Take away our shrubbery!

This year, we had had it with our shrubbery beds. The edging had disappeared under the grass and we didn't even like most of the shrubbery that came with the house.

We were inspired by what we had done in the front of the house so we started in and ripped out the bed on the west side of the house. The children are pulling out the old ineffective edging.

Good bye shrubbery. Especially the thorny shrubbery.

The finished product. Well, almost finished. I have some irises from a friend to plant. Next year, we'll see those daylilies and iris nicely filling out the bed.

The west bed looked good, so we started in on the south and east beds.

Finished product (plus future iris).

Old east side with out of control bushes.

Nice new east side. Look at the straw on the left side of the picture. That is how much new grass we had to add. The old edging was that far into the yard.

The chicks are here!

Our new chicks are here! We got the call early this morning (6:45 am) to come get them at the post office.

We bought 30 of them. We bought four breeds: Araucanas, Black Austroloops, Silver tipped Wyandottes, and Delawares. They sold out of our favorite breed, the Dominiques, before we ordered this year. So we are trying some new breeds.

They come in this box and are peeping like crazy whenever we move the box.

Their new home. At least for a while.

And lest you think that I was just lounging around waiting for the chicks to arrive, here is my last week's project. We bought an unfinished bookcase and last week while my dh was away on a business trip, I stained and varnished the pieces. I like the staining but the varnishing is another matter. I always think, "This time, the varnish will go on just right and not bubble or drip." And something always doesn't work quite right. This time, my first coat of varnish was too light. So I lathered on the second coat and I think it will be okay.

The front flower bed is done (mostly)

We finished (mostly) the new front flower bed. We had earlier put in the new sidewalk so we had the old sidewalk bed and some new areas to fill. We ripped out the shrubs that were dying slowly and the ones with thorns that I hated. So here is the front bed before planting.

And a couple weeks later, here is the completed bed. I planted the flowers and my dh leveled the ground and put in the edging. Then together we put down the weed barrier and mulch.

Here's the view from the driveway with our lovely model Deborah. I still need to plant some mums and some iris but I can't do that until the end of summer. This front bed looks so nice that we are eager to fix the other beds around the house. They have too much shrubbery and not enough flowers for our tastes.

The New Sidewalk

While my parents were here, the concrete contractors showed up two weeks earlier than scheduled and were ready to tear out the old sidewalk. Our old sidewalk in the front was cracked and sinking and was about to become a tripping point. Plus our downspout either dumped water on the sidewalk (which froze in the winter) or down the windowwell which once continued to flow into our new guest bedroom. So we have finally had enough and hired a company to move the sidewalk.

They ripped out the old sidewalk last Wednesday.

They built the forms for the new sidewalk.

Here's what it looks like with the sidewalk bed prepared. They didn't pour that day because it started to rain.

Today the folks and the concrete truck showed up at 1 pm and poured the sidewalk. The children were fascinated by the truck and the pour.

Here's the finished product. Looks nice, doesn't it? I'm impressed with their workmanship. We should be able to use it tomorrow.

To complicate matters, today was the day that I help a friend wash her windows and polish her furniture (Friday, she helped me). So we took a break in the work and I brought her children over to watch the workmen. They were spellbound as long as the truck was pouring, but when the men got into the smoothing and marking phase, they quickly lost interest. Despite the fact that they had just been hauling logs and branches for our friend for 1 1/2 hours, they found enough energy to wrestle.

Amazingly, we only had one bloody nose.

Blooming Trees

It is beautiful up here. Our weeping cherry is in perfect form.

Our apple trees are in bloom and the bees are a-buzzing like crazy. We should get a bumper apple crop this year.


While I was photographing the blossoms, something bigger than a bee buzzed past. At first I thought it was a hummingbird. Now I think it is some kind of moth. I've never seen it before. This is the best picture I got of it. It flew around like a hummingbird and was hard to capture.

Housework

This post is for Betsy. She asked how we do the housecleaning and chores around our house.

Before kids and while working away from the house, I was a "do it all in a day" housekeeper. But now that I have four children that need training and make most of the mess, I've changed to the "do a little every day" method. So here is what we do. I have morning after breakfast chores and afternoon chores for Monday thru Friday.

Monday
After breakfast: S to sort S and N's laundry and put it in washer
A to clean out van (empty trash, retrieve light sabers, papers, etc)
D to straighten up magazines
Afternoon: S to sort laundry and put his half away. N to put his half of laundry away.
A to sort clean laundry (his and D's) and put his away. D to put her half away.

Tuesday
After breakfast: All children clean bedrooms (go under beds to get books, get rid of papers floating around, decrease the number of animals in bed to 3 and books to 5)
Afternoon: S, A, and D, clean bathrooms, I do the insides of the toilets, N sweeps the wood floor downstairs

Wednesday
After breakfast: N and S to trade off cleaning the kitchen appliances and dusting upstairs
A to empty and refill water bottles
D to pick up wood scraps (in winter when we have wood fires)
Afternoon: all to help me put away groceries and whatever else I brought in from our errand time.

Thursday
After breakfast: N and S trade off doing windows (the big sliding glass doors and my kitchen windows) and dusting downstairs
A to empty trash cans from basement
D to empty upstairs trash cans
Afternoon: N to vacumm the upstairs wood floor, I vacumm the downstairs carpet, S, A, and D do odd jobs for me (like clean the top of the refrig or wipe fingerprints off of walls

Friday
After breakfast: N to sort S and N's laundry and put it in washer
S to sweep front porch and walkway
A to water plants
D to straighten up her room
Afternoon: N to sort laundry and put his half away. S to put his half of laundry away.
D to sort clean laundry (hers and A's) and put hers away. A to put his half away.

In the summertime, we have lots of outside jobs to do on Saturdays. And of course, everyday someone has to take care of the cat and the chickens.

So there it is, my master plan. Actually I'm going to change it some this summer as Aaron and Deborah are getting much better at their tasks and can take on more work.

Summer's a coming

It was actually warm enough to eat on the porch today. I think we set a new record for eating on the porch. Last year, our first lunch on the porch was the 21st.

Spring is officially here

Spring has finally come to the tundra. We have flowers blooming...

... chickens out and about all day...

and all the wood for the fireplace put back into the wood pile and the pretty birch logs in the newly cleaned fireplace. We even moved the couch and bench to the "summer" position so it must be spring.

We spent a lot of this weekend outside. My dh pruned all the apple trees and seeded the bare spots on the trails.

I got out on Sunday afternoon and with the help of Deborah cleaned out the herb garden. I've got a few chives and daffodils coming up.

My dh and I surveyed the garden. No asparagus yet, but we did find where the deer had gotten so desperate this winter that they actually dug down and ate some of the horseradish roots.

Amazing icicles

Today is a warm (relatively speaking) day for February and the snow on the roof of the chicken coop is sliding slowly down. Look what it did to the icicles on the end of the roof!

The tip of the icicles are actually pressing into the window...


... and the side of the coop.

A view down the tunnel.


More cool shots.

More Fire and Ice

I made another kind of ice luminary this week. I didn't think I could make this kind because I needed icicles. Our house is fairly new and doesn't get icicles on it. But I found out that the chicken coop roof does.

So I broke off some icicles, stuck them in some wet snow and poured a little water around the base.

I put in a bigger candle than the others and it turned out beautifully.

My mom took this artsy photo.

Fire and Ice

My mom sent me an article about a man who lives in Alaska and who makes ice luminaries. So I had to try it out. I put about an inch of water in some containers and let it freeze on the back porch. Then I put a smaller cup into the container and poured water around it. After two days, I brought them inside and let them thaw until I could get them out of the container. Here's what they looked like with the tea candles in them with the kitchen lights on.

Here's what they looked like with the lights off. Pretty cool! Mike, I thought of you and all the nifty pictures you would have taken. Maybe I'll try some artsy pictures with the next batch.

It was hard to get a good picture of what they looked like outside plus it was about 16 degrees and I was cold but here is a slightly blurry picture of them on the front porch welcoming my dh back from his business trip to Florida.

A Snow Day

We got a lot of snow last night. Here's the view out the back window well.

But despite all the snow, it is still a school day for us. Especially since yesterday we took an official sick day and relaxed. Both Nathan and I were sick and/or had no energy. But today we're on the mend.

My dh plowed us out before leaving for work.


I'm trying something new here. This is a video of my dh plowing with his beloved John Deere.

Woodworking Class

The boys are taking a woodworking class at a local woodworking shop. Nathan and Stephen have made baseball hold-alls (they hold two balls, two mitts, and two bats). Aaron is making a bird feeder.

A Cold Start to the New Year

It snowed a little Tuesday night. So bright and early (or at least early), the boys were out shoveling.

The ninja snow shoveler.

Now it's a little lighter. Morning boys!