Living the Good Life

The shade garden, a work in progress

With the exterior of the house complete,  we only have trim to finish on the inside and excavating on the outside.  We decided to focus on some landscaping.  I have a ton of plants free from other master gardeners, plant swaps and MG college.  I even have a few we paid for.  It is time to get them in the ground.

We started working on a shade garden since the sunny area of the house still needs some excavating.  we put in a pathway and used up the last of the boy scout mulch.  We got quite a bit done,  but had to stop until we get the trailer sold and out of the way.  Know anyone who might be interested in at 40ft park RV?


This photo will be so much better when we recreate it with landscaping instead of a dirt pile!

We had some friends over for a marshmallow roast and it turned out to be a fabulous evening.  the weather was perfect and no bugs.  Chris made these log candles with the chainsaw and they burned for hours.  The turned out to be the perfect marshmallow roasters and gave out a ton of heat.  We will certainly be making more of these in the future.  It has been so nice to take a break from working on the house and enjoy the porch and yard. Hopefully we will not settle in and forget we still have work to do.



Cooper perfecting his roasting

Allelulia

The siding is finally finished!   I think Chris may have almost died of heat stroke a time or two,  but he finished and it looks amazing.  This means the exterior of the house is complete!  WOOHOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Slow and Steady Wins the Race

Chris putting some finishing touches on the garage
gable.  Yes,  our insurance is up to date!

If slow and steady really does win the race we should be coming into a huge prize very soon.  Chris has been plugging away at siding every day for two weeks now.  He is getting very close to finishing and hopes to have the exterior all buttoned up by the weekend. 

We lost another 6 chickens,  all babies, last week.  We think they didn't get into the coop before the door closed and a night predator got them.  So sad,  but the chicken that looks like a bald eagle survived.  We are only getting 6-8 eggs a day, so the extra layers would have been nice.  Hopefully the newbies will begin laying soon.

The garden is coming along nicely.  It is a bit weedy and we are trying to keep up between vacations,  but they seem to need to keep up with the phrase 'growing like a weed'.  We have several baseball sized cantaloupe and lots of golf ball sized watermelons.  We are getting a few tomatoes however small they are still yummy.  We can't wait for the 'mortgage lifters' to ripen.  A few peppers are coming in and I think I should be harvesting carrots,  but am not sure so I keep holding off.

We picked a ton of raspberries from the forest and made a beautiful pavlova.  It was so tasty,  I would have included a photo,  but it didn't last long enough for the camera.

We are enjoying this time of year.  The fruit and veggies are bountiful and the porch is nice and cool even on the 90+ days.  We love it when guests stop by for a cool beverage on the porch.  It all feels very southern.  I think I am going to have to perfect my mint juleps.