May 2013 - Front Yard Makeover

For a long time, I have been wanting to get the garden bed at the front of the house in shape.   Lots of weeds, heat, and dry dirt has determined what would go here.  The faucet on the garage was finally fixed and now the garden can get some much needed water for the hotter days to come. 

Evan and I got this done for around $100.  The cost of the rocks was more than I expected, but needed them for when the gutter overflows on heavy rain days.  This helps with erosion.  We dug up the weeds and planted a few things after moving the forsythia and holly bush that are now in better locations. 

Evan and I picked out three dwarf evergreens that are not suppose to get very tall, eight feet maximum, some pretty purple flowers that didn't last even a week, and a variegated holly bush.  We kept the lilies, pretty orange flowers and the St. John's Wart from my mom's yard.  Then, we laid down a soaker hose and covered everything up with a weed liner, mulch and rocks.

May 2, 2013 - SNOW!?

 Yes!  Snow.  Kansas City's last snow for the season is May 2nd.  Long winter, I guess.

 Pixie is not amused.  It is cold.

April 25, 2013 - New Blooms and Growth

 Peach Tree ( Did not know we had one!)

Sugar Snap Pea Shoots

Day Lilies in the Butterfly Garden

Magnolia Bush in Full Bloom

Tulips in the Front Yard

Forsythia Bush that was moved from the front of the house to the side yard.

Red Bud Tree that Survived the Winter

April 12, 2013 - Inheritance of a HO Scale Train Setup

My dad loved his trains.  He had a 8x12 shed he dedicated it to.  All the decorations were created by hand or came from a kit he put together and painted. The walls were painted with a cool mountainous scenery, the waterways were made of a clear poxy that looks so realistic, and the trees and bushes if you look closely, are made from grape stems.

Three years after my father passed and the shed is falling apart, so my mom and I hunkered down in the cold weather and dissembled the handmade table he put up to hold his scenery and transported it to my house.

Once dissembled,  my mom and I put it on the back of a Penske Truck along with the rest of the stuff I inherited from my Grandmother.

Now it resides in my Garage awaiting a new home for it to be resurrected.  Hopefully it will not be too long before that happens.  There is no room to move around in the garage.

April 1, 2013 - Spring Clean Up!!!

This year we are having a later start on our garden compared to last year.  I'm OK with that.  I love the snow!  Nevertheless, I am ready for our garden to get going and get us out of this dreary brown state.

It is interesting to see what has survived:

Kale and Arugula is growing on the backside of the raised garden.

On the inside of the Raised Garden, Leeks and Green Onions are growing beautifully!

In the Butterfly Garden, the Day Lilies and Lamb's Ear is coming back.

Here is a nice close up of the Leeks.

Baby Carrots anyone?

After a good clean up inside the bed, I rearranged the soaker hose to insure that everything gets a good dose of water in the summer heat this year.

The Mint had grown all over the garden, into the walkways, the main bed and even over to the Butterfly Garden.  I cleared it back as this will take over anyone's garden if it is not tended to properly.

It won't be long before the grass next to our yard is taller than the fence and ours will need to be mowed more than I want to.

Panda is definitely enjoying the nice April weather we are having as I clean the garden.

February 26, 2013 - SNOW!!!

It's a beautiful morning to wake up and see this!  The temperature out side was on the freezing line and it had been raining the night before, so the snow was sticking to everything.  If you can tell by the snow plow scraped snow, the city had finally cleared our street less than 6 hours before this all fell. 

 Evan managed to have a cook out today as well.  Not really.  =]

As the snow melted off the trees and things that hung over the snow, it left a really neat pattern in the snow.  It sounded really cool when it fell too.

February 21, 2013 - SNOW DAY!!!! Plus Office Makeover - Update!

Kansas City is shut down!  I have an official snow day from work with 9 inches of snow to keep people of the street - well, most of them! Ha!

After playing in the snow for a while, Evan and I got to work on the office.  We were anxious to get the tile put up after we had put in the sink.