So...it's been awhile...

Ooops. It seems as if I have slacked on the whole blogging thing. Not too much has happened in the last two months. The backyard looks pretty amazing. Joe, Dan and I put a lot of sweat into it! Oh and those random twelve year old boys that came to help one Saturday. Did I get your attention? Here's the story...Friday night around 8 o'clock, I'm at my normal post (the living room couch probably watching some really crappy t.v.) I see these two boys walk right up to our back door. Being the creepy person I am I yell out my window "Can I help you?" They don't seem to be to phased by this and ask, through the window, if there is any yard work that we need done. I promptly yell for Joe and he talks to the kids, pays them so they can go to the movies, and asks them to come back the following morning to work on our backyard. To my surprise they came back, apparently they came around 9 a.m. but Joe and I were still asleep so they came back around 11. Now I have to mention that I am super awkward with kids over 6, I'm just not that great at talking to them. And 12 is such a funky age anyways, your trying to act grown up but you really aren't. Anyways, these kids were very nice, talked to us about going into middle school in September, playing basketball and baseball. They worked pretty hard also (Joe ended up pretty sore the next day becuase he was "trying to keep up the momentum!). It was so funny becuase every 20 minutes or so they would get a phone call or text message, and I just could help thinking that when I was 12 the only cell phone I had ever seen was Zack Morris's from Saved by the Bell. What a difference 15 years makes. Anyways, they finished up and I just couldn't let them leave without offering them some lunch. I made them peanut butter and fluff sandwiches. Foe being so grown up on their cell phones, they showed thier true age after eating those sandwiches. I'm saying they had the best fluff faces I have seen in a long time (and I work with 4 year olds)! The one that talked all ghetto had the biggest one, I went in and got him a wet paper towel just so he could wash his face off! All in all it was a pretty pleasant experience.

Not sure if I mentioned Joe's plan for getting rid of all the organic material in the backyard. He decided to make a compost heap at the back of our property. We made piles of weeds, leaves, pine needles and sticks and hauled them to the back on a tarp (who needs a wheelbarrow?). The big logs that Joe cut up were the base and everything got piled on top. It has to be at least 4ft tall. It has worked out great so far and hopefully by next year we can make some sort of gardening area out of it.

Speaking of gardening...I have to be honest and tell you that my garden somewhat failed. I don't feel too bad becuase I have heard rumors that a lot of peoples gardens failed this summer (except for our "farmer" neighbor's garden...he must have given us 10lbs of tomatoes!). I got two tomatoes, a few peppers and my basil did well. The cucumbers and squash didn't do much at all. Oh well, there is always next year.

Three woodpeckers.

Junk found in our backyard.