The backyard gets further along

The other day was miserable. It was windy and rainy like crazy. But it was followed by a huge rainbow. It arched over the backyard.

Last you saw we had moved the shed, moved the garden, and we had planted things in pots (raspberry bush and flowers).

Well now we have planted the full garden. The stakes in the earth mark the rows:

Dill, Rosemary, Chives, Green Onions

Lettuce, Spinach,

2 kinds of carrots

Peas

Beans

Cucumbers

Asparagus in the front left.

I also bought a couple of plants.

Tomato

Red Bell Pepper

Pumpkin

Butternut Squash

As well as the pot of herbs from Lorne and Janet:

Thyme

Compact Thyme

Tarragon

Mint

Sage

Savory

As I mentioned before we transplanted the strawberries. They seem to be recovering. The leaves that had already started coming in have died off. But there is a ton of new growth. We just may not get any strawberries this year.
We have also made some advances on the area to the left of the deck. You may remember that there were cedar plants there that Logan ripped out in the fall. It has been a big mud whole since then.

Here we are tamping down the dirt.

He we are nearly finished. We have stained the new stairs and rearranged the patio furniture since this photo. But it looks pretty good. We blocked the underside of the deck to hide the dirt and yuck that is below the deck. Laid some flagstone for the BBQ and new stairs to access the new BBQ place.

There is the shed in its new resting place.

The other end of the yard. The big square of dirt to the right of the garden (which used to be the garden) has had grass seed planted. It is really starting to come in.

Video is for the birds

I am working on a wedding video. I have been working on said wedding video for months.
I have never encountered so many technical difficulties and bizarre error messages like I have on this video.

I have spent countless hours on this video. I would say probably 80-100 hours without any hesitation or exaggeration. I was within reach of being done. I mean, one evenings worth of work left and it would be finished.

I left the video for two weeks while I started the show I am working on. But this weekend I thought I would get back at it and finish. Well guess what. The files wouldn't work. They wouldn't open. "The project could not be loaded, it may be damaged or contain outdated elements." Ceremony GONE.
I spent that whole night working on fixing it. Googling the error message. Trying what it suggested. Install, uninstall. I even tried installing it on my lap top as a last resort. NO GO.

So I have asked everyone I know for help over the last few days. Everyone has horror stories.

Tonight. I got back in the saddle. Still gone. Oh well. Go to the other file - the before the wedding getting ready. At the very least I will export the video and have that one in my hand. It opened the file no problem - but wait - the file is empty. What do you mean empty - there is nothing in it - it is like I opened a new project!
Are you kidding me. #$#%#%#*&%$@#*&(#%$&@(#$*&!@#(!*$)*^%$&#*(@(#$*%&$#@*!(*#&$%$#*&$%^$
Okay. So I had a little cry over it. No big deal.

I google some more.

I restore my computer to the day before I finished the file.

Still no go.

I text Jason (we are working on the wedding together) "all is lost. I give up"

He texts back an equally optomistic responce as I search "recover" for the tenth time.

BINGO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I guess the restore brought up auto saved files.

I now have both files. I have backed them up on both of my external hard drives and on my CPU.

I am very happy right now (and exhausted over all of the anguish that it cost).
Only another eight hours wasted with no results.
At least I don't have to start from scratch!

Back yard developments

After the shed moving party we were left with a rather large hole in the ground.
So we cleaned up the crap, turned the dirt and moved the rocks and boards surrounding the currently garden.

A little action shot of Logan hauling the dirt from the current garden to the shed whole.

The strawberry plants were planted last year, so I needed to transplant them. Here they are awaiting their new home.

Almost ready.

So far my strawberries are in, the parsley was transplanted (we will see if it comes back) and I planted Sweet Pea flowers. The rest of the garden will go in any day.

A couple of days ago we picked up bedding plants from the Superstore garden center (much better than most of the garden centers we have visited).

We picked up Pink/Red Geraniums, Yellow/Purple Violas, Unknown Snap Dragons, Purple Petunias, White Assylum and Anouk (which ends up being a type of lavender, I just thought it was pretty).

I potted the plants in terra cotta pots. Some small ones spread through out the back yard and front steps.

I ended up picked up more flowers than could fit my pots because they came 8 in a pack. So I thought I would throw some in the front flower bed. We will see how they grow. There really isn't a lot of sun light and all of these plants ask for full sun with partial shade in the fine print. My tulips are up but no buds yet. I also planted Daffodil bulbs last year and they hadn't popped up yet. Being my first time I didn't mark where I planted them. So while planting today I dug some up, but quickly put them back in. They have started growing they just haven't broken the ground level yet.

We also bought a raspberry tree. Logan was reluctant because he didn't want it spreading. So we bought a big bucket and we will see how it goes. The tag says it will grow flowers the first year.

Movin' a shed

Yesterday we fulfilled Logan's dreams of moving our shed. Since we moved in he has thought and talked about moving the shed from one very conspicuous corner of the yard to one that is out of the way.

The Before. Everyone showed up at noon. We got started right away.
This is everyone's excited face. Yeah - we can do it!

I thought the first hour was going to be a struggle to get the shed started, up out of the hole. The boys gave a little push and it rolled right out. No problem.
A short celebration and the strategy session to figure out how to turn it 180 degrees as well as push it.

We used two 10' ABS tubes and two 2' tubes. As we were turning it we would pause to reposition the tubes. There were many occasions that we need to weight one end of the shed. One way we achieved this was to have the girls hop inside the shed and stand in the corner that was needed. This was the other method.
Another pause to reposition a tube.
Half way. Pressed right up against the deck. (Check out the new deck colour - Tugboat).

The move team: Logan, Lindsay (who kept Charlie out of the way), Jason (new mohawk and all), Dan, Craig, Jen and myself.

We complete the move at 12:38. From arrival at noon to completion 38 minutes. Wow. I honestly thought that at 2:00 we would be stopping for a beer and talking about how we were going to change our approach, or making a trip to home depot. nothing. It was great!

Almost as soon as we finished the sun broke through the clouds and it got hot.

Out came the beer and the snack on the patio set. And then out came the bocce ball.

It was so intense the bocce that the tape measure was used to ensure all points were awarded properly.

Charlie really liked the bocce balls as well. He chased the one red ball around the yard, pushing it with his paws and teeth - trying to bite the damn thing. He loved it.

Trip to Regina

Last weekend we drove to Regina for a visit.

We started the trip with a concert. Mom, Dad, Janet and I went to Sugarland. It was great fun. (Please ignore the double chin I am sporting).
We had great seats. Right beside the stage. The put on a great show. This was a delightful "unplugged" moments.

Very entertaining.They really put an effort into making the show interactive. On the way in to the Agridome (Brandt Center?) they gave everyone a bottle of bubbles and a glow stick. At one point they all had umbrella's (which were lit and used in perfect sync - I always love a little choreography). A very simple ballad began and a huge bubble maker above the stage started. The was our cue to blow bubbles. It was great fun. It didn't really fill the dome - the draft seemed to pull the bubbles from the wand of the person on the left and landing on the person on the right. But it was fun.

Then the people on stage pulled out their glow sticks and performed some choreography in the dark - our cue. This is a shot of the audience with their glow sticks.

Friday we had a huge family dinner at my parents house. Always a great time. I love that my whole family gets together all the time. There doesn't need to be an occasion, just Sunday will do. I love it.

Saturday was low key. Lunch with both sets of parents. Logan took in a soccer game and then we both went out for dinner with Derek and Rory. And then off to Derek's new place for a house warming party. Josh bought a house and Derek and Jesse are living in the basement. It was a good time.

Sunday we had brunch at the Kotlar's with both sets of parents and then we hoped in the car for the long drive home.

They are always too quick.