More building

Having finally made the decision to stay, I've been making other decisions much easier!  I asked my son-in-law, Aaron to make me a water barrel.  I've always been interested in conserving and reducing my carbon footprint and saw water barrels for sale last summer at the Farmers' Market for at least $100.  Aaron made one for them last summer at a fraction of the price, so I asked him to make one for me.  They brought it down for Mother's Day (it's actually my birthday present because my Mother's Day gift is a handmade planter that the grandkids made filled with a variety of annuals.)
So, Aaron told me what I had to buy and what I had to do to set the barrel up.  I have it at the corner of the garage and the overflow spot should drain right into the part of the downspout that Bill buried way back before the sidewalks were poured that drains way away from the house.  I had to take the solid downspout off and replace it with the flexible one -- once again really happy that I invested in that trusty power screwdriver!  Now I'm just waiting for rain!  I have it set up on blocks so I can fill the watering can from it for watering my tomatoes and peppers!

Back when we lived in a subdivision, we had about a 3/4 acre lot and a big garden (including an asparagus bed that Bill planted).  He also built a compost area with landscape timbers right out by the garden.  It was great.  Then we moved here, have 23+ acres, but a smaller garden and a lot of trees.  Still have an asparagus bed that he planted that first year and the asparagus is still wonderful, but he didn't bother with a compost area.  He was more into cleaning up the woods and the garden really isn't much -- the kids were gone by that time.  But, as I clean out my weedy flower beds and the garden boxes, I collect a lot of stuff that could be composted, so...I bought a tumbling composter from Home Depot.  I put it together on Saturday -- only took about two hours and once again -- that power screwdriver was a lifesaver!  Being a quilter, I've always understood a guy's fascination with power tools, but now I understand it even more! vbg

I put it out in the garden area next to the 5 blueberry bushes Bill planted -- I took the picture in the late afternoon, otherwise it's pretty sunny out there.  The asparagus bed is just adjacent to this area -- you can probably see the tall ones that have gone to seed back there.  I have two tomato plants and 3 green pepper plants in the boxes and a whole bunch of weeds too.  I'm just going to try to manage a small garden this year and maybe next year I can add a little more.

Gratitudes:  I can feel the stress of the past few years slowly falling away now.  I have lots of plans, but know that nothing has to be done immediately.  I'm taking my time and smelling the roses (well, the iris and the peonies anyway!).