Almost

We had another busy day yesterday working in the yard/garden area!  We are so close to planting that I'm getting butterflies in my stomach just thinking of all the wonderful produce we're going to be harvesting. 

A few days earlier I stained the outside of the planter boxes.

First off yesterday we got to moving the pile of dead sod (from a few weeks ago) to the other side of the lawn, since it was in the way of another large area of sod that John wanted removed.  He's going to be building a large sandbox for the kids in that area, and since it was rather nice outside (not too hot yet) he decided that scraping the dead sod off was the first order of business.  William got a really nice set of garden tools from some family members, so he was excited that he could use them to help!

John's new purchase was this nifty wheelbarrow.  William was there to help every step of the way!

They moved all the dead weeds and sod to the other side of the lawn, for now.  We are slowly getting rid of it in the green waste bin, but it's so heavy that only a small portion can be taken away at one time. 

Ready for the next load! 

We worked hard all morning, going pretty much non-stop.  Abby soon got my attention and said, "Abby eat.  Cheeta peas!"  (Pizza please...the "cheeta" part always confuses me, as I assume she wants "milk", but duh...she doesn't know Spanish yet!)  Anyway, I pulled the leftover pizza from the fridge and we all had a picnic of cold pizza on the picnic table.  (I really dislike cold pizza, but somehow eating it in the warm sun with my family made it taste just fine!)

Here's the finished section that we both broke our backs over.  Just kidding...it was damp enough that the dead sod pulled up fairly easily.  It's in this area that the kids will have their sandbox. 

We decided that the planter boxes needed a drain hole.  Even though it rarely rains here, when it does it's usually a monsoon.  We didn't want our precious plants washing away, so John got out his trusty drill and started making a small hole in each side of the box.  This drill is about 15 years old so it needs to be charged rather frequently.  Well, when it was charging I noticed a burning smell coming from it.  John quickly noticed that it was starting to melt.  If you blow up the picture you can see that the sides are quite warped!  Well...that just meant that yet another trip to the Hundred Dollar Store Home Depot, was in order.  He bought another drill and we were back in business!

Around 8 pm that night John had all the boxes built!  (Have I mentioned that I love that man?)  I think next week we will be mixing our compost, vermiculite, and peat moss (to those who know Mel Bartholomew - "Mel's Mix") and then planting a few things.  I can't wait!