Started on the Back Railing

 So for the back, I'm actually using the stain the way it was intended - as a light gray.  It looks nice, I think.  One section finished, only five more to go!

Finally Finished the Front Railing

 

So interesting story about the railing. I bought a light gray stain for the raw wood of the railing.  Of course it took a while before I was able to get to this project.  Once I started, though, I opened the can and found this amazing blue gray oil.  I loved it!  I felt like one of those designers on a fancy TV show.  I'm not adventurous. I would never have chosen this color, but wow, it looked so beautiful on the wood.  I got 3/4 of the way through my staining and then  I dipped the paintbrush into the stain and pulled out - GRAY!  What?  Then it dawned on me that I didn't shake the can of stain.  It had separated and I had only been using the oil on the top!  Haha!  So I ordered another can and left it sitting for a couple of months.  Today I had the time and opened the can to find exactly what I wanted - separated paint!  Haha!  Today I finished staining the railing with that beautiful, fancy, blue gray stain that I love!  :) <3

Tomato Progress

I tell Kai he has to wait till July for tomatoes.  That doesn't mean he doesn't ask me every day, "Any tomatoes yet?"  :)  They are coming, buddy!

 

Mulch FINALLY finished!

 This has been the LONGEST project!

We had some dirt and mulch delivered on March 11th.  Slowly but surely Joseph and I got the left side done (the bed with all of the native plants).

Today we finally finished the right side - the side with the elder berry, four baby pine trees, five sweet shrubs, and a bunch of rhododendrons.  We had left it for so long there were so many TALL weeds.  So Joseph and I pulled weeds and then dumped mulch.  Finally on Saturday we finished "the hill" as we called it, and then blocked the area around the new shrubs and trees with cardboard and then mulch.  We had down some edging so we could use edger and have less weeding to do.  

So tired! So hot!  But FINISHED!!  Wahoo!

Plestiodon fasciatus

What a cool skink!  I saw it when I was shoveling mulch today.  The blue on the tail was just electric!  It was so cool to see!

Also known as a Blue-tailed skink or American five-lined skink

Flowers Around the Park

Flowers around the Park:

(I will add to this list)

Dense Blazing Star

Wild Carrot & Black Eyed Susans growing wild next to the house

Can't forget the wonderful tomato!!

Great Mullein

Butterfly Weed

Larkspur

Prairie Coneflower

Re Bree Wren Honeysuckle

New Jersey Tea

Black eyed Susan

Echinacea

Echinops Ritro

Ranunculus

            Aster

 

Birds we have seen at the Park

So far we have seen:

(I just keep adding to this list)

Blue Jays

Cardinals

House Finch

Eastern Bluebird

Red winged Blackbird

Robin

Tree Swallow

Doves

Brown - headed Cowbird

 

Yellow Warbler

(These fly around in flocks.)   :)

American Redstart

Plus lots of little birds that I don’t know the names of yet

Some Visitors (Or Maybe I Should Say, Some Residents)

A hummingbird moth on the phlox.

A fun frog

A bird enjoying her bath 

The Park has grown!

On Thursday we bought Lot 4 (we sit on lots 2&3 now).  We are bigger!  More trees! More to discover!

 

Sunday at the Park

One of several tulip (yellow popular) trees.  They are beautiful trees!

Sweet Joe Pye - butterflies are going to be very happy when they are bigger!

I wish I could make this picture appear as it does in my eyes - the greens just pop!  And it's green upon green upon green.  Spring is my favorite green.

We close on Lot #4, the lot to our South, on Thursday.  Perhaps that enboldened us and we walked up the wagon trail to the majestic sycamores!  One reason I wanted this lot is so that no one ever cuts those beautiful trees!  They just tower over the lot, ruling in majesty.  (Of course another reason I wanted the lot is I don't want neighbors breathing down my neck!)

The view looking back toward the house - we love the knobs.  It's like being in the mountains, and living in a valley.

We have more than five of this tree, and today as a group project of Jason, Sandi, and I we figured it out!  It's a Black Cherry tree.

It has the loveliest flowers  (this picture is from the Morton Arborteum - thank you)

I love the shape of the sassafras leaf :)

I found another grape fern.  This brings us up to two!  The majority of our ferns are Christmas ferns.

My ladies are getting bigger.  I was afraid I had very unsmart birds.  They would ONLY eat their baby chick feed, nothing else.  Nothing from the kitchen, no treats, nada.  I thought maybe if I left them some special chicken grubs/worm things they would eat them when I was gone. Nope.  So I tried their itty bitty baby chick feeder (red in the middle). I filled it with tasty snacks.  They wouldn't go near it.  I left and when I returned it was empty.  Wahoo.  My birds can be taught!

Fun times are coming our way!