Progress in the yard . . .

So this weekend I got to working on more yard and garden stuff.  I did a couple hours on friday, all morning saturday, and even an hour this morning (Sunday) on the rain (more like sprinkling, but it was still wet.).

I'll show you some pictures. :)

The front of the house BEFORE

and AFTER

Looks so much better doesn't it?

I'm also working on the corner of the house. There were three large arborvitae on the corner, and it was just too much - blocking air flow from the siding, etc. So I took down the center arb.  Here's a picture mid-way through.  It's not finished yet though.  We purchased birdhouses, and I'm going to keep the trunk and clean it up and use it as the post for the birdhouses. The top branches are off now, and I'll show you a pic when it's done, I just have this one in-progress photo at the moment.

I did a little more work in the garden. Cleaned up a few more beds, added peat.  

I planted beets in this bed:

Here's a picture of what the vegie garden looks like right now.  I always like the clean look of the beds in the springtime, before the weeds have a chance to take over.  The bed bottom right is the one I planted with peas, radish, parsnip, and carrot.  The one bottom left is the one with the beet seeds in it.  The bed that has the green in it already is ready for beans, but I haven't planted those yet.  The green is actually chives which over winter here very well.

Another project I took on yesterday (and finished first thing this morning) is restoring this bird bath.  It was one that came with the house, it's cast iron, and the general structure was good, but the black had chipped off, and it was rusting in parts.  So I used some spray paint we had, plus purchased the purple, and did my best to restore it.  Unfortunately, I forgot to take a "before" picture.  You do get to see the "after".  Would love to hear what you think about it.

Here is is in it's new place in the yard.

We also had our first fire of the year.  I burned some garden debris, and small twigs, etc (mostly from last year, as this years' cuttings are a bit wet yet.)  But it was enough of a fire that we had delicious fire roasted hot dogs, and a couple of marshmallows as well.  I do enjoy having these little fires, wish I took the time more often!  We certainly have enough debris to burn up.

So that was my weekend.  Now I'm just relaxing. . .