Oh Happy Day!!!

   So as you saw from when we redid the kitchen floor joists and subfloor, we have a cold storage room.  It is approximately 10 ft. x 10 ft.   I call it the bomb shelter.

 Since we bought the house, I have been so excited to get shelves built into it.  I really wanted to just pack up my storage and canning supplies and move them in and put them on shelves.  I didn't want them packed in boxes and stacked in the garage like everything else will be.  I finally convinced Perry that we could get it done. I went down and painted all the walls and floors with Kilz paint to seal it all.  (except that spot you can see on the floor.  The ladder sat there.  I still need to finish that spot. 😁)  Perry went to work  and designed real stairs for it instead of the existing ladder.  Then he and I designed the shelves to fit everything in just right.  In June, we bought the wood and headed down to Fountain Green.  He and Chanse got it all framed and I had jars waiting to put in there.  It still needs a light and eventually a spring loaded hatch door but it looks wonderful!!!  I made another trip a couple of weeks later with all my buckets of wheat, canning supplies and a some of my jars of food.  I love it!!!!  I joking tell him that when the rest of the home is still in chaos during the remodel, I will just go down in my bomb shelter and enjoy the order.  Thanks Guys!!!  Makes this OCD girl happy!!!

Spring in Fountain Green

Spring in Fountain Green

       So our master plan calls for re-doing the yard after the house.  BUT....  I love yard work and can not leave it alone.  While Perry is busy inside or sometimes not there with me, I work in the yard.  Spring brought some wonderful surprises in the flower beds.

                                                                                                                         Flowering Crab and one                                                                                                                              weed free flower bed.


Every flower bed is full of weeds and grass.  The lawn grass is almost non-existent, it is just weeds.  We water and mow and one area in front is starting to be more grass than weeds.  The house was a rental for several years then was repossessed and sat empty for 9 months before we bought it.  That nine months was from January to September.  We have dead trees from lack of water, more weeds than grass and enough weeding to keep an army busy for a month.  But I love bringing it back to its intended beauty.
My mom and I planted a vegetable garden.  Perry rota-tilled up a weed filled area in the back of the house.  It was full of weed block which was obviously not working. It also had two big rubber mats under about 3 inches of dirt.  We think at one time it was a sand box.  I have been finding match box cars every time I weed.   I was so excited to be able to transplant some of my raspberry plants.  I planted 42 in the spring and I have 10 left.  I was expecting that.  In Cedar Hills I planted 3 rows, 2 x and ended up with 3 plants.  In just a couple of years, I had 2 - 25 ft. rows.  So as long as I have some plants that survive I can get my two rows from starts.

The garden has actually done really well, weeds and all.  We have got zucchini, tomatoes and cucumbers.  They raspberries are actually trying to bloom.  The grasshoppers are pretty bad from the field but a little bug spray has helped.  I spent 7 hours weeding last weekend.  The wild geraniums are as tall as the plants.  Oh well.  It will get better over the years.   And it does my heart good to see vegetables and raspberries growing.