The Clean Up

Now that we have the garden started, seeds transplanted, and various other projects around the property taken care of we finally had some time purely for miscellaneous clean up. This meant trying to get control of the mess we managed to create on the porch area as well as over behind the storage shed and the random items scattered about the tree lines. With the installation of the full size fridge on the porch area by our small chest freezer and laundry appliances we had now properly filled once half of the space and needed to remove all the scrap wood, empty boxes, and various tools scattered about. Between the two of us and our work schedules we managed to get every thing where it belonged with the exception of the very very wobbly metal shelf we had procured from the old shed and attempted to use for storage of toaster ovens and crock pots. It is entirely too unstable for long term use though so a solution will need to be found eventually.

Jaken decided we needed a proper table on the porch space so we pulled out one we had in storage along with the chairs and reorganized the patio furniture so now we have two seating areas to accommodate guests as well as a nice place to eat meals if the weather ever decides to no longer scorch your insides every time you step outside. Gotta love Texas summers.

On Saturday Jaken’s dad came over and got busy on ole Forky brush hogging the side yard. He went from our house all the way down to the neighbor (who is family so all apart of the family acreage) as well as everyones’ ditches. After that he decided to clear some more trails that went over and around the ponds and connected out to the hay field in a couple places. I regularly like to take walks to the pond so I am super pumped about the new options and paths to take. This also opened up some more options about potential locations for future critter additions but that is still under discussion.

While Jeremy was out mowing the prairie Jaken was rolling around on his new tractor collecting various scrap and stumps found along the tree lines and organizing them for future clean up. He managed to get a ton of spaces cleaned up and logged a whopping 10 hours on his new toy, er tractor. When he decided to take a break from that activity he installed our new mailbox. The neighborhood mail lady had given Meemaw an extra large mailbox for us to put in like everyone else on the street instead of the very small silver one that was already there. Her only request was that we put it in on the opposite side of the street since we live in a pretty dramatic corner and its quite dangerous for both her and us to handle the mail. So Jaken got busy installing the new extra large box at the new requested location and while doing that project Pawpaw popped over to say hello and check out the progress. He noticed a particularly dead tree that he was concerned about falling so he and Jaken worked together to get the most precarious of the limbs pulled down to safety and then he took a tour of the garden.

After this project Jaken and his dad worked on cleaning up the fence line and area behind the shed to organize the tools and lop limbs that were protruding into the workspace. This involved Jeremy climbing into the tractor bucket with the chainsaw while Jaken raised him up to the tree limb height. Lots on gymnastics and living on the edge if you ask me.

While the boys were out doing all this manual labor Hope and I went party supply shopping with Jaken’s mom since Hope’s first birthday is coming up and we hope (LOL) to throw a cute barnyard themed birthday party for her. We got the tablecloths, plates and cutlery, some cute decorations, and of course bandanas because, barnyard themed. Once we got back and Jaken completed his ranch work we went to the store to get some groceries and snacks for the evening as our good friends/family Nick, Brandi, Kristen, Steven, and their crew were coming over for dinner and dominoes. You didn’t think we only moved that table over to the porch for looks did you? We whipped up some buffalo chicken dip, chips, and ham and cheese sliders while Kristen made some yummy banana pudding. We stayed up late into the night playing an intense game of dominoes and had some good laughs.

The next day we woke up and went to church before popping over to Huntsville for one of our favorite lunch spots, The Potato Shack, and cookies from Insomnia Cookies. Afterwards we hit the Target to purchase a few household necessities before heading back to the prairie to finish up our chores and relax for the evening. A long weekend capped off with chilling before another long week ahead of us.