Don't complain when YOUR teen just wants to hang out and play playstation. It's easier on your back.

Next to our house, between the driveway and the house is this little odd "space". It has a sidewalk around it on 3 sides, and it's where our AC unit sits.

It's kind of a neglected area. First, I wanted to plant a lot of flowers there, that would bloom year after year, with me doing little work. *that's a good idea folks*

But the down side to that, is that it's very expensive, so my plan was to add a little each year. Which, to be fair, I've done that. However, Neither Gene nor Tanner really like to mow that area - you just can't get the mower in there and both of them piss and moan about weed trimming. I maintain that I wash most of the laundry, make most of the meals, do most of the cleaning of the house, come on... a little mowing won't hurt the lil' boys. :p

Plus don't get me started on the whole liatris flower debacle from last year.

A couple weeks, Tanner comes to me and says "You know, we should just cover this whole area with landscape fabric, and cover it with mulch. Little did I know, he MEANT IT. I actually caved and bought some landscape fabric. One day about a week ago, he came home from school and disappeared outside.

He's beyond that age where when he goes quiet I need to check on him, but now I wonder if that's not a mistake.

He was outside cutting away at landscape fabric covering this 7' x 33' garden area. DAMMIT.

Somehow this means I'm going to have to do some work. Now that it's started, I wanted it to be finished for family coming this coming weekend. Tanner and I hit it hard on Sunday (Saturday was spent running around trying to find guttering for the house - but we'll talk about that later). Tanner even informed me *do not let me sleep late* (which I usually do, because he's a growing teenage boy... and well... if he sleeps more, he eats less. That's my theory anyway).

So Tanner starts digging holes, and I start cutting pickets. Yep, we're gonna build a fence around this thing - why? Because chickens Looooooooove mulch. They scratch every bit of it out until it's gone - looking for bugs ya know.

This is my chop saw. And when I say "my" I mean it. I actually asked for it for Christmas 3 years ago and Gene bought it for me. The next year, I asked for an ELECTRIC nailer (not an air nailer since I don't have a compressor). I got an air nailer.

Air nailer is still in the box. FYI.

This year I'm asking for a compressor. HA. Carrying it back and forth from the shed will teach that man not to listen.

So anyway, Our total budge for this project was exactly $3.75. (we're over budget btw), so we're using a lot of things we already own... like a huge pile of wood I've had for 3 years now). The up side? CHEAP! The down side? Lots of cutting, priming and painting. Lots.

Like scads of cutting - 112 pickets plus a few more for good measure. Then I have to paint them - both sides. Oh, then I get to install them. Yay me!

So here we are, about a 1/3 of the way finished. All those pickets need to be installed (I could only get 14 in today), a gate has to be made (Oh Tanner!) and the mulch has to go in. Oh, did I mention that I have about 75 bulbs to be planted? yeah that.

Now don't think that Gene was off the hook watching tv while Tanner and I slaved away. Nope, he was slaving away by himself.

About 2 months ago, it was terribly windy out here one day - because that's what it does here a lot - blow wind, and I heard this loud smack, Ripppppppp noise. When I looked out the window, I saw a huge chunk of my guttering in the yard.

Don't be upset, it wasn't much of a loss. They used the worst possible materials they could in most of this house so it was crappy cheap plastic.

Gene set out to replace it - and the fascia board that seemed to go with it.

He came around the corner and said, "Good news bad news, come look at this." (Which rarely is the good news better than the bad news.

Bad news was, that the board behind the fascia trim was rotting.

Not cool.

For the record, I don't even remember what he tried to pass off as "good news".

This meant ANOTHER trip to the lumber yard (they love us there), and lots of deconstruction. At the end of the day, it looked almost exactly like it did at the beginning of the day - yet with no guttering.

The upside is, when a tornado comes this way, I'm going to run to that corner because it's probably the safest place now.

Maybe that was the "good news"??