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Good Things


Happy St. Patrick's Day, everyone! I'm not Irish, but my husband does have Irish heritage.

I plan on making Sheppherd's Pie this weekend...b/c I love him. My ultimate goal is to find a way to make this recipe healthy! (Shhhh don't tell him.....)

What have we been up to lately? Well, let's just say from Friday - Wednesday.....23 hours have been spent getting our back yard set up! In addition to the 23 hours of gardening, I sneaked in 48 hours worth of work in that time, too!

Yep, we've been busy! But now I have Wednesday-Sunday night OFF. Free! So life is good.

So remember when we moved , and our back yard looked dram like this?......


Well, Friday morning -- we woke up and I decided to don my garden gear and we were going to get to work! We headed to the green house & Home Depot and got flowers, vegetables, soil, mulch, the works.


Our flower beds hadn't been TOUCHED in about 2 years (our previous home owners gave up on the back yard when they had kids...according to our land-lord).
This is the desert! So the soil is hard enough, that sometimes a jack-hammer would be appropriate to break up the ground! We shoveled and shoveled away breaking out the ground. I picked rocks out the ground...one....by.....one....

This was tedious...needless to say.

But finally I got to plant! I planted, Ryan poured mulch - and life was good!  PS - it was like 85 degrees out during this ordeal.

Then, @ 3pm, I decided I should probably come indoors and get hydrated since I had to work that night. Meaning 24+ hours of no sleep. Kind of dumb...but I refuse to let night shit ruin my quality of life!

Well, I got home Saturday morning, and decided to sleep a few hours - and while I slept, Ryan broke up the ground. When I awoke, I went for a nice 5 mile run -- and then spent the rest of the day helping Ryan lay sod!

And here is the results! (There's been more of a long-process to all this...but I'm really lacking the energy to go into depth about this...) So here's pictures!



 
Grass!!! You wouldn't believe how much time we've spent on this little patch of grass to keep it perfect and hydrated....

Petunias, assylums!





Tomatoes, bell peppers, basil, & yellow squash

Marigolds, daisies, geraniums, rununculus, candytuft!....This would be such a nice picture if Ryan didn't take it while I was planting.

We also are "cross breeding" habeneros & anaheim peppers. Nerdy experiment on our part. And we have strawberries & mint in pots.

I'm so excited! If we had a bigger yard to work with...I could do this as a full time job. I LOVE it.

And now..............I'm going to leave you with my big news of the week! ........................


I am pleased to annouce my request has been granted, and I am being moved to DAY SHIFT!

Meaning I won't go 2 days/week with 24+ sleepless hours......I will get to see my husband more than 3 days/week......and I'll just be an all around happier lady!
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Comments

Marlys said…
Your hard work has paid off - looks so nice and will only get more beautiful with time! That is hard work, though! Now you just need some nice slow gentle spring rains to make everything grow! I'm so glad you got moved to the day shift! That is the best news of all!
March 17, 2011 at 8:21 AM
Amber said…
I love your backyard! Awesome!!! I was really hoping to get a townhouse with a backyard big enough that I could have a small garden, but no such luck. I will probably still grow cherry tomatoes and strawberries like I did last year though!

Oh, and congrats on getting moved to day shift! That sounds SO much better :)
March 17, 2011 at 9:02 AM
Mama Nastase said…
Congrats on the day shift!! So excited for you to have a more normal schedule!

I also LOVE what you've done with the backyard!! It looks fabulous! When I was pregnant with Sophia, dad and I tried to grow grass from seed in our yard on base. We spent two days breaking through the hard, cement-like soil...so I know how hard you guys worked! Sod is a great idea, instant gratification!!
March 17, 2011 at 10:14 AM
Jess said…
Sometimes just reading your blog makes me tired! Ha!! I am seriously impressed by how motivated and hardworking you are.

Congrats on getting moved to the day shift. You must be so happy!! Being able to sleep and seeing your husband on a regular basis are both very, very good things!
March 17, 2011 at 1:12 PM
Kelly (She Wears a Red Sox Cap) said…
The backyard looks awesome! AND I am sooo happy for you that you got switched to day shifts, yay!
March 17, 2011 at 2:43 PM
Lisa's Yarns said…
Wow - your backyard looks awesome! It is sort of unrecognizable compared to what you started with. Your hard work def paid off!

And yea for being switched to days. That is really going to improve your quality of life!
March 17, 2011 at 4:24 PM
Unknown said…
Hurray for the day shift!!!

Great results. The pictures of progress remind me of one of those projects on HGTV!!
March 18, 2011 at 7:26 AM
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