Happy Spring!!

I'm back from my online vacation and feeling much better! I'm still of course crazy busy with my real life, but I can definitely see the light at the end of my tunnel. All I saw last month was dark winter days that just dragged on and on and on and on...yuck! Nothing I could do but keep my nose to the grindstone, shoulder to the wheel, struggle on, and wade through it. Sometimes life just gets like that.

Just so you all know, I haven't been lounging around and eating bon-bons on my little break, I've actually been planning and working on projects both here and at the Sgt's. And let me just tell ya, this living in two different places, 2 hours away, and in 2 different states.... has gotten old really fast. My things are here, my things are there, my things are in a storage unit, my things are every where....MaryDeluxe has too many things and I can't find anything I need! hahaha Just kidding, it's not that bad yet, but I bet it will get to that level about mid May. That's when I'm really planning to lose my last thread of sanity and or dignity too. Keep reading and watch me unravel, it should be a good time!

Onto the garden project!! Sgt and I happen to both love gardening and so it's only natural that we spent much of the Fall and Winter months planning and dreaming about the projects we would begin to do in the Spring. The first thing on the list is to create raised garden beds in the back or on top of the hill. We wanted to do this ASAP so we can use them for early Spring planting.

Look, there's the bottom garden followed by the patio...you can see Sgt's swanky patio project that he built last Sept. here. At the top of the slope are the newly built raised garden beds. Three so far with more to follow I'm sure.

Top of the hill with the king of the raised garden beds! Just so you all know I had dirty knees too! Sgt made me dig up the dirt from the lower garden and bring in up the hill in the wheel barrow...he's a slave driver and I wasn't even allowed to take water breaks! Okay I'm kidding, he did most of the work lifting and putting together the wood beds....but really, I did bring some of the dirt up the hill in the wheel barrow. I swear, I did help! I also transplanted from the lower garden volunteer spinach plants that seeded themselves from last year and then Sgt added some more from seed. Then I planted the top bed with a variety of lettuce. Peas will be put in the bottom garden.

Not only was I dirt girl for the weekend, but I also did a little abandoned chicken coop exploration and pulled out a metal chicken nesting box that I plan on using in our chicken coop this Summer. Yup, I said chickens! Sgt and I both love chickens and we have both raised backyard chickens before. There's just nothing like fresh eggs people, so we decided to put chickens on our garden project list. YAY!!! Someone told me chickens are the cool, trendy new thing to have! I can't wait to see women walking around with them in their purses or under their arms! hahaha

The ole chicken nesting box in all it's glory. Not bad for a rusty old relic! See the old delapidated chicken coop in the background...lots of crap in there to look through but I better get a tetanus shot first. I was afraid it was going to fall on my head! I did spy an old metal chicken feeder in there too that I plan on rescuing later. We plan on ripping down the old chicken coop and building the new one in the same area. We also plan on building our compost beds back there. Nothing makes good compost quite like chicken poop!

Lots more projects coming soon!