Projects, Looking Ahead

I was thinking I would get pictures around the yard for another yard tour over at the garden blog, but there's not much green to show.  I took some pictures yesterday, but what you see here is all that we have coming up so far, and a bit more behind the stairs.  There are tulips here, too, but the rabbits are eating them as fast as they grow.




I've been itching to get outside and get things done but winter will not go away.  We got more snow again last night, half as much as last post and it melted twice as fast late this morning.  I didn't get a picture but you know what it looks like.  I also read this morning that the last time Madison hit 60ºF was December 4, a very long stretch, indeed.  But I am starting to see hints of green in the lawn and buds on the trees.  We may end up skipping spring again this year and going right into summer.

Basil and Hamish have a birthday coming up on April 20th and they're getting a new cat tree so I had to build a stabilizing base for it, so I got out in the coldness of the garage and cut and sanded a piece of plywood so I can stain and finish it in the basement.  A base adds weight and width to the bottom and keeps it much more stable during leaping take-offs and landings.  The cat tree we bought is the same as the one we have in the front windows now, but the beige carpet wasn't available anymore so we had to get brown.  This is the most sturdy and roomy cat tree we've seen and the cats love it so no more cheap ones for us.  The one in the house will be moved to the porch and the one on the porch will either be thrown away or given to another cat that could use it.

Another project I've been itching to get to is building the fire pit in the back yard.  The smallest fire ring I've been able to find is 28 inches, I bought it a few weeks ago on sale and saved 20 bucks, but the screen cover was still not in stock as of today when I was at the store.  I'd like to put the ring together but I have nowhere to put it so for the time being it is taking up space on my workbench in the garage.  I also checked out the blocks I want to use around the fire ring.  I'm going to use blocks that are more the size and shape of bricks rather than the larger landscape blocks to keep the footprint smaller.  No rush yet though, because before I start anything I need to get the back yard rolled to get all the little bumps and ankle-twisters flattened.  I've already talked to a guy about that, but I think he wants to wait for it to warm up a little.  Then I have to dig out the area and level it, add sand and pound it down, and start building.  I will be using an adhesive to keep the blocks together.  The earlier I get this done the earlier we can warm up by the fire!