If You Give a Boy a Hammer

We had beautiful weather yesterday. It was almost 68 degrees here and I was dying to get out in my garden. I decided to put raised beds in this year instead of rows. The rows took up a lot of space last year so I'm hoping the raised beds will be work better. Larry was busy sawing the wood to surround the beds and Tae decided he needed to build too. Four pieces of wood and a hammer and he worked for about 2 hours building his "picture frame". I think our chickens approve.

Tae tried to find a spot in a bit of shade. Not sure the Adirondack chair

was providing that but he looks happy.

My smiley man.

Too cute.

But the boards were very thick and Tae had a difficult time hammering through them. No worries-he just bossed (I mean requested) help from the girls. When they were finished, the picture frame disappeared into the tree fort. I think it's framing the bark on the tree.
Dear husband and I worked all afternoon on our garden plots. Since the soil was amended so well with cow and chicken manure, we are hoping for a great crop this year. Larry said these look more like burial plots than garden plots. Our property was all old farm country at one time so I'm sure something is buried there!
The beds edged out very nicely and I can't wait to get started planting. This year I made a layout of my garden and really planned it. It should help us know what plants we need to buy. Last year I didn't plan well and the garden was very haphazard-not to mention I ended up sick with Lyme disease and couldn't take care of it. Better gardens ahead.
Our yellow Lab, Stewie, played outside all day. This dog lives for soccer balls. He ran for about 4 hours straight and then collapsed in exhaustion. Oh-but not until he had a bath because dear husband also started to clean the pond filter (which always smells like raw sewage after the long winter) and of course, Stewie had to run through it. Why do dogs think rolling in stinky things is a good idea. I really, really hate the annual pond cleaning.
The chickens were also enjoying the nice weather.

Nothing like a dust bath to make you feel good.

The black and white Wyandottes look like it's one chicken with two heads and Chipmunk our Easter Egger has his head up the other chickens butt. Chickens really aren't that smart. The girls thought it was a great time. I'm not so sure our Rooster did though. The girls kept kicking up dust and dirt at him and he was black instead of white by the time they got done with him.