Mid-August Pause

We have a few days this week between visitors. My parents left yesterday morning, and our friends arrive Thursday afternoon. So besides resting, I've also been canning, working outside, and soon will be cleaning inside, too.

Though our garden has been largely neglected this year, we have been canning a little bit... 6 jars of tomato sauce, ready-to-use for pasta or pizza, and many, many jars of pickles.

And we are almost done with the non-shed shed! Here is a "before-we-moved-in photo" where you can see the FOUR outbuildings (plus the large, nasty hedge/bush/tree thing which has been chopped down but still needs to be fully removed). With the removal of this non-shed shed, that leaves only two, the one for the yard equipment and the cinderblock one at back right.

In this picture from last week, you can see the mountain of yard waste that my parents helped us clean out. The picture makes that pile look deceptively like a molehill. It has taken thirty-plus bags so far to clear it all out, and many hours of mulching branches and shoveling all manner of clippings, leaves, and grubs.

Here, you can see that Frédéric aggressively chopped down the privet hedge behind the non-shed shed, and as of today, we can see concrete! I might have finished today, except that I ran out of yard waste bags. That means another trip to the dump for Frédéric tomorrow. And a big thank you to Mom & Dad for all your hard work clearing this mess out!

Next step, remove the concrete - it's only thin pieces, not a poured slab - and figure out what we want to do with all that reclaimed yard space!