Another busy weekend

We've had a very busy weekend. We were invited to join some family members for some outdoor fun this weekend, but decided to be responsible and try and clean up our yard and get some work done. It turns out that this was the better choice (possibly not quite as fun), because we really made some great progress. With our injuries and health problems last fall we weren't able to winterize anything or really do a fall cleanup...so, we got to do it this weekend.

Friday afternoon I decided to jump into another project and so I ordered some wood from the lumber store. While we waited for the delivery, my daughter and I weeded the already existing garden bed. We were pleased to see how well the plants are doing!

Once the wood arrived, we built another raised garden bed - this one measures 4 x 8 ft with a height of 16 in. I have to say I really love tools! I love pulling out the circular saw and the drill - it is so empowering to me. Maybe because I grew up with a handy dad who did all of the fixing and I never learned to fix many things. Except the FHE where he taught us to fix washers for the sinks...I can do that, but that's another story.

We got one bed into the garden and filled it all up with lots of dirt. We also cleaned off our back porch so that we don't look like the white trash people anymore. (Well, there were no cars, but enough other stuff to compensate!)
It was a good day's work and we fell into bed.

Saturday morning I woke up early and tackled my scriptures, wrote in my journal and jumped into my laundry - trying to get caught up. After about four hours, I could see my floor in our bedroom and everyone's closets had been refilled with the clean clothes that had been hanging out in baskets in my room.

My husband took the girls outside - promising them a VERY fun project. I stayed inside and processed 50 lbs. of pears. I made three pans and a dehydrator full of dehydrated pears, and then I canned 12 quarts of them. I was thrilled to be able to cross that off of my list since they'd been ripening and I was worried that they would spoil before I got to them.

My husband gave the girls sections of our back yard to weed and clean up and they did a MAGNIFICENT job! They even carried all of the old trampoline pipes to the trash... It looks great.

I headed out and we worked on our last raised bed - a 4x4 ft one, but we quickly realized that while we only had about 10 more screws to screw in, our bit was completely stripped and we definitely need a new one before we can go any further.
The great news is that we worked on these raised bed forms together, and we were successful. We didn't even argue (which often happens when two people with very different ideas of how a job should be done work together)- which was great!

My husband set to watering, pruning and spraying weeds while I weeded the remaining flower beds around the periphery of our home. It is so calming to see clean flower beds with beautiful plants popping out their blossoms everywhere.

Today we went to church, took naps, and then made cookies which we went out and delivered to several friends and neighbors. The kids got to bed late, but they went to bed happy. We are SO ready for school to be out, but know that it is coming and summer will soon be here.

FHE tomorrow? Raised bed finishing and garden planting. YAY!!!