Yard work

I don't LOVE yard work, but I don't particularly hate it either. But since I've never had MY OWN yard to work on, I haven't done much. So I'm excited for the challenge 1/2 acre brings. Well, I WAS excited for the challenge. Until I started digging up Canadian Thistle. We have more Canadian Thistle then I even want to admit. I got a big chunk dug, then googled Canadian Thistle. All the sites I read suggested everything EXCEPT digging Canadian Thistle. Apparently, when you cut a live thistle root (a few sites claim) that they just grow back up again, in all the places that you cut. So I made myself a lot of work by digging out the thistle. So we have tried spraying the thistle, as all the sites suggest. But they say to make sure you get a good kill on the plant, particularly the root so the plant won't come back. Long story short, we've sprayed our plants, got a kill, now we have to dig up the dead plants. And quickly. The place we want to put our swing set is COVERED in thistle. Not to mention all the rocks.

We have quite the rock garden going on. I decided I need to pay the kids $1.00 a rock, and it worked on Saturday. They gathered quite the pile. Hopefully they'll continue on their money making, and we'll get the rocks at least from underneath the swing set all taken care of.

We bought a Fuji apple tree and planted it on Saturday, I'm way excited for that. We also planted a row of raspberries that have been sitting for a few weeks. I hope they aren't dead. If not, I my parents and my sister have more they are willing to part with.

Randomly, there are 4 plants in an awkward spot in the lawn. I had NO clue what they were, until my brother came and found a tag at the bottom of one (that happens to be dead). So I google the info from the tag, and found out they are basic lilac trees. I'm THRILLED!! I love the smell of lilacs, and also the look. But I'm not too thrilled with their location. Lilacs get big. And I don't know if I want 3 (maybe 4 if the one isn't dead) big lilac trees in that spot in my yard. Something to think about, I guess!

We are excited for this challenge. First we have to build a fence, before we do much anything else. Our neighbor has a ton of roosters (cock-fighting variety, not just pets. we saw 2 fight the other day. crazy. for reals.) and we don't want the roosters coming over and helping themselves to the seeds we plant in the ground. We may not have much of a garden this season, but we are looking forward to harvesting our own food.

Enough of my ramblings - here's a picture of the 7-month-old, who has her first tooth, learned to sit by herself, and also figured out first gear. She used to be able to only go in reverse, but she figured out forward. Now I'm going to have to use the baby gate my sister gave us!!!

Aren't baby toes the CUTEST!!! I love them!!