Skyespace: Spring: Almost Sprung!

With the weather trying to make a turn from dreary and frigid to damp and not quite miserable, I find myself taking advantage of my joblessness and spending a good deal of time outside. It all started a couple weeks ago when the Courtneys and the Bills helped us to plant 25 arborvitae trees along the back fence. This, I assure you was no easy feat. I attempted the task on my own the day before and had only successfully dug two holes before I was exhausted. The damn things weigh about 80 lbs. each. But, with the help of our dear friends, it went smoothly and we hope that the gaps between will soon fill in and give us some needed privacy in our yard.

Yesterday morning, I planted a few tiny boxwoods along the western side of the fence. They are pretty tiny so it will be a while before they block anything but at least I could dig all four of those tiny holes myself.

I then tried out what I hope will be our new house color on the shed. Unfortunately, I ran out of paint before finishing and even worse, I neglected to think about the placement of my rain barrel before it had a chance to fill up. I could not move it to access to a good part of the bottom of the shed. As far as the color, I’m still undecided - I thought it would be a bit greener to compliment the olive green shutters on the front of the house. I may have to do a second coat before deciding.

Finally, after getting my brother to build a lovely cedar gate, our neighbor Alex offered to build a wooden fence between our two yards to keep Tika and Ray from viciously barking at his Chihuahuas (and vice-versa). I spent the sunny afternoon yesterday staining the fence and gate but bit off a bit more than I can chew. Staining takes forever! And I’ll definitely need two coats but still, I’m pretty happy with the look so far. I think Matt was inspired by my efforts and (reluctantly) got up on the roof to clean a years' worth of pine needle build up out of our gutters!