Demolition Weekend

This weekend has been all about household improvements, some long overdue ones.  Chris wanted to put in some cabling in the living room to boost the electrical flow into the room as well as bring in the network cord since that's where he does a lot of his photo editing (and so I don't have to trip over the cord snaking its way from his room in the back of the house to the living room in the front of the house).  In addition to the massive amount of work that went into doing that, he also installed one of our rain barrels.  Right now it's smurf blue, and I'm thinking I should spray paint that before it fills up...another project...

My project this weekend was to clear out the grapevines that were taking over the yard past the fence in back (I was informed those vines have been there for at least 25 years and some of the roots we pulled up proved that!).  I foolishly didn't take a picture beforehand so you could see how you couldn't see any ground in the back anymore because of the grapevine, but I do have one from much earlier in the summer:

 
Here is what it looks like now:

I definitely could not have done it alone - my parents both came down and my mom helped me tear out the grapevines and my dad helped Chris with the wiring.  Thank you!!!!  The great thing about the Ramsey County compost sites is that anyone who lives in Ramsey County can get free mulch when it's available, and luckily they had a bunch available this week.  My mom and I put a thin layer out back where we cleared everything out and I put a thin layer around the bed against the garage so the dirt doesn't keep splattering up when it rains.  It looks so much better, and I'm planning to get a lot more as I do more and more projects around the yard.

I'm pretty tired and really really dirty at the moment, but I am so glad this project got finished.  It's so great to have this feeling of accomplishment.  I am going to post the small lilacs shown in the picture about on Craigslist (unless any of you out there would like them).  They are all healthy, but they were planted in a silly place and I have all the lilacs I need on the other side of the fence.  My mom graciously offered to give me some of her Stellas to plant in back (they look like short lilies with yellow flowers that bloom all season and have great foliage).  It is going to look fantastic!

I was also really excited to find out that we have a chickadee!  That was one of the few birds I could easily identify as a kid and I love the look of them, but I hadn't seen one here until this weekend.

I also walked around to find some more plants blooming:

Blooms

My experiment with the garden is going well in certain respects and not-so-well in others.  The wild lupine is gone.  It couldn't handle the direct afternoon sunlight.  But the columbine is doing really well and has grown quite a bit.  In the other bed, the bee balm is huge compared to when I got it.  The butterfly weed tried to make me think it had died, but it has come back quite well.  I think it was taken it's time establishing its roots.  And the coneflower is looking beat up because Banjo likes to go through the bed and the rain pounds it down, but it's still growing.

The lilies are blooming too, and it's not a surprise that I love the color!

My indoor plants are doing well also:

Happy 4th

Banjo is not so happy.  He doesn't like the sounds of the fireworks.  He is staying extremely close to Chris and I and won't even go explore outside.  He said, "No thanks."

Chris is "enjoying" the new Super Mario Bros game for the Wii.  I say enjoying in quotes because he seems a bit frustrated with himself at times, and I'm learning my wifely duties by not saying anything.  Sorry for ratting you out Topher! 

I've been getting some knitting done.  I knit a cute little baby hat (looks like a pumpkin), finished a Nalgene bottle holder I started on back in March, and started on another project.  But what I have to balance it against is watching The Wire.  We're on the last season, and while this season hasn't been as gripping as previous seasons, it's still a damn good show.  I've been seeing a lot of the same kinds of budget crises as what happens at the City.  It's really interesting.   

Happy 4th!