from looking too dark and depressing.

Because our sink is set at an angle there is this huge space behind it that I'm always trying to figure out how to fill. Right now I have a collection of thrift store finds with some $3 grocery store flowers:

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The vintage ball jar is my favorite recent find. I love the light blue color and the old lid - its so pretty!

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So that's where we are in the kitchen. My wish list item is new counter tops but unless I find a couple thousand dollars lying around we wont be getting those for a looooong time!