When I grow up, I'm getting a shed

This is what I did this Labor Day weekend. I made my first dowel-assembly project, to see what I'd need to learn to build kitchen cabinets. I learned that I will need to build a guide for the circular saw. These shelves in the window of the laundry area/back porch are holding gardening stuff; the things that go in the future shed - lawnmower, power tools, paint, etc. are in the dining room, mostly on a shelf unit donated by my mom. Thank you, mom!


Here is the new retaining wall around the vegetable bed; the side closest to the house has a slight hill and I've been meaning to fix that for months. Now there is a two-brick high wall on two sides and I've been filling it with dirt taken from the leveled path. When I pull out this season's plants I'll add lots of compost and purchased dirt because our sandy soil isn't much good for vegetables. We're almost done with the mulch path, two more bags and it's done. I laid the mulch over weed cloth because without it the whole area would be weedy green again in two months. The path end will eventually connect with the driveway/deck concrete area.

This week's note in Florida wildlife (last week there was a 1/8" frog living below the bathroom) is a little white squooshy bead found in the path dirt. I thought it was leftover construction material or a large piece of vermiculite. I squooshed it for a bit and then it popped open and a baby lizard head flew out! I was traumatized enough and stopped the path for the day. It's really too hot to work outside anyway, and it will probably be so until October; it's the southern equivalent of our long winter months in Syracuse.

Despite the sunstroke, the garden's making great progress. The next garden plot, the weedy area closest to the camera, will be the same brick area but divided in half by a slight path, the half closest to the house probably becoming the compost pile. I'll take out the pathway bricks and use them for the bed, and try aluminum flashing bent in half for the path edging. Commercial aluminum is too expensive and plastic edging might not survive regular lawnmowing.

Way down at the end of the fence is our new back gate; we thought it would be a good idea to finish since we're babysitting my mom's dog this week, and the 5 next-door kids (most are old enough to know better) frequently come knocking at the back door... -WARNING! Rant!- At 8 in the morning asking to borrow DVDs...(we have maybe 10 total)...One even came by yesterday when I was working on the path and asked if I would buy him a movie. I wouldn't even buy movies for my own kids! They should be reading or playing outside. I suggested he go to the library. I wish the nurseries would put out the cypress trees so we could finish boxing in our "back" yard. We don't pester other people in their backyards! Just because you can see us outside, using dangerous power tools, doesn't mean we want to talk to you! Please stop breaking down our fence boards and kidnapping our cat!