I got my first chainsaw!!! I had been wanting it for a few weeks itching to trim up some neglected trees around the property. I needed affordable so I went electric so that I could get brand new and a warranty. I was honestly a bit scared to use it with nobody around to help me, warn me, school me SO I read the ENTIRE owner's manual! Then I changed from my normal summer yard work attire of a bathing suit and flip flops to jeans, a shirt, my boots and gloves! Safety first!!!
I set out to trim the pomegranate trees that are between the pergola and my car. I forgot to take a before picture but really it was just a little harder to see through it because half of the limbs were dead, brown limbs. So I cut those off so that the rest of each tree can thrive again.
Here is a before and during shot!
And a before and after! I LOVE the afters when the ground is all cleaned up and raked, makes me feel happy inside!
This is a before and after of the front of the front yard. By that I mean that of the front 2 acres of the property, there was a small front yard fenced in in front of the house. The front fence is under/behind that dead bamboo to the right (that is yellow). That fence isn't entirely enclosed now but nonetheless, this is what I consider the "front yard". There are 3 oddly placed trees (species undetermined) and then 1 tiny stump where one had died (originally there were 4). So I trimmed them up, pulled and raked up all the weeds! This is also an after shot of that lattice on the deck gone, yay! I hope to eventually put steps off the front of the deck because it looks odd to me that there aren't any there and there are only steps over on the side. So I want to add steps off the front center of the deck for visitors. And of course, plant lovely flowers and bushes along those already established flower beds!
While working on the trees I got ALMOST done with what I was planning to do and the chain came off the chainsaw. I freaked out for a minute because I realized I had no clue how to put it back on. So I brought it in and resolved to figure that out later...by myself!!!
We also did our first fire. It isn't like...a BIG deal or anything but I hadn't been around a trash fire in several years, since I was a kid. Living in the city the last 15 years, people don't burn their trash, only tree trimmings. I have had to make sure to sort out glass, certain plastics, cans, etc in the house and taking into consideration what goes in the trash CAN because that is what goes to the bin to be burned. This first fire we did was for all of our boxes from moving.
Riley, for some reason, enjoys fires. I'm not sure if that's a warning sign or what, haha! So he manned the fire while I was elsewhere trimming the above trees.
Then we had another fire to do that was a bunch of tumble weeds I had gathered from the backyard. There were too many to move to another location so I decided to just burn those in the yard and that went fast, which was great!
Second successful burn pile! And...I have since done some research on interesting uses for ashes so in the future I'll be saving these as well! #useandreuseeverything
That day, (I think you can tell we got a TON done outside) we also prepped the side of the backyard for the new above ground pool. I had wanted one as soon as we moved to the farm because I was raised either around water or with a pool and Riley has pretty much always had a pool to swim in, we just love it! So after doing some research on a good above ground pool we could put up this summer and leave up and maintain for 2-3 years, I found a good one a friend was selling at a yard sale. I got it for a good price and they also gifted me a bunch of accessories as well! Score!
So we had to rake and pull all the weeds so that the ground was flat. Then I got it wet and raked it again to try to level it out.
We put the pool up following the instructions on a YouTube video.
Riley was a big help, he was very excited!
I setup this cute thing outside on part of the pergola to hold towels and stuff for swimming. It's a fun and cute idea but something I learned over the coming weeks was how all the wind, monsoon storms and haboobs we have out here...towels can't stay out there in between each time we swim or else they end up in the yard.
Riley playing in the water hose while I'm standing in the shade taking pictures of the pool, lol!
We got the pool and pump all setup and the water hose in it to fill it up.
Some wrinkles in the bottom which honestly, I didn't think were that big of a deal. Come to find out (who would have thought!?!) that once you add more water getting those wrinkles out is impossible. The wrinkles suck because they hold dirt and they make the pool look, imperfect. So that was a big lesson learned this summer!
I put up 3 solar yard lights around the edge of the pool so that in the evening you could see your way to the pool and it just looked cute! I also took a 4 ft tall white plastic shelf I had in the shop and put it beside the pool, right up against it, with a cement block on the bottom shelf. The purpose of this was to have a surface to place items on while in the pool like drinks, cell phones, sunglasses, etc. That worked out great for that! The cement block in the bottom did succeed in keeping the light weight shelf in place during the storms.
Riley had to get in the pool when it didn't even have 2 feet to water in it! =)
Almost there....
Okay we couldn't wait any longer. At this point we both dove in, aired up the floaties and had some fun!
XoXo,
Elizabeth
