Enjoying the View

 

The three red Xs on the deck are marking boards to be replaced. This deck is enormous. 24' x 24'.  More square footage than some of the studio apartments at the retirement community in Columbia, MD where we used to live.  (We had a 2 bedroom but it was only twice the size of this deck.) The only furniture we have so far are two Adirondack chairs (Christmas gift) and two lounge chairs that were left in barn. There's also the bench that you can see. No grill, no table and chairs, no umbrella - all on list to get once barn is done.  We need a place to put the stuff come winter!  We also need the deck repaired and in July when house is painted, the deck will be pressure washed and stained.

In the meantime, come sit awhile and enjoy the view!

Blooms to look forward to

 I do have some buds and plants to look forward to enjoying.

This iris - color unknown for now.

My herbs from the bottom - up: sage, mint, rosemary, basil, and thyme.

I've planted two of these mixtures. The geraniums are a deep red shade that pops.

Tamed this garden bed and planted marigolds and cleome.  The bricks were buried under dirt and weeds. I dug them out and weeks later 

decided I needed a walkway of sorts to the hose bib.

This lupine will be pink.

Not sure about the other plant - a daisy?

Transplanted iris are having a rough time but one showed a bud today.

This iris transplant is liking its spot.

Other lupine transplants will produce some flowers.

Columbine volunteers from daughter's garden have set blossoms already.

I planted 4 colors of impatiens that should like this mostly shaded spot.

Finally this huge clump of Siberian iris should not disappoint me.

Weed or Perennial?

 I need some help identifying plants in garden beds.  Can't tell what is a weed or a perennial.

#1

#2

#3

#4

also #4 on other side of fence.

#5 - this is the one I thought was asparagus coming up.

#6 I think this is a spider wort.

#7 This appears in the wildflower book as in poppy family - Celandine.

Whatever help you can give is greatly appreciated.

Another Project Complete

When Dan dismantled the loft in the barn I salvaged one piece of wood to make a shelf for the rec room upstairs in the barn.

 

The board is 15 feet long and had been part of the flooring of that loft.

Saw marks were evident from a sash type saw mill.

The bark on the edge was not removed.

The above three photos are from when I laid it on the bench on the deck to sand it. I should have washed the board first before the first two grits of sand paper.  Dan did then help me scrub it and even after sanding there was lots of dirt to be removed. Once dried I sanded it some more with several finer grits before Dan took it to the basement where I set up drop clothes to polyurethane the board.

I did three coats on the top and two on the underneath.

Below shows its final spot in the rec room.

The bark edge really gives it a neat effect I think.

I have a box of artifacts to be washed and placed on there for viewing along with the ping pong balls and paddles.

Next big project will be painting the rec room.  Granddaughter #2 and I were up there this morning and talked about painting it with green hills, cows, blue sky, clouds, a rainbow and flowers.  It should be fun.  But before any of that goes up all those walls need a washing and primer coat on the wallboard. Stay tuned!