The House in Hayward That We Call Home

       I'm filling in at the office today....it's a quiet day, so I shall try to take the chance to update this blog, which has also been rather quiet lately. 
     I haven't taken many pictures of life lately, and I prefer blogging when I have pictures to go along with it. It's not at all that our life has been boring or slow...rather opposite in fact. I'm thinking that it might be slowing down a bit now, but I won't say that too loudly! 
    A week ago the last of our corn hole games sold, so we're trying to make a few more sets in our spare time. I had a new dress to sew, and we had music to practice before we headed out of town last weekend to sing at Stan and Kerra Troyer's wedding.
     
     Moving on from old news and rambling....
     
     I was thinking the other day about the changes we've made to our house and yard since we bought the house nearly a year ago. So I dug up some old pictures, and thought I'd show you! We're not done yet, but I think it's improved!

     Tom put skirting around all of our little decks, and we built the flower beds this spring. My flowers are growing fairly well, in spite of my neglectfulness and a bit of a deer problem.

     I love how easy Morning Glories are to grow...the pretty things have done a nice job of covering our somewhat rickety deck railings! I hope to spend more time and put some perennials in my beds next spring!

     And here's the back deck, my little herb garden with sunflowers, and our chairs. Some fine moonlit night before summer's over, I'd like to sleep under the stars there on the deck.

    There's a reason I'm not showing you the back yard. Two reasons actually! For one, we still need to level it out, plant new grass, and take care of the drainage field vents that poke their unsightly heads up out there. Secondly, my little garden is back there, and the poor thing is in no blog-worthy condition. Here's what happened: We started from scratch, so by the time we tilled up the sod, raked out the grass clumps and got it planted, it was a bit late in the spring. I feared that deer would be a problem, since we see them in our yard fairly frequently, so I bought some natural repellent clips and put them on my little plants. Unfortunately, my veggies took a very long time to grow, even thought I watered them faithfully. Finally, I decided the soil must be sadly lacking, so I started to give them Miracle Grow, which seemed to help a good deal. Just about the time the plants took off and my garden started looking like a productive thing, the deer found it. I am resigned. The garden just wasn't meant to be this year. But it was a worthwhile experiment, I think. Now at least we know that the garden needs a lot of fertilizer, and a fence before next spring!

    That's all, folks! Please feel free to stop by and see us!