My boys love playing with WATER in the summer.
They have a slip and slide they love. But they don't actually slip or slide on it - they just like the way the water squirts up out of it.
We got a big pool last year, but this is the first time we have set it up. I was worried about killing the grass under it - but now I have decided to put in a dry creek bed area in the back of the backyard, so that is where the pool is living this summer.
I have to limit their time wasting water with the hose. Our water bill last summer was insane because I let Thomas use the hose on the driveway all the time and for as long as he wanted (which was practically all day long). I have tried to be a little smarted with the water this year. I strategically make them play close to a tree, or the garden, or a super dry patch of the lawn, then I don't feel as guilty about it.
It is tough to rationalize the proper water usage, especially when we have been trying to conserve water. We finally got our rain barrels (after the rainy season was over). We will use them properly (rain runoff) next year. For this year, I am still getting good use out of them. After the boys have a bath, I scoop the water out with a pitcher into a 5 gallon barrel and haul it out to the flowerbeds, but when there is more than I need (because we have played with the hose around something that would usually get watered with the tubby water) - I just fill up the big water barrels.
My garden is doing pretty good I guess. It is very green - I just haven't seen anything at a fruiting stage yet :( (stupid long wet winter). I don't think I have the patience to be a gardener LOL
It's funny because we put down the black weed barrier last year when the ground was just dirt, so that I wouldn't have to worry about the awful weeds that infest our yard. But it wasn't heavy enough, or staked down well enough, because the weeds are growing happily underneath it. I really don't know what to do. I cant pull it up - all the garden boxes are on top of it. I tried pulling the weeds that ended up along the fence line, but they are tough suckers. With the clay soil, they can get their roots down deep, and then when it gets hard, they are impossible to pull out. Even if I soak the ground, they are still so deep, that they know they can't be killed, as long as a little of their root gets left behind. So along the fence line I am trying the "newspaper" weed barrier - it blocks the light making it "impossible" for the weeds to grow - but I really need some rocks or something over the top, to keep the newspaper from blowing away.
I will post just garden pics in another post soon....****
I did the newspaper under a new black weed barrier on my corner mound in the front yard. You can see the black weed barrier thru the rocks, because I just don't have enough - but I guess I prefer that look to the gross weeds that had invaded and were impossible to keep up with (it's weird that I don't have as much time to work outside as I did last year - I am not sure if that is because Thomas just needs more constant supervision, or if I lost my love for the fun of weeding).
So keep your fingers crossed that this trick will work!
A BEFORE PICTURE... from June:
and I will have to take an after picture tomorrow:
*****
And last but not least - the Garage project. We are still working away at the decluttering. It is getting much better, but I took pictures and it is still really hard to tell that we have even done anything LOL
We can probably get a car parked in there, but honestly, I like having the space to work and play in. Its like having a rec room.
During the summer we switched cars. After driving the SUV with no AC down to Layton for a family reunion, we decided we HAD to move the carseats to the Saturn. SO now I drive the car, and Tyson takes the SUV to work. It would be nice to have the car cooler when we got in it for our trips. I guess I had better make room to park it in the garage so I can find out how nice that would be.
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