spoiler alert: clay and hatchet are villains

ok, truth?

i went to school with the boys and they went nuts over freedom in the courtyard! they ran and explored...

while i 'set up shop' (rolled the dolly with wood on it around to the place where i needed to build the raised bed). rolling a heavy dolly with no sight line of the wheels was a test of my maneuvering ability. i got it around the curves in the sidewalk without losing any wood, and without the wheels falling off the sidewalk. (who's the winner? MEEE!!!)

once i was in place, i stood there and looked at "ALL THAT WOOD." oh goodness. what have i gotten myself into? it's kinda like when you decide you want to eat something and your eyes are bigger than your stomach. then i shook it off and wondered where to begin. so logically i began with the posts. i spent way too long trying to use the hatchet that i had purchased and the points that it produced were shoddy at best.(this is what happens when you use a dull hatchet blade..oops).

so i ditched that effort after two janky posts and decided to turn the compost-i had to put the dogs in their pen while i did that because i was worried they would come over and try to jump in the pile... and get bitten by the ants that currently reside there decaying our dead stuff. then i spent a good portion of the rest of the afternoon trying to clean up the flower bed around the gazebo, which took forever because i had to dig up the irrigation hoses so that they were above ground.  once i finished that, i was kinda' a muddy mess. but i still needed a whet stone to try to sharpen the hatchet.

so we went to home depot.

while bruno was shouting "GO FASTER!!" chaco was pleading to go slower.

 i tried to sharpen the hatchet, but the next day-it wasn't any better. boo. so i resorted to a saw that a friend lent me to cut down a sapling. i was able to create somewhat of points/edges...enough to get them into the ground anyway.

 once all of the posts were ready, i pulled out the post digger, the pick, the shovel and eventually a small hand shovel. time to dig holes. i forgot that soil here is 99%clay, 1%pride...CLAY IS MY NEW NEMESIS!!!! cursed be the clay. my dad suggested that i double what stood above the ground...that would've meant a 30 inch deep hole...umm..once i started digging, i was defeated about 2 inches down. there was no way i was getting 30 inches into this ground! it was a mess. i was a mess.

since the holes weren't going to be 30 inches, no way, no how...i took the next best measure. i cut them to size. so now i would only have to dig a 15 inch hole. this was more feasible, only slightly less difficult. 15 might as well have been 30. when i finally got the posts in, i set the bottom boards up to make sure that there was going to be no issues. at this point, there had better be no issues.

day two finished.

day three: all i had left to do was screw the boards into the posts. and that's what i was kinda thinking...screw the boards. so pulled my little drill out of the closet. and it had no charge. i'm pretty sure it didn't have a charge the last time i charged it. i should have just spent the money on a good one the first time around. but i don't drill enough things. so i went to the store and purchased a 20v black and decker matrix. i then had to return home to charge the battery...it took about 4 hours, but i was able to get back up to the garden before they shut the building down!

 i finished one raised bed-two more to go. i think i will be getting some student volunteers to help me out with the next two. (no hatchet...or anything that might damage limb or phalanges). 

 once that was done, i knew that the custodial staff was going to need the dolly, so i unloaded the wood onto some pavers under the awning and figured i'd come back with a tarp. weeeeellllll.....i really didn't want to come back, so instead, i looked around my office to see if i could find something to cover up the wood. i DID! i found some fancy table cloths that worked just fine, then i brought the cart back in and said goodbye to judy, our head custodial person in our building. she said she wasn't sure if she would be back on monday or in her new building. so i may have been the last person at cabell to see her for the last time. (we'll see come monday).

all of that and to be quite honest, i am surprised that i am still moving! hatchet, sawing and digging muscles are just not used nearly enough! forget the gym...garden and build! not only is it a workout, you get your vitamin d AND nothing beats the feeling of being productive!

go forth and be productive~
julie

p.s. the best part so far was watching the boys play! this was the first time that we play outside and when i throw chaco's toy, he fetches it...whenever we are outside, he is usually too distracted to play fetch. so i tried again when we went to our little dog park here at the complex and he was all about it-we've had a break through! from now on, the dog park will be much more fun!

dueling dogs and a hatchet job

let me start by saying that i was so relieved when i saw that one of my friends had posted something shortly after the news about the missing malaysia flight. one of my friends has been in asia traveling around and that type of news is just a little too close for comfort!

so now that that's out of the way, where to begin, where to begin...i never learn my lesson: that when i don't write for a long period of time, i have a whole lot to share.
what better time to catch up than at the beginning of spring break?!

so, one thing that happened awhile back was that i went to my 2nd semester real school gardens coordinator meeting. because i arrived early enough, they allowed us to go in to see the butterfly garden. i absolutely LOVED it!! the best part was that the sights and smells were tropical and very familiar! when i saw this butterfly, it reminded me of the times that i got to go with another missionary family out to the river, and catch butterflies, of the beautiful fluorescent blue variety.

while there, we went through a training on natural resources, one of those being sandstone, and making paint from the powder, and we made some native american messages:

i'm pretty sure this had something about the woman capturing the man...some discussion, and then i hope they used the fire to cook something else and that it was not a heated discussion that ended ugly...but i don't recall.

while there, i picked up potatoes and onions. we are doing the smart potatoes program-which means that we will be donating potatoes to the north dallas food center. they also informed us that we could pick up warm weather plants when we return from spring break.

when i found out all of the plants that they will have for us, i really wanted more space...i have never loved gardening, but now that we have one, and the produce is plentiful, it's really been kinda fun. so in order to get more space, i am going to venture to build three new beds over the break. i am going in tomorrow and we'll see how much we get done (we being i...the boys will come with me and explore a little and romp around, but they aren't very good with tools). and speaking of tools, i asked dad what he suggested to put a point on the posts, and he suggested a hatchet.

so i stopped in to walmart yesterday because where else can you get a hatchet, spaghetti squash, greens, a book and a hatchet in one stop? so i went to the sporting goods section, and i had to look and see if they had the ammo i needed-i wasn't holding my breath, because they are always out of 9mm. but they had it!! what?! so i found someone to find someone with keys to the cabinet. i was contemplating my good luck and apparently in all the contemplating i forgot the ketchup-which i didn't notice until i was in the checkout line. and then i spotted it. the lady in front of me had just what i needed:

i was close enough to snatch it, but i refrained. i really kinda wanted to, though. good thing my parents raised me right.

 when i got up to the checkout, the lady checker rang up the ammo and then saw the hatchet and i already knew what was coming before she said it. "no one's gonna mess with you!"

 

when we were kids, my parents would have probably been on the cps most wanted list because we used to chop tree limbs with the hatchet, trim the lawn with the machete and play with fake guns all of the time! the fact that my dad did teach us how to use a hatchet will come in handy tomorrow!

also planned for this week: make an appointment with the passport peeps.

 it will be good to put a fun trip together.

i know that you're all wondering, but i did see manny at school the other day. and it reminded me of this song (take a listen)...and that song always reminds me of the joke (kristi canady reminded me of) why did the elephant paint his toenails green? to hide in the lime tree...

it's manny!! in the first grade mardi gras float!

 and then there was the day that was beautiful out, so i took the boys to the park and we sat for awhile and just enjoyed the view...and the boys reenacted a duel. they pretended that they were vice president burr and alexander hamilton..

yep, they make me laugh!

i thought that the book i purchased would last longer....i finished it early today. i guess that's what i get for reading a book meant for teenagers. i require books that need some chewing. (apart from the academic books). i really need to reread NOT A FAN-that may be a goal. yep, i just set a goal. it's going to be a lovely, productive spring break!

julie