Garden Beds

With painting finally done, I now have time to start getting to other chores around the house.  My big project was to construct raised beds for a vegetable garden on the side of the house.  First I had to clear out some bushes that were in the way and then mix up soil to fill them.  This week I need to install a watering system to make keeping them watered through the dry parts of the summer.  I'm borrowing from our friend's, Sheri and Bruno, watering approach and using soaker hoses but those all need to be cut and fitted into the small beds we put in.  Jo and I did plant some peas on Sunday so hopefully in a few weeks we will have some green shoots - assuming that warm weather returns.  Since we are now starting our vegetables again you can expect to see many pictures of our attempts to grow green leafy plants - stay tuned!

I also installed motion sensor outdoor lights by the garage so that it isn't so dark when we pull at night.  When the wood for the raised beds was delivered, I also got wood to construct a workbench in the basement (my big project for this week).  Lastly, we installed a honeycomb blind on our bedroom window to try it out.  All-in-all, the house is coming together.  Fortunately, the number of really large chores is winding down.
For the weekend, we spent Friday night relaxing at home as Jo had a relatively busy and stressful week at work.  Then Saturday morning we got up early and headed over to Madison to spend the weekend with Kathy.  While there we looked at a condo on lake Mendota as a possible place to live down the road.  Unfortunately, it wasn't right for us but it was fun to see it and caused hours of speculation on what we could do with the place if our money was infinite (as you can tell from the recent news reports, we didn't when the Mega-Millions jackpot, although we tried).  The rest of the weekend was visiting with family and several of Kathy's friends.  All to soon it was time to head back home late Sunday.  But we had a great Easter brunch. 

Monday, I headed to Chicago (hence the reason this blog is a little later than usual) to visit with my Mother and sister.  We caught up on all the family news and gossip - well my sister and I gossiped, my Mom doesn't believe in participating (what fun is that).  We enjoyed a great lunch at Water Tower Place before heading back on the train to home.