Sunday was a "Down Day"

I don't mean down as in depressed, I mean it the way Air Force personnel mean it...as in "Standing Down" or, a day off.  The hubs watches me spin in circles, wound up tight with To-Do List Panic and steps in.  He claimed this last Sunday, asking me to do anything but work on dolls or the upcoming UFDC stuff.  It was exactly what I needed!

We did work--boy did we!  But it was good work, a project I've wanted to do for a long time.  And I love to watch him build things, even if he's building them 'on the fly' as he did this table.  I used to want a green house, but had since decided it would take up too much of the yard, blocking views of the flowers.  So the compromise will be a future green house "lean to" on the end of our shed--just enough to winter over the humongous house plants and some of the more tender perennials I keep on the porch.

My lovely Phillip, with his carpenter uniform on...BDU pants and a bandana. 

Pretty cool when there's room on the outer section of the deck for building projects!

Drill, baby, drill!

We decided to dedicate part of the porch area for "green house" storage--given that we only use about half of it anyway.  Now a couple of resin cabinets (50% post consumer recycled plastic!) will house the pots and fertilizers and tools.  Then he built me a WONDERFUL table--part potting bench and part dog grooming station.

The cabinets are there on the right side...

Ta-daaaaa!  Freshly painted, the same color exterior paint as the shed.

It's kitchen counter high, which will save a lot of back strain when potting up seedlings or giving The Schultz his haircuts.  Woohooo!  The hole is for a large round basin that will act as a dry sink for potting soil...easy to take out and dump, for less mess.

Schultz, in a supervisory capacity.

The baby sparrows are being raised about two feet from the patio door.  Almost ready to fledge!

I ran around taking photos of the yard...we've finally gotten some rains, and things are greening up well.  Hard to believe it's July--ordinarily the grass would be dying out, and the hand watering would be eating up six or eight hours a week! 

Please note that most of the grass on the side and front yard is dead--I killed it!  There will be a rocked desert garden across the front corner, and mulched paths on the rest of it.  No more lawn in the front yard by this time next year.  None.  Nadda.  Zip.

My privacy fence is now more perennials than annuals...yay!

The Stop Sign corner

The grass is dead on purpose!  That section is destined for a rocked desert garden...I promise.

Yes, that sunflower really is over nine feet tall!

I planted these rudbeckias from seed...love the dark centers.

So it was a very productive day for a Down Day, on several levels.  I'm back to working on dolls and presentations, but with batteries recharged.  Hope your weekend was productive as well.