Friday, April 13, 2012

Tate Is My New Hero

We're total amateurs, but we're hoping to put in a garden this year.  In this space.  I know, you probably can't tell the size, but those are rail road ties, along the sides, for reference.  Kerry rototilled it last fall, but this morning it was completely covered with dandelions, chickweed, and who knows what else.


Tate weeded the whole thing in less than two hours.

Now, that boy is not afraid to work hard, but he also uses his head.  Since there's nothing planted yet, he just hauled over the big screen box (for sifting out rocks), set it up on saw horses, shoveled all the weeds in and screened them.  And spread the dirt piles back out.  (The lighter bits are hay, from cleaning out the rabbit hutches.)

Yep.  He's my hero today!

As I went outside to check his work, I startled three obnoxious pests, and had to chase them out of the yard.


I know, I know.  You probably think they're cute, right?


Wrong.  They're pests.  PESTS, I tell you.  And they're insolent.  This doe has led her two yearlings just far enough down the street to smirk at me, from the neighbor's yard.  She'll be back.


Look what she's done, already.  Fortunately, the flowers hadn't budded yet - they still have a chance.


The deer were in the front, about to have a go at my hydrangea.  I haven't seen a bloom on that poor bush since the year I planted it.  But this year is going to be different.  If I can keep myself supplied with Liquid Fence, and we can tolerate the pungent process.  *sigh*


My little flowers are depending on me.  (The deer have missed these, so far.)

And there is plenty of work to be done...


I had potatoes growing here previously, but the creeping buttercups and feverfew are taking over.


And this montbrecia will be beautiful, if I'll just clear out last year's dead leaves (and a bit of garbage the wind blew in.)  And with the sun shining, it's time to get out and do it.

In other good news,  Gunnar and I had a productive trip to the library this morning.


Now that's a happy sight, isn't it?

But wait, there's more.

Grandma Grasshopper dropped by unexpectedly with a gift for me.  Two, actually.  Guess what she picked up at Value Village?

(Picture from last Christmas.)

Four Kosta Boda snowballs - two for each of us.  Thanks, Mom :D

6 comments:

melanie said...

Well done, Tate. I heard via my south-of-Seattle friend y'all had sunshine today ~ Looks like you're making good use of it! {We got rain - yAy! - for our happy, growing grass seed}

Must be deer hunting season?

Love those candles!

Felicity said...

Lovely candles!!
Yay for Tate!
Unfortunately I do think the deer are cute... :-/

Anonymous said...

You big tease! You can't take a photo of the library books with their spines not visible!!! How are we supposed to drool over your finds???

Way to go to the weeding master and yeah . . . I think the deer are cute, but not cute enough to allow to eat my plants.

Venison? ;)

Doug Hibbard said...

Your pests are screaming for either a crossbow in the night or a suppressed .300 Whisper with a night vision scope.

Crossbow is probably cheaper and does not require an extra background check.

Doug

Choate Family said...

What a productive day! Two of my favorite things - working outside and gathering good books :-)

dlefler said...

Oh, wow - that is a lot of work. Tate is brilliant for using the screen/shovel method of clearing weeds. I should have done that with our flower bed (the one lacking bulbs) - and I might do it with our raised beds that still need to be cleared out!

Good luck with the Liquid Fence. I pretend that I don't know how to work the sprayer when it comes to that stuff! It really does work, though - we sprayed our apple trees before we left on vacation.