Our table. Doesn't my wife make everything look so cool.
The new tub is done today. When we first arrived for our Summer Vacation we didn't have hot water or a shower or much of a house for that matter, but on our way out we got to remember the good ol' days. A lot of other things happend today as well but it is just tiny details that no one would probably notice except for us. They all add up however. Why is it that we are willing to live with some things but when it comes time to selling we want everything just so?
So the wonderful Aqua Glass tub we purchased from Lowes wasn't so wonderful after all. See all the reviews at Lowes own website: http://www.lowes.com/pd_184824-332-39264L_0_?productId=1052649&Ntt=aqua glass tub&Ntk=i_products&Ns=p_product_quantity_sold0&pl=1¤tURL=/pl__0__s?newSearch=true$Ntt=aqua glass tub$y=12$x=45
After a bit I was able to put the new tub in place today.
I recut new tile and glued it all up. Tomorrow I will grout it all and those dark lines will go away. So anyway if you want to purchase a tub for $200 and then rip it out and buy a different tub you should really check into the Aqua Glass products. They stink! 
So today being Saturday there were two of us to work in the garden. My bride planted the entire first row. I dug out all the grass and put down newspaper and fabric in between the rows. I found an article about my neighbors son getting married here in June.
You may notice the strawberries just a little crooked. That is because strawberries do best if you center them 183 degrees from the North. You have to use a good compass to be sure you are placing the bed this way and you have to believe pigs fly if you think that story is true. I just made the bed crooked for no apparent reason.
Some beautiful radishes that we ate for lunch. We have a great salad twice a day right from the back yard.
Here are some of the final tulips on the kitchen table.
Here is the house today and when we first got it.
I put down a ton of bark today to keep the weeds away.
Here is a little path that I made from some bricks that use to go around the strawberries. Now we just walk right to the car rather than around the front of the yard.
Four different types of tomatoes were planted today. We put the yogurt containers with the bottom cut out over them. This keeps the birds from taking the starts and building a nest with them. Look in the background and you will see robins. I took the leaves off the large bed today. Last year I put alot of compost on the bed and then dumped leaves on top. I then put a netting over the bed to hold the leaves down. It was a nice surprise to find what kind of dirt we had this spring under all those leaves. It is the best I have ever seen. The stuff they write garden books about.
Here is the garden today. 
When we first came down here on our Summer vacation we purchased a can of oops paint for the outside of the back porch. Today while looking at the wisteria I thought I had better get that arbor painted as it was only a few inches from latching on. So the oops paint went on and here is the results. Not bad for $5.
So we returned from our 4 days in Minnesota and Wisconsin. We sure do miss it up there. Spring up there has just started but here I think we are going right into Summer. The strawberries flowered while we were away. The tulips are singing the last song
and the lettuce bed is so big, we could feed the neighborhood with it all.
On Easter my wife and I saw this bed in a dumpster. At least the head board part above. Then we had these slats from another bed and I put two and two together today.
The stakes are to hold it while the cement dries.
It's only partially primered. I do not know what color it will be as of yet. We planted Wisteria last year on either side of it. They are growing so I figured I better get something for them to grow on. It is 8' tall and 6' wide. I think it will do the trick 
So today I installed a new fence along the back of the property. My wife had taken an old chain link fence and used metal rods and such to prop a make shift up. I then took a piece of the old kitchen cabinets and made a gate along with some terrible wire stuff. It was awful but we got use to it. Today I purchased the poles and used the front fencing to replace our previous attempt.
This is how our garden grows today. The potatoes popped up this morning.
Early this morning I took these shots of our front yard.
I swept the driveway of rocks and sand yesterday. I am going to redue the black top. This house was in such trouble two years ago. We still have a ways to go but wow. People stop in their cars and tell us how nice the house looks. I think they remember the last 30 years and how this place was not treated right.
So today we got out into the front yard and pulled out a ton of onion grass. I have tilled this stuff under twice but it just thanks you for it and multiplies. If you left this stuff on the tar street on the hottest day of the year I think you would just make it tender. So from 8am to 6pm we pulled and sifted dirt to make sure we got it all. (I can just hear the onion grass laugh as I type that last line.) Then we ripped out the prison like fence. Boo Boo will be regulated to the backyard from now on. Actually the middle yard since the back of the yard has a fence to keep him out of the garden.
Also this being the day before Easter the tulips have started their chorus.
This fireworks show is ending this week.
Our baby lettuce, radishes, carrots, onions, chives, shallots are coming in very nicely.
Today the apple trees budded out too!
After 4 days of work one side of the wall is just about done. I still have to use a pastry bag and mortar the cracks so water won't split it apart.
The neighbor came by and wondered where we got all those rocks. I guess he isn't a gardener in Missouri because "rocks is all we got!"
Then of course there is this little fireworks display going on next to the house. The fragrance is awesome. 
So today because there is not enough projects going on, I ripped out one side of the front retaining wall made of Green treated timbers and have begun to build a 20" field stone wall. It will take most of the summer to do both sides of the house but it won't rot like wood and will give the house a nice look.
The side I am working on is on the right. The old timbers are piled in front.
Here are some bulbs starting the show that we planted last year.
Friday it was 68 degrees and we were working away in the garden. Today 7 inches of snow and now an addtional inch of ice is falling from the sky. The good news is it will be 68 degrees again next Friday.
Before my bride and I were together she found this chair which we have had a green blanket thrown over. Today I decided we need to re do this chair. It is a well built chair, so I figured I could rip the fabric off it in an hour or so.
I did find out it was a well built chair and that at least five other times this chair has been redone as the multitude of fabrics left in the back show.
So rather than having this chair done in a day I brought it back into the house to sit proudly where it was until next weekend. You are welcome to sit in it now but I bet the springs will pinch.
Because it was 72 today I thought I would take advantage of the nice day and replace the rocks with wood. I also leveled the beds out so when it rains the water does flow like a river down hill but is on a nice flat surface.
A little more than a week ago we started our seeds for the garden. We have been saving toilet paper tubes to put them inside the orange juice bottles we have been saving as well. The seeds are popping up which is always fun to see. It is hard to imagine some of these seedlings will become 6 feet tall and provide pounds of food for us. When they are ready to go in the ground we will just take the whole toilet paper tube and stick it in the ground. The tube will encourage the roots to grow deep so the seedlings will not get root bound. Then we will take the orange juice bottom and place them over the seedlings for a green house to protect them from the cold and birds who like to pull our early crop out to use for nesting material.
This weekend we started to garden once again. Yeah! It was so nice to get outside. We are replacing all the rock with wood. I made two new beds this weekend as well. Each bed takes a full day to dig and sift through the rock, glass shards, nails and whatever else comes up. Mostly rocks. After sifting the dirt out we add sand, soil, compost. The bed on the left had potatoes put in already. Saint Patrick's day is when you are suppose to put them in but I looked at the weather until then and saw it was going to be in the 60's.
The bed closest here has had the rock removed and the wood put around it. The chives and shallots are doing well already.
This is what our soil starts like. This is also why it takes a day to dig a 2" x 8' hole 16" deep and remove all that foreign matter. The rocks we are saving and I will show you what we are doing with them after it is done. People go to the store and buy landscaping rocks around here. The ground is nothing but rocks here. (I know I am missing something.)
I have been wanting to build a better compost bin for a while now. This week I also got this done. The font above is the old base board moldings from the house. They slide right in and out so it is easy now to remove or flip the compost.
This is the back of the bin. About every five days I will go out and put all the compost in the other side with the bags of leaves in it. Then five days latter flip it again. I can make pretty good dirt in two months this way. It is a 48" x 48" x 48" pile so it gets pretty hot. A lot of people might say this is a lot of work but I say work is going to an office every day. This is fun and it doesn't cost anything. Plus we get dirt for the garden and my wife is happy.
