Yay us!

So, I'm trying to do better blogging and have been doing a much better job (hey, I've blogged more this week than I did last year!) I'm sure most of my dedicated readers (heh, that's funny) have long given up on me, but hopefully, they'll stumble back in someday.

Had to share our little accomplishment. Sunday, Paul and I built two raised beds, super simple to do. We got three 6x8s, cut one in half (two sides of the rectangle) and cut the other two off a couple of feet. We were originally going to just go with the 8 foot length, but it was freakin' huge. We then cut down a 4x4 (6 inches tall) and then used that as an inside support and screwed everything together. It turned all stupid cold on Sunday so we ended up constructing them in the garage and them moving them out. After placing them and mapping out the MASSIVE garden area, we thought it looked asymmetrical and so decided we wanted one more raised bed to balance it out. This works fine for me, more room to grow stuff. So we got the three done, but by then it was a little too late to take a picture (and I was freezing my lady parts off). As it's been raining off and on for the last couple of days, today was the first rain-free day that wasn't cold. Amazingly, it was like 60 degrees and sunny. So after work, Paul and I hit the raised beds and cleaned them out of all the grass. It was hard on my poor ol' out of shape body and my hands are achy right now. But it's always so satisfying to see it nice and clean. Paul also got a temporary fence to place around the garden to keep those darn puppies out. Here's some pics!!


Pretty beds. Well, except for all that problematic grass in the middle of them.


Close up of the bed. Notice the fine craftsmanship inherent in this raised bed design. Yes, it really is just slapped together.


After the hard work. Paul is moving the all the tools back to the garage. The good news is as we were digging, we found TONS of earthworms.


All the beautiful virginal earth. Now, we just need to add in about 6-7 inches of topsoil and we're set. I'm pretty sure this is one of the reasons gardening is so satisfying for me. Instant results :)


Here's the ghetto fence to keep the dogs out. Is anyone else thinking what I'm thinking? How freakin' HUGE is that garden? My neighbors have an even bigger one and I have no clue how they keep up.


This picture slays me. He looks so regal. That's my Toby boy watching over his kingdom.


Now Brody girl on the other hand, is just so darn cute.


This is my proof of a couple of hours of hard, manual labor. I am SO not cut out for this. On a side note, that piece of metal is one of the many wonderous things we find in our backyard. I'm pretty sure once we start tilling, we have GOT to find at least one dead body.

Belinda