Making a little progress

 The peach tree finally blossomed! I think this normally occurs in April. Thanks to all the rain and cool weather, it happened on Cinco de Mayo, or Intl. Midwives Day. ;)

 This picture cracks me up. We went to the Henry Ford museum last month. Here's little E being an Oscar Meyer hotdog with all the fixin's.

 This past Saturday, G took down the garage chimney. I really loved how it looked, but it's been a long time since it's been functional. It's been leaning more with every passing year, coming away from the roof. It was either going to smash the deck or seriously hurt a person if it ever fell. 

 Here's little E having a go at the demolition.

 We also got a couple of storm doors for the back of the house. It's nice to contain small little M and allow some ventilation. We still need to put up the other door for my mom's apartment.

 Ugh. What to do with all these bricks?! Actually, this is a good shot of where the future wee greenhouse will go. I think we'll use at least some of these bricks for the floor of the greenhouse, which will be a lean-to style g.h. next to the garage. All the hops need to come up. They're just getting going now- they're those green things about 2-3' high next to the garage.

 The middle garden has been tilled and divided. There are 15 beds in here. Six are still open for planting. It's too cool for peppers and tomatoes yet, but I've got in cabbages, carrots, broccoli, lots of greens, etc. Things that can handle cool soil.

This is the square behind the garage and chicken run. While G was knocking out the chimney, me and the big kids planted potatoes here. We put in 10# of Red Pontiacs and 10# of Kennebecs.  There's a smallish space left in here that I think I'll fill with a mix of sunflowers and calendula. We'll see. I still have the narrow strip next to the garage to fill as well. I think I might do tomatoes there. I can get in around 20 plants in that space and they've done remarkably well in the past.Also wanted to mention I finally got around to painting the front porch floor! This has been on my to-do list for oh, 4 years or so. It looks so much nicer but once done, I realized how the porch railing and spindles look flakey and drab now...and the front door too! That's the problem with making one thing look a little nicer- it brings out all the flaws of things around it.

Things left to do:

dig 6 post holes for the future playhouse/tree house

build the tree house

fill the rest of the garden

put on other storm door

paint the replacement cedar siding that was put up last fall

build greenhouse (likely end of summer/ early fall)

remember to wear sunblock! (I keep forgetting when it's cooler like this! Very chapped lips and red shoulders!)