Stairs, chairs and repairs...

Finally! I never thought I'd get done with those currents. I am planning to make Current and Black Cherry Jam, a recipe I got from a friend. She also has the currents growing in her yard. I purchased the cherries on Saturday so I must get this jam done soon. Consequently, I went to her house current picking right after work. Was there about 90 minutes picking. got home, ate dinner, cleaned up and started preparing the currents for cooking. I had 8 quarts. It took another 90 minutes to pick the currents off the stems of 3 quarts. The fourth quart already had the stems picked off in the field. All I am doing tonight is cooking and straining them, then tomorrow...the Jam! Can't wait! Matt is going to see Andrew in Virginia for the weekend and I'd like to send him a jar, maybe some raspberry too. At any rate, it seemed to take forever to get those currents prepared and I still have the other 4 quarts to prepare...that will have to be tomorrow (if I can get to them tomorrow). I have been chomping at the bit to show off all my hard work in the yard and garden.

I have been living the life of a robot these days. Get up, go to work, come home, change clothes work on garden edging, dinner about 8:00, clean up, shower, bed. Get up, go to work, come home, change clothes, work on garden edging, dinner, clean up, shower, bed. This has been my life for the past three weeks or more. Of course there are other responsibilities that I have to squeeze in at times and I did get a few breaks thanks to mother natures merciless down pours. but I am here to tell you...there is a light at the end of the tunnel!!!

Last year my friend Carol and I went to the quarry to find some large flat stones so I could put a natural stairway down the hill that goes from our driveway to the back yard. It was a difficult task but we rounded up 10 stones/boulders. We used a dolly to get each boulder to her truck then lifted together to get each one loaded in the truck bed. I did have to scold her on more than one occasion to get down before she caused an avalanche and buried us both in a heap of rubble. Yeah, she suggested boulders that were quite an unsafe distance above the ground and all in the name of "friendship". Unbelievably daring and quite the risk taker! Unloading them was slightly easier since we didn't have to climb mountains of boulder rubble to get them from the truck like we did getting them to the truck. Oh my, what a sight! Anyway, I put two stairs in and then found that some of the stones we had were cracked (most likely due to our fragile handling :-)). Andrew happened to be home one weekend so we went to the quarry to find more rocks, brought home another $4.30 worth (big spenders). I think it ended up being 9 more rocks. This time around I didn't have to haul around much. I got to pretty much stand there and match them up and pick the ones that I thought would work. Thank God for strong sons! :) Anyway, Matt put in the next three stairs and Dave did the last one. FINALLY, they are finished. Here they are from either side. While they worked on the stairs I worked on repairing the edging on my veggie garden . It used to be edged with 2x4's but they had been there for several years and were beginning to warp so Matt took them out and gathered up some manufactured stone and brick that we had laying around and I used all the extras to put in a new edge around my vegetable garden. Here is my garden to date. I also made time to spray the yard. You could not even walk outside without being attacked by those bloodsucking mosquito's. We have taken our yard back. Now we can work outside or sit and enjoy our yard without shaking your head or slapping your arm, leg, FACE, etc. There is the occasional mosquito but things are 95% improved.

Another area that we are working on is the walk out basement. During the torrential downpours we had water leaking into the basement. This area has always been sort of an eyesore because you can't get to it easily to mow and there are posts supporting the deck that need to be mowed around and it just seems that they never get take care of. Most recently, due to the abundance of rain, it has also been muddy there right at the doorway. Due to these issues, we are putting in a patio at the walkout to alleviate the problems. Here we are in the process. Dave has also decided we need to stain the deck, in the middle of working on the patio. Here are all the contents of the deck, waiting to be returned to their rightful places as Matt is preparing to spot clean a few areas on the deck prior to staining. I'm all for finishing one thing before starting another but since I'm not doing the work whatever they decide is fine with me.

And here are a few pictures of other garden interests. Last years project, the finished stone patio (above) one of my favorite spots. Then a few years back, "The Gathering" that I made with the vary same risk taker that helped me get the boulders. The Gathering was made out of old barn wood and several other materials that we...gathered from here and there. And then here is the first pumpkin of the season.