In Over my Head?

Last summer I went out with a weekend full of hard work. I am determined to welcome this years hard earned summer by playing more than I work. Since I wanted to expand my garden this year, I got to work early. 

I started by moving some plants.

My Vet and a friend took care of tilling up, and adding manure to the area I had marked for the expansion.

Looking good, but more than the plants are missing.

With the heavy work done, I power-washed the remaining traces of manure out of the trailer, and picked up some landscape timbers for the edging. 

Pretty straight forward 2 timbers high, with staggered seems, screwed together with galvanized deck screws. At 3 feet by 17 1/2 this new section is large enough for 4 tomato plants, 4 pepper plants and a ton of carrots. The piece in the foreground is darker because it was salvaged from where I cut in to mix the new section with the old.

Since this new section runs along the garage, I needed to tackle the issue of rain water. Water is good for plants, thousands of gallons running of the roof onto small seedlings will kill them. Gutters don't look to complicated, I figure I can tackle it on my own.

I prepped by watching a clip of my favorite show. (BTW what can't Tommy Silva do?)

I took notes as I watched. Hmm, there is more to this than I initially thought. Said goodbye to My Vet and The Girls and off to the store. I picked up all the pieces I figured I would need and headed home.

Assembling the pieces was similar to doing a jigsaw puzzle. Time to permanently assemble. I called My Vet away from working under the New to Us Pickup, so he could show me how to rivet. It was a lot like using my cropadile.

Pre-drill and load the rubber coated aluminum rivet (grommet?) into the hand tool.

Insert into the hole.

Pull the trigger.

Not perfectly aligned! Not visible from the
ground though so OCD should be OK.

Repeat, repeat, repeat, repeat, repeat, repeat. I am not sure exactly how many I was suppose to do, 4 per seam felt flimsy so I did 6 (2 in the front and 4 in the back).

Give all the joints a water tight seal with joint sealer. (Not really sure how important this is since it will only be in operation when it is raining everywhere, but Tommy said to do it and who am I to argue that logic?) 

Clip in the gutter hangers at regular intervals. (I used 22 for 26 feet of gutter.) Assembly took me about 2 hours. 

With everything assembled on the ground. My Vet came back to lend his strength and hands to hang this light but awkward 26 feet of aluminum.

Self tapping screws anchored the various pieces of the down spout at the rear of the garage. I didn't put in a down spout in the front yet, I am thinking a rain chain would be pretty, so I will keep you posted. I couldn't find a hack saw to shorten the downspout, so My Vet stepped in again.

My Vet rocking his Iowa State shirt.

It doesn't seem like that much work, but I ache and I didn't even get any plants in the ground yet! I am looking forward to the fun part though. The Girls and I will be hitting up some green houses this week. Are you planning on playing or working Memorial Day weekend?

Not sure how well this diverter is going to work,
I'll know in a couple of hours though.

*** Kudos to me, only 1 extra piece needs to be returned to the store!

Joy Ride

 

The sun has finally come out, and we have been basking in its glow. For the first time this year we dusted off our bikes, checked our tire pressure and went for a long ride through town.

It was great to get back out. Since we live in town, I try to bike most places while the weather is good. I've outfitted mine so I am able to carry small packages and such. This year the girls added baskets to their bikes as well, so they will be able to carry their own treasures.

Riding with young children requires lots of reminders to look for cars, watch out for pedestrians, giving extra space to the youngest riders, and signaling with our hands to talk to both drivers and the rest of our group.

It seems like I've been repeating myself for several years now, but I do catch glimpses of them finally starting to make safe riding decisions.

One practical thing we haven't been doing is locking out bikes. Usually we park them near us, but there have been times that we need go into a building. We've been lucky that we live in a great small town, but I can't help but think we have been pushing our luck. In comes Wordlock they don't just make padlocks, they make bike locks!

Just in time for The Amazing Spider-Man 2 that hits theaters May 2nd. They have provided me with a Spider-Man themed bike lock to giveaway! Perfect for kids (Or just the Marvel addict in your family)

**Read my advertising policies here.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Lost and Found

 

I enjoy reading, and now that my kids are no longer babies I find the time to read. I recently got the opportunity to read Sarah Jakes latest book Lost & Found.

It was an engaging retelling of her life thus far. She has made lots of decisions that resulted in a harder life than it needed to be, but shares how she seems to finally come around.

There were some points on how to love our friends and family as they walk through the consequences of their actions. But it seemed more directed at those who are still lost in the detours of their life.

The books biggest disappointment was the lack of scriptural references. Even near the end when she talks about the story of Naomi and Ruth, she references one of her previous books instead of the Bible which was the original source.

Romans 3:23-24 encompasses the entirety of her story.²³ for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, ²⁴ and all are justified freely by His grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. Yet the opportunity to share Gods redemptive love in His own words was noticeably ignored.

Never the less she still wrote some lines that really spoke to me.

Just remember when you're dealing with a person who is weary, you don't want your rage to add to their brokenness. You see, most of the time, you don't need someone to tell you you're wrong. You carry the grief of being lost with every turn you make. The last thing you need when you're stranded is someone yelling at you to find your way.

Our sin and shame become a filter that we believe the world sees us through. when really we just reflect onto people that we believe about ourselves.

How can we honor Christ's life if we never explore the depths of His forgiveness or the beauty of grace?

She was saved by the grace her family continued to show her. That grace didn't swoop in to fix her mistakes, or make everything magically better. A simple hug and silent acceptance let her know that no matter what they loved her right now, bumps bruises and all.

I know that it is hard to see loved ones make choices that will make their lives unnecessarily harder. We want to tell them how to fix it, because watching them walk through the consequences is hard. The parable of the prodigal son comes to mind. Stay home and tend to what needs doing, let them endure the consequences, but when they return and repent.. run, be quick to hug, love.
**Read my advertising policies here.