Hot, hot, hot!

Wow, was it hot over the weekend. Temperatures hit the 90s in Columbus and sapped most of our energy. We were able to go out early (between 6:00 and 7:00 am) for walks and a run on Saturday and Sunday, but turned into zombies by mid-afternoon. We did get a few things accomplished in the mornings. One of which was garden clean up. I cut back bulbs while Matt edged most of the beds in the backyard. Goliath found various shady spots join us while we worked.


Our other big project was repairing/replacing our mailbox. The numbers kept falling off the post, so we needed to apply a fresh coat of paint. Matt determined that with the paint the actual box would look shabby, so we went out and purchased a new one to install. Unfortunately, we (meaning Matt) did all of this on Monday when the heat was unbearable. I tried to work on this project and was reminded that he "promised to take care of it by Memorial Day." To quote Matt yet again, "nothing like waiting until the last minute." But it is now done and we have a shiny new box.


We have had a few setbacks with which to contend. Our lovely redbud tree has died. We have only had it for about five years and it seemed just fine last summer, but this year it did not bloom and has produced no leaves. When we asked the landscaper that installed it, he told us that the main trunk had died and we could cut it down and allow the small new growth at the base of the trunk to grow and replace it. We would probably be well into retirement when it catches up to the current dead portion. So we decided to cut off the limbs that get in the way when we walk past it and wait for cooler weather to cut it down. One advantage is that the tree's trunk is only 3-4 inches in diameter, so we can saw it down, and it is not a major part of any landscape bed. It sits right next to the deck and we would often have to push limbs out of the way in order to get to the yard. It will be sad to see it go, but it is not the blue spruce or birch, so I am okay with the change. One change that I am not okay with is the fact that we need to get a new cooling system installed.


During a regular maintenance check up, we were told that there was a leak in the cooling line. This makes sense because every year, they need to recharge the coolant in the system. We had two options: keep putting a bandage on the gaping wound, or just replace the entire system. We thought we could get by without replacing anything, but then we practically melted this weekend and the decision was easily made to go into debt for the ability to survive the summer. We are getting some cold air from the system, so we are not going to suffer too long while we get quotes, but we need to get the new one installed before the real summer meltdown begins. We have been spending a lot of time downstairs and are grateful for the leather furniture. Also, I have been sleeping outside in Matt's tent and find that I get pretty cold during the night. Matt has stayed in the house since it hurts his back to sleep on the ground. We having been meaning to pick up an air mattress for him, and this is just the push we need. It has been fun to be outside at night. I seem to fall asleep much faster and wake up on my own around 5:00am with the help of the birds. Most importantly, I feel well rested and no aches or pains, which is very surprising. Since it is going to be horribly hot again today, I left the tent up on the deck for a smoother sleeping surface. I cannot seem to get Goliath interested in staying out with me. He is too much of a suburban pup and requires a king-sized bed for his evening rest.

We're back

We have been so busy lately, but I feel like we have not accomplished much of anything. The rain was on and off for more than a week and kept us indoors and unmotivated. Yet, we were welcomed back to garden with beautiful color. I need this because the vegetable garden isn't doing much without the warm days and sunshine. We do have more lettuce coming up and I can see some sunflowers poking through, but otherwise nothing exciting.

Matt's mother came to spend the weekend with us for Mother's Day. We had a wonderful visit with her and took her and my parents out to dinner. Not much later we had another visitor. While out on the deck, I was taken by surprise when I saw a baby robin just sitting on the railing looking around. It was still quite fluffy and looked a little dazed. But it held our attention for quite a while until I had to get Goliath inside since he was intent on trying to smell it. I still remember several years ago when another baby robin caught his attention. He followed it around the yard as it hopped and chirped, but he never got really close to it. He was just curious. Yet, that was too much for the mother and she proceeded to dive after him until he came crying to me. So even though I was excited to see this year's baby, I knew the mother could not be far away, and I have an unnatural fear of things flying around my head. Time to move inside.

I am hoping that with the long weekend, we can get back into the yard and work or at the least hang out in the hammock or read on a garden bench. Have a great weekend.

Lettuce celebrate

As you can see (if you squint) we have little lettuce seedlings popping up in the garden this morning. The other plants look good, but this is our first seedling to emerge this summer. There are supposed to be various thunderstorms in the next two days, so I will have to keep my eye on these guys to keep them protected. You can also see our lovely Ohio clay soil. No matter what I do, I cannot seem to get that perfect Martha loam. Oh well, things continue to grow every year, so I won't worry too much.


I spent a few extra minutes walking around the yard this morning. Matt has been working hard every night cleaning up the flower beds. Everything looks so wonderful and green. I still remember when we first moved in and the entire backyard was nothing but grass. Not one single flower bed. But we did have two dead trees. We spent one year mowing and decided that we could not stand to mow for 2 hours in the backyard alone. Once we got a plan from a landscape architect, Matt starting taking out sod. He must have filled over 30 lawn and garden bags and he only used a shovel. Then to top that off, he planted all the shrubs after we had the trees installed. I might be the one that considers myself the gardener, but Matt is without a doubt the reason the yard looks so good.

We have seen the veggies and they are planted!

On Saturday, Matt was able to turn the rest of the vegetable bed area and he even created walking paths so that I can have easy access. Isn't he wonderful? I was able to get all the seeds and plants installed Saturday morning. We have garlic, lettuce, sunflowers, cucumbers, zucchini, broccoli, tomatoes, basil, and eggplant. I am a little unsure about the eggplant since I planted them as seeds. The packet stated more than once to start them indoors, but I was not paying attention. I might go out this weekend and pick up a plant just to be safe. I am not 100% certain on all the spacings of my plantings, but I figured that I gave everything nearly a foot of room. I even made hills for the zucchini seeds. I found out later that this was the only thing of interest to Goliath when he started to paw through one to see what I hid inside. I was able to get him out and rebuild the hill. He then pretty much ignored me for the rest of the day.

Sunday was a great day to be lazy, but that feeling did not last for long. After church, we went to the market where Matt kept getting "samples" of honey-roasted peanut butter. At our local Whole Foods you can grind peanuts to make fresh butter, which Matt enjoys doing. He also likes to grind just enough extra for a tasty sample that he scoops into his mouth so that he looks like a chipmunk. It makes him happy, and makes it difficult for him to object to the price of organic milk with his mouth so full. I eventually hear all about it on the ride home as he goes over every item on the bill. He is always quick to point out that the apples he selected were the most inexpensive, while I went nuts on one heirloom tomato. Whatever. I'll be able to get tomatoes from the backyard this summer while he will still have to purchase apples at the store.

Anyway, once we got home and had some lunch he took off for a 50 mile bike ride. I tried to hold out and read or watch television, but I thought this was my golden opportunity to clean out the garage. It never fails to surprise me when I do this task how much useless stuff finds its way into our house. I think this is only one of half-a-dozen times that I had filled up our city garbage can. Goliath hung out in the front yard as I swept and threw stuff away. He wandered in from time to time to see if I was done and only got excited when I repositioned his trailer for my bike. I need to get air put into the tires so that we can go for a ride. We always get a response from people when they realize I have a dog in the trailer instead of a child. It works for us. I get exercise, he gets fresh air, and we always stop for a quick walk halfway through the ride.

I will leave you with my poppies that are starting to open. We are supposed to have rain later this week and that always wreaks havoc on the delicate petals, so enjoy them now!

Begin Phase 2

Well, we did it. Matt turned over the soil in the top bed (by hand) and we now have garlic and lettuce planted. We have several other plants and seed packets to put in the garden, but I want to make sure that I have the right combinations. Besides, Matt still needs to turn over the other two beds, and they get more sunlight than the first one. Until then, my plants will have to tough it out on the kitchen counter.


I can now wander around the yard to see what else is going on, and there has been a lot of activity. Our poppies look wonderful. Hard to believe when I took them from my mother's yard that they would survive. We had dug them up shortly after they bloomed, so of course they looked horrible. Plus, I had forgotten how they die back and started to panic when they turned brown and disappeared. Yet more than 5 years later, they look great and keep spreading. Luckily they have some company with the purple cone flower and columbine, so the bed stays full throughout the season.

We also had a visitor looking for food. I saw this cardinal jumping around on tree limbs and had to stalk her to get this picture. My zoom was set to the maximum, so she might be a little fuzzy, but I was happy to get the shot. I will need to get some advice from my dad about better ways to catch wildlife on "film."

Throughout everything, Goliath has been keeping me company. I often find him laying in the grass getting some sun, but this time he was hanging out on the deck while I took pictures. Hopefully the next time you see the deck, most of the paint will have been removed, thanks to the power washer. Maybe I can help out with that project after my piano lesson tonight.

Moving ahead

We have made progress on both projects over the weekend.

Friday night I came home determined to get some work done on the deck. I grabbed our spackel knife to continue scrapping paint and brought out my orbital sander (which I put away after 30 seconds). After an hour, I had cleared off a space about 12 inches by 4 inches. This was going to be torture. Matt came home and got to work weeding flower beds while I continued peeling paint one millimeter at a time. After another hour, I decided it was time to get some dinner and see if my legs still worked. A bit of advice, don't kneel for nearly two hours. I could not stretch out for a few seconds and I hobbled around the deck. It was like a charley horse in both of my knees. Goliath thought it was some sort of game and followed me while I limped in pain. I gave up on the deck for the night and went out to get some dinner which we enjoyed outside while watching a movie. It got cold and we must have spooked the neighbor's dogs (because they would not stop barking at us), but we finally got our first movie night under the stars.

On Saturday, Matt went for a run while I created tiers to the vegetable garden. I tried to take it easy on the shoveling because I knew if Matt didn't admonish me about taking care of my back, my mother would. Matt returned for 30 minutes, then left again to go to a swim clinic with his triathlon group and I took a nap. Afterwards, we went out and purchased a variety of vegetable plants for our space, and they are still sitting on my kitchen counter.

Sunday we tried to turn the soil with the tiller that my father has been storing at our house for two years, but could not get it to start. I managed to spill gasoline all over myself and smelled lovely the rest of the day.

We had a cookout to go to that afternoon and on the way home stopped to pick up a few things. We almost brought home the gazebo that we wanted to put on the deck, but things did not work out so well. At the store, we notice that the cost had gone down $100 and it was on clearance. Matt suggested that we get it now, but it took me a while to come around. We hadn't made much of a dent in scraping the paint from the deck, so who knew when we could actually put the thing up. Yet, I saw his logic and we found someone to help us. It turned out that the floor model was the only one they had left. And we found out it was the same story at all the other stores in town. The upside was that we would get an additional 30% off, but we would have to come in with our own tools and take it apart...without instructions. I started laughing so hard, I don't know if I upset the guy or not, but he was very easy going. Believe it or not, Matt actually considered this option. This from the man that has probably not assembled more than a sandwich since we have been married. I knew it was time to go. But here is the icing on the cake. When we went to check out, I was told I could save 10% on my shower curtain liner by opening a credit account. I declined and the guy at the registered said, "Are you sure? You would save a quarter." I almost started laughing again.

But our journey did not end there. I still needed some paint for the guest bedroom shelves, so we went to the home improvement store. After I picked up my paint, I went to check out their selection of gazebos and found none. I was disappointed, but figured I was better off taking things slow since the deck was no where near ready and it would probably take us all Summer to scrape paint at the rate we were going. Then it happened: Matt stopped to play with power equipment. While this phrase sounds harmless, it is one that sends chills up my spine. Let me explain. Matt is on his fourth (and better be his last) lawn mower. He actually bent the crank shaft of one, but that is a story for another time. He also has managed to break loppers, a sledge hammer, two tillers, and thought he broke my Dyson vacuum cleaner. I don't know how he does it, but it happens all the time. So when he became interested in the power washers, I had my doubts. Luckily, he asks a lot of questions and is not an impulse shopper, so we were given clear instructions on how to operate the machine. Appropriately enough, it has a Honda engine, so that was an added bonus. Once we got home, I pulled all the manuals out to read them and Matt fell asleep.

So the power washer is still in the box, and we are in for a week of rain. I just need a break in the weather to turn the soil so that I can get the plants in the ground. At least we are making progress.