Sunny

Today it was about 80 degrees out.  Awesome.  For about an hour in the morning, we took some coffee outside and walked around the yard to decide where we are going to plant our garden.  Onions, shallots, garlic, jalapenos, bell peppers, brussels sprouts, lettuce, tomatoes, heirloom tomatoes, organic tomatoes (you get the point), squash, beans, zucchini, cucumbers, watermelons, peas and some other stuff.

Tom was doing some reffing at the YMCA, so I had a bunch of time for myself.  Since it was warm enough for me outside, I sat outside and read a book (#10 of my 50 book goal for the year) while Optimus laid next to me.  Then, I got super bored and still had a lot of time, so I pulled up a ton of ugly concrete paver things from the yard.  Thank you so much to whoever took the time to make the yard look ugly.  Ugh.  Now they are sitting by the road waiting for somebody on Craiglist to come and haul them away.

In the meantime, I was searching for more to do.  We had discussed the possibility of several raised beds for the yard.  One or two little ones would have a bunch of wildflowers and one would be a big one dedicated to a large strawberry patch.  Strawberries spread like crazy, so keeping them contained is a must.  

Typical raised beds are made out of railroad ties or treated lumber.  Both leach chemicals into the ground around it.  One of the things that has been running through my head lately is an alternative to this.  As you may have seen in a previous post, we have a bajillion pallets that we got for free off CL.  Pallets are made out of untreated wood, so I have been working on dismantling them in order to build raised beds out of them.  We'll paint them with a pretty exterior paint that we'll most likely get from the Habitat Restore.

In the meantime, I was looking for more to do.  Speaking of things to get rid of, the lathing strips from under the plaster has been in our house for a LONG time.  We don't want to take it to the landfill and we haven't figured out what to do with it.

Genius idea!  First of all, I painted the lathing strips with exterior paint (from the Habitat Restore) and then took puffy paint and labeled them to use as garden marking stakes.  Next, I'll cut them with the chop saw and we'll be good to go.  As soon as the weather gets warmer, there are so many more things to do!

Jessie

Currently Listening to "In the Evening" by Led Zeppelin