I failed you this month…I didn’t make it to the flea market, thus no round up for you. I had school commitments on Friday, and Saturday and Sunday just flew by before I knew it. Melissa has a nice round up, so if you want to peek at the flea through her eyes..check it out here.
So why was I dragging my ass and not taking care of your vicarious shopping needs? It’s Spring people, and that means I get overwhelmed with the one million things that need doing outside this place of ours.
I finished painting inside the treehouse this week, but these are some of the only snaps I have. I planned to take some proper ones yesterday, but the place got trashed with mud over the weekend, and no one wants to see that yuck. Here’s the only picture I took via Instagram after moving some of the stuff back in. Sadly, I think ALL these pics were taken with my phone.
The Things and I worked at the local state park Saturday morning removing exotic, non-native plants from the forest floor so that there is less wild honeysuckle and more of this.
Then, there was pressure washing to be done, or should I say started. I still have the back decks to do, and that will take ages to finish.
Even though it can be tedious work, I have to admit that pressure washing all that gunk away is a satisfying job. Now I’ll need to go back with some deck stain to touch up some spots once it’s dried out.
I replanted my rootbound and pitiful looking junipers. I found these white planters at Target and am loving how light and easy to move they are…win!
I also started to topdress the pine straw patio, but only after retrenching the sump pump drainage creek. This time we laid plastic down so that we don’t have to retrench it every year. I’m headed to the stoneyard this morning to get more river rock to fill in the deeper creek. It had started flowing all over this end of the yard creating a swampy mudpit, but now we are nicely channeled. You won’t see the plastic when we are done adding more stone.
We also plan to build a proper bridge since the hose access is off to the right, so stepping over the creek is frequently required.
We put together our new Ikea Äpplarö table, and, of course, we have had 2 meals there already.
Sunday was a spectacular day..I snapped the dogwood in bloom before it’s gone.
So, while I missed the flea, we got a lot done, but there’s lots left to do…onward!
While ogling the garden section in Lowe’s a few weeks ago, I happened across a little item that will be making our summer much groovier…the solar LED lightcube.
I always wanted a Toto, or those amazing Oluce glowing stones for the yard, and this combines both functions for $50 rather than $500.
The CC is quite cynical about ALL solar lighting. He was secretly thinking that I had just made a really stupid purchase. To look at it, you might agree and think it’s just a smallish white cube with no hope of doing anything.
It has a solar charger that plugs in underneath.
Charge it for a few hours, and when night falls….you punch the little button underneath and…..
…. IT WORKS! Such a nice bright glow from the LED…there is some light love afoot my friends. How do I know the CC has forgiven me, and might even approve of this purchase? He brought it up to the treehouse for our sleepover Saturday night. You worked your way into his solar hatin’ heart Mr. Cube, and I think we will all enjoy each other very much.
It’s that time of year…the seed catalogs start showing up and I get spring fever bigtime. It doesn’t help that my plants are confused by the mild winter and everything is budding out. I predict the blooms will open on these Pear branches by Friday, latest.
It’s 60 degrees today, and we had snow over the weekend, with more predicted this coming weekend. Today is my window…it is time to prune the horsetail rush or Equisetum Hymale. I didn’t prune it last winter and I think it showed by blowing over so easily. Now it is laying down completely flat and it’s time to hack it to the ground. This is how it looked when I first put it in.
And this is how it looked today. So sad.
I couldn’t find the electric hedge trimmer in the garage chaos, so I had to go old school with the shears. FUN!
Hopefully it will return reinvigorated and upright, like the picture I showed you when I first decided to go for this stuff. By all accounts, it should, so fingers crossed!
I created a path leading to the front of the treehouse this weekend….it required VERY CAREFUL bushwacking with lots of repellent and immediate showering with copious amounts of tea tree soap.
Until now, we have taken a short cut coming in from the left, but it’s steep there and a bit hazardous when muddy. We are used to it, but our future visitors might be annoyed. Nothing like biting it on a muddy slope to brighten your day….
I need to cut through the old railroad tie to create an official opening from the main trail, but I’m skeered of chainsaws, so I have to wait for the CC on that one. I have found my appendages to be quite useful over the years…I know, so selfish.
While we still plan to create a proper patio area outside the kitchen, as discussed here, I wanted to implement something we could use this year…and before it gets too hot. (Impatient much?)
When word got out this winter that the Ikea Vågö would be re-issued, I knew our outdoor firepit situation (version 1.0) was settled. $25 each? DONE and DONE.
An Atlanta trip was not in my game plan given our treehouse commitments, so we enlisted the dudes at ModernNash to do it for us. Locals who may not be aware of this amazing service..take note…totally worth it.
While I still have visions of the CC casting a beautiful round firepit in concrete, that’s not happening right now, so a metal tree ring kit from Home Depot will have to do. They come in sections..I got 3 to make a three foot wide ring.
I didn’t want to actually SEE this ring, so after digging out the pit, I piled river rock around the outside of it. Since we burned through all the nice dry split wood in our log holder this winter, and we haven’t built a firewood shelter yet, (on the list) the wood that’s left is getting rained on, so we have to ring the fire with logs to dry them out a bit. At least now the ring is disguised inside and out.
Like the Things ash graffiti?
Camp Vågö was a huge hit with the whole family. The deer came surprisingly close while we were chillin’ by the fire…we’re STILL waiting for the owl babes. Lots of hooting, but no sighting yet.
While this area still leaves a lot to be desired….plans are to cover the fugly concrete wall with a custom built firewood wall, plus patio and pit upgrade…this was just the ticket for now, and we don’t have to wait another year to cook s’mores and the like over our crackling fire.
Here’s what I think I want to do with the CC’s new cement mixer. The area known in the past as the ugly poor man’s patio, will be an oasis of concrete circles, like Jenn Ski did here.
