What's Going On ...

Good morning, my friends out there!  Sorry I've been so busy this week.  Big son, Adam from Nashville, is home for a week or so.  He hasn't been home since the end of April and I have SURELY missed him!  I think he's getting a bit tired of me huggin' on him, but too bad!  Sunday was his birthday and we had 4 of us together minus the girl child in nursing school.  We had cake and we got him a nice gift that he'd been wanting for a long time.  We had grilled hamburgers and all the trimmings and enjoyed ourselves immensely!

Ever CAN'T find a good box for a present???

Enter Ch*rrios box - family size!  Works great!  AND I wrapped it in Sponge B*b Square P*nts paper!

Since I have my guys here this week, some long-needed projects that need man muscles and know-how were scheduled to be completed at Mom's request.  I've been wanting running water out to the  garden shed for a couple of years now - much easier to water that side of the garden AND water any chickens or livestock in the future.  It will eventually run out to the tractor barn which is another 100 yards or so but for now at least I won't be dragging 200 feet of garden hose around to water.  That sucker gets heavy!

A trench was dug out to the garden shed from the tap in the back yard and PVC pipe was laid.  Also, they ran the line up directly to the garden shed  porch and put a spigot there so I can have my old washtub right under it and wash veggies.  The drain run-off will have a short hose attached to direct it back to the garden or a small flower bed beside the garden shed. Fabulous!

Covering up the ditch with our trusty steed...

We were also needing a larger compost container. We had a little makeshift one for a couple of years but it was coming apart and we  noticed that some little varmints were getting in there and strewing some of the ingredients around outside.  My guys built this much nicer, much stronger, and much bigger compost container.  One side of it comes completely off - they fixed it where it would slide out the top somehow and we can get the tractor bucket in there to pick up loads of compost to put in the garden.  Ingenius!  Don't you think?  It's about 4'x8' in size and about 3.5' to 4' high on the sides.  I'm wondering if we need to put a top on it?  Doesn't it break down quicker? I think I read that somewhere - will have to do some checking on that...

My husband at first thought it was kind of unnecessary to have a compost bin, but after he saw how cool it was to have all that luscious broken-down good stuff to put in the garden, he really got into it.  He's always out there turning it and "going out to check on the compost", he says.  He's totally with the program now!

Now I'll have to really stay on top of collecting things from the kitchen, etc., to put in the compost. I sometimes forget and toss something in the trash or think it's something too small to worry about, but I'll be more watchful now.  I wanna have lotsa good compost to put in the garden next year. Oh, it's not big enough to do the whole garden area, but it'll sure help.  I'm thinking of adding a few raised garden beds next year and see if I like them as opposed to rows of continuous crops like I've been doing.  Cuts out a lot of weeds and easier to water and walk around.  We'll see...

Well, that's all I've got today.  We've got big plans all week long.  There's always so much to cram into the time that we have with our kids when they come home.  Fishing, shooting, cooking out on the grill, family get-togethers, golf for the sons --- speaking of,  I just LOVE when both my sons are here and they "hang out" and do "guy stuff" and all the male bonding.  My husband is with them as much as possible, but I love to see my two sons are spending precious time just with each other.  All of us who're moms and dads love that I'm sure!  I'm off to take some pics of my boys shooting! 

Keep your dress down!