What's goin' on

This goes back to what we did on the 4th of July as a family and what Anne took on alone just slightly before that. We redid the front of the house a lot. The flowerbed is good now (soft and nice soil instead of hard clay--also no more of those lousy overgrown bushes and myrtle).


Pre:Post (the half dead ash tree went away in December--there is a newly-planted yellow curly willow to the left of the stump now,but it is hard to see in this picture):Joel helped a lot!
Joel fell into the dirt just after we watered it. It is a good thing that kids are so rubbery--he fell in a way that made us think he might have been hurt. He did not move for at least 5 seconds (an oddity for a 17 month old) and then said "boooooom!" and started laughing. Joel is really cool like that. He doesn't mind the small stuff (usually). Plus, I just love this expression.
The arbor in the backyard is in final form and I am shaping the grapes to be a proper vine now. We have a sweet hammock back there now too.
I made Joel a gravel box after seeing how cool Todd's was. This is not art like Todd's was, but it gets the job done of being play-with-able. Joel seems to like it! Thanks to Ryan for the decking scraps and help! (That is the neighbor's kid in the picture--our backyards adjoin and he comes over when things are more exciting in our yard than his).
I think I can say that the long list of "must dos" is down to little or nothing. As fun as these projects and such are, I cannot wait to get into this dissertation in a way that I haven't been able to for at least a month or two now.