Tuesday, May 7, 2013

The New Measurement of Time

Marc and I had grand plans this past weekend. We were going to get a bunch of stuff done both inside and outside of the house. Now that the weather has warmed up we were feeling the momentum we had last summer to continue making our house a home. 

This was also the first time we had to factor the baby into our grand plans. As of this past weekend we have started measuring our projects by what we can get done during a "Violet Nap". Thankfully Violet's daytime sleep has started to become a bit more regular. We know that first thing in the morning we usually have an hour to ourselves while she sleeps. In the middle of the day - if she naps in the swing - we can get her to sleep for upwards of two hours. The afternoon usually brings at least another nap of maybe 45 minutes to an hour.  This means that if we break projects down into one hour increments we can squeeze them into her nap times. 

Another difference since last summer is the amount of energy we both have. Night sleep is still hit or miss with Violet which means that getting one or two things knocked off the to-do list is absolutely exhausting! So while we had grand plans to get a bunch of stuff done we were pretty tired after only accomplishing some of our outdoor items. Regardless it was a pretty gratifying weekend. 

On Sunday during Violet's long nap we were able to accomplish the following -



After dusting off the ride-on mower and jump starting the battery, I was able to spend most of the nap time mowing the front lawn and the burm by the pond. I didn't realize until I started cutting just how long the grass had grown. I have to admit that this is my favorite outside chore by far. It's so much fun driving around and making patterns in the grass. The only downside is raking up the clippings at the end and taking them to the compost pile.

We also decided to make our front grass area longer this summer. If you look at the picture below our grass only used to mowed up to the anniversary apple trees (the small tree wrapped in hardware cloth). This summer I decided to mow all the way to the road behind the trees. The grass back there looks a little dried out because last year it was not taken care of at all. But hopefully in a few more weeks it will look as green as the rest of the grass. You can also see a bunch of surprise daffodils which popped up around the tree on the right. My mom did not plant those. 



While I was mowing Marc was working on the vegetable garden. His first project was tilling the earth to get it ready for planting. 



Then he removed the old gate (red frame leaning against the post) ...


... built a new frame from scrap wood in our garage ...



... and installed the new gate.



It's nice to know that once we get the vegetables planted they will be protected from the local wildlife. This was all accomplished during Violet's two hour nap. Once she woke up she joined us outside and supervised the installation of the gate. 




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