Sweet Sweet Organization

Yesterday was a marathon day of emptying out, cleaning, and re-organizing the garden side of my back shed.  I owe Red a huge thank you for dedicating the better part of his day to my very dusty project.  It was the perfect weekend to tackle the project; it wasn't really hot out, and it was bulky trash weekend.  Most of the items that I discarded had a very short life on the parkway before "pickers" absconded with them.

I forgot to take "before" photos -- lately I've been forgetting that often! -- but suffice it to say that when we started, you couldn't even walk into the shed it was so full and so disorganized.  And on some days, I had to struggle to completely close the doors to lock them -- they were literally bulging.

Well no more!  Now I can stand in the middle of the room, stretch my arms out, and spin around.  I know, because I did that.  And periodically through the afternoon I did little jigs of joy, and clapped and giggled at the progress we were making.  The end result is ... magical.  And I can find everything.  I found some things that I forgot I had - (shocking, right?)

When I moved in to my house, the shed was full of cans and cans and CANS of old paint, and old chemicals.  Red and I did more than one trip to the City of Dallas chemical drop off point.  There were some built in wooden shelves on one side - decent - and a metal rack on the left side.  Over time, the metal rack proved to have shelves that were too deep to find things, and it was rusty.  Sort of gross.  So, the metal shelving came out, and the wooden shelves remained.  Only took me 2 years...

Red had given me a shelf/work bench kit for Christmas last year.  Well he actually gave me two, and the first one we built for my workshop - FAB.  (I can't find a photo of it... hmmm)  This one is the type where the connectors were provided, and then you insert 2"x4"s to make the structure into whatever you want.  I chose sort of a potting bench design.  And, bonus, I had enough 2"x4"s in my shop to build it -- I didn't have to go buy more.  Sweet.

So, here's what you see now when you open the double doors - the space looks huge to me!

Sitting majestically in the middle is my rechargeable battery lawnmower.  Love.  I got that during a mower exchange program the City had a few years ago.  Bring in your old stinky gas mower, and get this battery one for $200.  I think they retail for $400.  Anyway -- highly recommend.  It is so quiet!  And it doesn't stink... And my new candy-apple-red tiller to the left of the mower.

Here is the left wall, with the shelving we built:

I have several hooks on the underside of the top shelf for all my garden tools.  We affixed what hooks I had on hand -- more than you might expect -- Red said he didn't know I had a hook fetish... lol  but I will be adding more.  You really can't have too many...

I can add a middle shelf, lengthwise there above the table where you see the black connectors.  I ran out of lumber, but then realized that I might like it open like that, without a shelf.  And then below, 5 gallon buckets fit just perfectly.  I'd like to say I planned that...

Here is the view on the right hand side, where the existing shelves are:

Yes, that's my natural gas meter, inside my shed.  Yeah, I don't know.  Don't ask...  There are two shelves for all my bags of soils and soil amendments.  A big hook for my extension cords.  A shelf for all my windshield washer fluid (why do I have 6 jugs of that?  We don't know.)  A shelf for all the citronella for my lanterns... a shelf for all my car washing supplies... it just goes on and on in a blissful sort of way. 

Red got creative on space saving and hung several things from the rafters.  Behold, the drink tub that has the dog's Elizabethan Collar inside (the lampshade type...)

Behold, all my plant support stakes -- I've never found a decent way to store those where they don't get all tangled up and bent... and next to those my tomato cages and raspberry supports.

And at the end of the shelving, a corner we left for tall things.  It does have some tall things in it, in the back, I promise!

I had a great day on Saturday -- the weather here was beautiful, and I had the whole day free to do whatever.  I spent most of the day on projects, just taking my time and enjoying the weather.

One thing I accomplished was applying stain and seal to the outdoor dining table and benches.  The table I had stained previously, but the sun had really faded it out.  The benches had not ever been stained.  I touched the benches with a sander, applied a wood conditioner (boy did the old wood suck that up!) and then applied the stain.  The next day I applied a thin coat of polyeurethane.  Voila!

I'm just tickled with the end product!  I've already spent some time out there and it's really great.

When I was through with that, I worked some more on my interior trim/door frame project, which took a one day detour.  You know how you're working on one project, and then you realize it's going to force you to do a side project?  That's what happened.  I hope to finish the side project today, and if I do I'll post photos tomorrow. 

Lack of Project Progress

My dog's been sick, I am sick... projects are not happening.  Bear with me --  I'll be back.

Benches

Our heat finally broke over the weekend!  Cooler days and nights lent a giddy atmosphere to the most mundane of tasks.  Stepping outside was no longer similar to opening your oven door.  Ahhh.  It is just bliss.  I did yoga in my backyard every day over the long weekend -- some days twice.  And more than once I laid out back and read my book under the trees.  Just me, Greta and the birds.  It really goes a long ways towards getting re-grounded and back to basics.

The idea of Fall and being able to spend time outdoors gave me motivation to finish up retro-fitting the benches from my neighbors' deck to accompany my cedar dining table in the backyard.  Red came over to help.  It was a fun project to fool around with -- not difficult aside from some crazy saw angles -- but having another set of hands sure made manuevering the long benches easier.

Here is the end product -- so nice to have the cement blocks out from under the benches...

They rest a bit unevenly because the ground is uneven -- once again, welcome to my sloped yard.  I'll try the benches out a few times, and if they seem too unsteady I'll even out the ground some.  I'm also going to re-apply the mahoghany stain to the table top, and apply it for the first time to the benches.  If you look at the table base in the top photo you can see the color of the stain before the sun faded it.  It's a deep, rich brown that will match my backsteps.

I'm looking forward to finally hosting a neighbor dinner party as the nights cool off!  My nearby potting table can serve as a buffet, and I'll get the copper bowl fire pit out.  I'd like to get the car port wall treatment done too, as a backdrop, but we'll see how fast that happens.

I did a bit of work on my interior door frame this weekend as well, but neglected to snap photos.  I'll try to remember to do that tonight.

Fall Seed Flats

It's hard to imagine that it's time to start seeds for a Fall garden, but from what I've been reading it's not only time, it's past time.  Some local gardeners suggested starting some seeds outdoors a few weeks ago for a Fall garden -- it's been so hot and dry here -- I can't fathom how they would survive.  I had trouble finding the motivation but this past weekend I did get my seeds in starter pots:

I mixed a potting soil mix with all sorts of yummies in it -- the natural version of vermiculite for aeration, some organic compost... I soaked the "black gold" from my worm farm in water from my rain barrels and strained it for super nutrious water... I wrote out little tags, skewered them on toothpicks and marked the ends of my rows so I'd know what was what.  I planted seeds for pumpkins for jack'o'lanterns, carrots, cilantro, parsley, chives, peas, rutabaga, butter lettuce, spinach...   Beautfiul.  How could I go wrong?

Unfortunately, I chose a pen that runs.

This is the only remaining legible tag.  Oh, this is going to be fun.