One Step at a Time

I don't know about you, but for me spring is the season that I experience the most energy. I have the longest outside ToDo list ever and dream up more things we can do to manicure and care for our yard. Every year I focus on another area that needs cleaned up. This year there are three.

1. The sidewalk.

A couple of years ago we put in a board sidewalk that led to a small patio with a garden arch on it. We were thrilled with the results but ran out of materials before we could link it up to the main patio. It sat that way for a time because of the tricky angles and changes in elevation. Here is the finished sidewalk!

The hard part of the project
Working with different elevations.

That's my sweetie just finishing up!

All done!!! Yay!!!

2. The pergola

Since we no longer have a dog, we decided that we would redo the dog kennel and add that area to the garden. Myles bought a really nice hammock with his Scout bucks and so we decided to build a pergola with the hope that his hammock will fit in there. We've been working on it for a month and it is finally looking nearly done... at least in the framing part. There is still landscaping and staining to do... Here is the project!  I love it. It has turned out to be such a nice place to sit in the evening even in it's currently unfinished state!

Adding the last few screws to the boards.
You can't see her well, but Melodee is assisting.

3. Bye Bye Prickles!

We have a tree that I actually quite like in the front yard, however, it has outdone inself by sending up new baby trees all over the front yard... since this is a tree that grows one inch spikes all over it, we decided that one would be fine, but we don't want a forest of them, so they would have to go! In it's place we have put a 6" pine tree. Hopefully it will get its roots in and take off quickly.

Just starting to cut this tree down.
It's going to seem weird with it gone!

Since it is so prickly we cut it down
a foot at a time.
Nearly done! You can see all the branches on the
ground around its base.

So for the month of May, these are the projects we have been working on this spring! It feels so good to have things improving, even though there is yet so much to do. Every year it gets a little better and it is so fulfilling to make progress, in little bites, toward a larger goal. Success - overcoming the natural - always feels good. It is much the same in life. Just like in a garden where weeds naturally grow, focusing on and growing in specific parts of our lives consistently over time, will tame our spirits, cultivate and refine our characters and make us better people. There is such joy in overcoming hard things. Life is so good!