Deck Stairs Project

I started this project in October 2011 before going indoors. Lori thinks we need stairs going down from the Kitchen deck to have better access to the lower deck. I guess that makes sense so we won't have to take food and stuff out through the front door and around the house to the back or take it through the livingroom to the stairs, go downstairs and wind through the boxes and then out the basement door. With the pad all poured for the bottom of the stairs I was able to finish the brick patio earlier this spring. Now for the Stairs Project.

Patio Project

May 27, 2012 I wanted to get back to my deck stairs and patio project. It took me quite a while to figure out the rise and runs for the steps and where I would need to have the 3'x3' pad at the bottom of the stairs, but once I got that figured It took about 16 bags of cement and about three hours to get that project done.

Then I started looking at and pricing out the blocks, the pattern I was going to use, and how to make the retaining walls on either side and how I was going to keep it all level as I went. I started the base for the wall from the cement pad I poured for the stairs and leveled the block all the way back to the house. When I got back there the blocks laid in perfect without having to cut one and giving us about two inches for sand under the pavers. On the other side we started from the house and went out to the poles for the landing of the stairs and again it turned out perfect. As we started laying the pavers across the foundation to the pad at the basement door the pavers fit in perfect there without having to cut any. For not figuring on those things we did pretty good!!!

Can you see our little friend that came to watch us work on this day?

A baby Toad!!!!

First of June, we had to put the patio on hold for a couple of weeks while we saved the garden from disappearing and moved some families into the Ward and had Stake Conference and waited til the next payday. Trying to decide how to finsh up the edge also. Should we get an under the ground guard rail system to keep the pavers in place or dig out a trench for the bigger wall blocks to lay even with the pavers but give it a nice thick border. In the meantime we are going to glue the block walls on either side into place.

Here is the patio all done. Lori got it cleaned and sealed this morning. We now are just going to build up the block walls on either side about four rows high and plant flowers under the windows.

Success in the Vegetable Garden

April 2012, We have had a very busy April this year with all the things we have started and we are wanting to get done. This is the Veggie garden this year. First we planted the broccoli and cauliflower and the peas in April and the the carrots and onions. In May we added the beans and corn, peppers and the tomatoes. Peas came in kinda sketchy but the beans look great don't they. It's now June and the corn is about knee high. Then tradgedy struck. I went out one morning to find the leaves were gone off the beans!! Dang Wabbits!! We spent the next three nights putting up a fence around the garden. My neighbor Walt had given me all the posts and boards from his old white fence when he replaced it with the new white vinyl one you can see there in the back ground. We debated which fencing to get and went with the least expensive green plastic mesh which turned out to be a mistake. The rabbits chewed right through it and got in again. So we went back and got a wire mesh fence that we put up over the green plastic. Now we need to figure out some kind of gate.
On June 8th we picked our first harvest from the garden, the broccoli. We got 8 heads of broccoli and they are now in the freezer. Today, June 14th we picked our first peas and more broccoli shoots. Yay!

The Gate turned out awesome. It is just made of PVC pipe and the wire mesh we bought for the fence is just zip-tied onto it. I screwed a flat 1x3 onto the posts just over hanging about 1 1/2 " on either side and then just slide the gate up to take it off. I can fit the rotiller through the opening, then just slide the gate down in again, no hinges, no swing, no sag, awesome! No more pesky wabbits and it will keep the deer out also!

Here is an updated picture of the garden taken later in June. We put the poles in for the beans and the cages around the tomatoes. The rabbits have not been in the garden since we put up the wire mesh. Everything is looking good!