Work This Weekend

Once again, we've been busy with yard work. Here are some pics of our porch and pavilion that we've been working on. I can say that we're done except for picking up the supplies and moving them to the barn.

Revamped Porch

Here's the porch we've updated a bit. Made new steps and made them wider. New handrails. New top rail on the bannisters around the deck. Used Restore on the deck. Added solar lights to the stairs. One more thing about Restore: the white stuff is sand on the kick plate. If Restore clumps, the sand will wash off with the color. What's left is white sand sticking to the porch. I'll have to knock it off and repaint that area again.

Solar Lights on Stairs

We bought some solar lights from Lowe's. A two-pack is $11 bucks. These throw off a lot of light and is well worth the money. Also, I'm glad we didn't have to run a wire. I LOVE solar powered stuff!

Picket Underpinning

Instead of cheap lattice or plastic stuff, we went with fence pickets for around the base of the deck. It was very inexpensive. Took little work and went up fast. We got three 24" slats out of each board. I repainted all of this today. It was two different shades of Canyon Brown stain. Now it's closer.

Picket Privacy Fencing

We put this on one side of the picnic pavilion to keep the setting sun from getting in our eyes. Works great! Cheap fix! If you look to the left, I've scrubbed the eaves on this pavilion. If you enlarge the photo, then you'll see the mold I was removing from the eaves. One side is white and the other is blackish. Mold grows everywhere down here.

Picnic Table Revamp

Hubby worked hard on this one. A couple of years ago, he made this picnic table. It only weighs about a hundred pounds. No joke! He cut off part of the legs and added wheels this week. He sanded the top and added the white apron. I put four coats of polyurethane on the top and stained the legs. Hubby is so handy with stuff!

Well, that's some of the stuff we did to prepare for our company in November.

I hope you had a productive day, too!

Take care.

Sunday Work Day

After yesterday, you'd think we had enough of working out back. Well, we rolled out of bed this morning. Actually, my dog made me get out of bed because Hubby was already up. She won't stop barking until we're all together. Anyhow, when I rolled out of bed, I found out I had muscles I haven't used in a while. It wasn't all that bad, but I had a workout yesterday.

Today, we got up and went out back again. Hubby pressure washed the cement picnic set we have. It had a nice thick layer of black and brown mold growing on it. So much so that when Hubby pressure washed it, there was a bit of a raised area between the clean part and the moldy part. It was noticeable to me. The picnic set hadn't been treated before and we had it for about 8 or so years, so we decided to put a finish on it. We bought gray cement paint for our pavilion (which is almost completed) and I painted the picnic set today. Here it is.

Cement Picnic Set Just Painted

Looks pretty good, doesn't it? This was a few hour job because we had to wait until the cement dried before I could paint it. I didn't paint the bottom bit of about 1-2 inches because it was in the dirt or close to it. We're going to level it an put rock around the base so you won't be able to tell.

Hubby and I started our fires again after calling in another burn permit. We got some more stuff burnt up. It looks really clean out back. Next, we're going to get the rock for under the picnic set and enough for around the fire pit. Then, we'll be making some Adirondack-style chairs for around the pit. Hubby made two already, but they need a couple of coats of paint. He only got one coat on before the rains came. Now the things are starting to mold.

Thursday night, we got our order of bug spray. It is heavy duty stuff. We must be the last customer on the route. Our delivery guy comes around 7 pm. Our mosquitos are so bad we can't be outside for long. We sprayed immediately after we got the order. We were able to work outside yesterday and today WITHOUT MOSQUITOS! Yay!!! This stuff is supposed to last for about 6 weeks before we have to apply it again. We may have just found a way to get our yard back! It also took care of our mole crickets. One of the dogs kept picking up the dead bodies. I hope she didn't eat any. She likes to eat bugs for some reason. You'd think we didn't feed her. Blah!

Well, I hope you had a great day.

Take care.

Picnic Today

As I mentioned yesterday, we had a Memorial Day picnic today. All of the local relatives showed up. We had the BBQ ribs (my way), burgers, hot dogs, coleslaw, pasta salad, potato salad, veggie tray and a few other things. My nieces brought baked beans (really yummy!) and deviled eggs and pasta salad. So, we had two of the same pasta salads. The deviled eggs looked nice, but I don't eat them so I couldn't say. However, a lot of them disappeared.

Thanks to my nieces for bringing their goodies. They didn't have to but they like to. : ) They're both good cooks.

I made something different this time. I made a trifle. I was looking for a dessert other than just cookies that I made and froze. So, I got the pound cake I made for strawberries and made it from a recipe from a very old cookbook. Here's how easy it was to make.

Chop up the pound cake into cubes.
Spoon / spread some strawberry jam or jelly on it.
Add some fresh strawberries (my addition because I had them.
Spoon a prepared large package of vanilla pudding over the strawberries. I used sugar-free.
Cover with whipped cream or topping.
Eat and enjoy!

I thought it turned out really well. My young nephew made a comment it was good. That was a compliment!

I hope all of you have a happy and safe Memorial Day. Please celebrate safely.

Take care.