Gardening Around the Yard and More of the Same...

The fortification now has three and a half walls and a roof. The rear top panel is not yet complete due to a change order. Suddenly we not only need a ledge to crawl up and over we also need a window to crawl through. As anyone in the business knows change equals more time and more money.

Not to worry, though.  We had some friends over on Saturday night after a full day of Katie and I slaving over this monstrosity.  It handled five under 10 kids for 4 hours and through a full meal inside.  There was lots of yelling, whooping, and hollering outside but it was very nice and quiet inside without pesky children lurking around the corner. It isn't even complete and it is already doing the job it was meant to do...

This evening I placed the order for the couple climbing wall components that we were missing from the move and we should be able to get the ledge and rear panel in place very soon. Then we will start to hunt for some roofing, siding, and window/door coverings. There's not much hurry on the last parts. It's kind of like the Death Star in Return of the Jedi. Fully functional but not quite polished.

We also planted the early parts of the garden today. The strawberry bed is ready and the plants are on the table but I knew we were in for a cold night tonight and we held off on the planting of those. We did put in peas, chard, kale, beets, radishes, leeks and chives today. I did some scouting/planning after we completed that task and sized up  the space and furniture (Tomato cages) left. It seems we still have room for two rows of corn,  two rows of carrots, a row of onions, a raised bed of lettuce and spinach,  a pot of cilantro, a pot of basil and oregano, six mounds of squash/pumpkins, nine racks of pole beans,   a raised bed for asparagus, and thirteen cages of peppers and/or tomatoes.  All that and we still have room to walk between the rows.

The boys become more adept gardeners each year.  Simon was tremendous help planting today and Finn's getting the hang of certain aspects too- like spreading steer manure. It won't be long and there should be some green sprouts out there. The boys have officially enter the bath-every-night phase of spring. Tis the season of chocolate smeared ice cream beards, dirt mustaches, sword bruises, cement scrapes, ant bites, wood splinters, sawdust in the eyes, and subterranean crust behind the ears for little boys.

Baseball practice starts tomorrow night and the eve before egg hunts is less than a few sleeps away.