So many steps to this planter.....when will I plant?!

Holy cow, I feel like we've been working on this planter forever. I guess it doesn't help that we took a couple weekends off because of the rain. But wow, started on V-day and now we are at the end of February and I still haven't planted!

Well, I got started at least. In those small planter containers, so the seeds won't freeze and die off. Bought 2 cubic feet bags of soil from Home Depot over the weekend to plant my little seedlings. We lined the planter with weed blocking liner and finally attached the corner pieces. The air compressor and staple gun were fun to use! Kinda scary at first (because it blows air every time you staple), but once you get used to it, it's a piece of cake! Look at me, the Lady using the Man's power tools! Looking complete! Next weekend, if we have good weather, I think I'm going to finally plant some stuff!! The veggies that can handle being planted directly I mean (basil, cilantro, lettuce). Moving right along....

In other news, looks like March is going to be a crazy month for us. Seems like lots of things are going on, the biggest is the Man is going on a business trip to Germany! How exciting....actually not so much because he'll be working and going with his boss. As for the Lady, I bought a ticket to go back to the homeland (Japan) to see my family and spend time with my grandparents this coming April. I am so excited to go, I love going to see my family, spending time with them, I love everything about Japan, and I love and miss the food so so much.

(Starting the liner, corners were difficult!)

(Yay, corner piece is finally attached!)

(Say Hello to my little friend.....haha just kidding. Just our little donut compressor
and the staple gun, which also shoots nails too. Nifty little tool)

(Ah the Man looks like such a weekend Dad doesn't he? What's more homey than
seeing your husband mow the lawn and get rid of weeds on a weekend?)

(Lots of dead grass)

(Gorgeous weekend, blue skies and green grass)

(Our rose bushes are on steroids, they keep blooming even though when we don't water it! Grass is looking
much better now, it was getting pretty high)

(This is a BEFORE picture of the grass and rose bushes, crazy how quickly the grass grows)

(Another Before picture of the grass. We don't even water the lawn!)

(Spent the majority of the weekend putting seeds and soil into these little starter planters. These are
mostly tomatoes)

(This is inside my side of the garage, where it's fairly warm and gets good amount of sunlight)

(Grow my little babies!)

Getting excited for some veggies,
The Lady

Finishing up the planter, rain is getting in the way....

I know CA is in a drought, but the rain on the weekends (not the weekdays though!) has really been screwing up our schedules. We can't work on anything outdoors when it's raining, and sadly, our planter has been the same since V-day. I want to start planting already!


We assembled the planter (by putting dowel rods in them) and painted a water sealer on it so the redwood wouldn't rot from all the moisture (which made the redwood look a tad orange). I also sodded the land.....and wow, was that back breaking work or what?!? I have humble appreciation for farmers now. It really does a number on your back racking soil, pulling out weeds, leveling the soil, fluffing up the soil, this and that. We're not even using that ground soil!! Anyway, it was a good learning experience.

(Before the plowing/wedding began)

(Before the plowing/wedding began, hard work!!)

(After, all the grass and weeds are gone)

(Nice and clean)

(Water sealer coated planter)

Spring is around the corner,
The Lady

Valentine's Weekend Project: Planter Building

So here we go!! Here's basically our planter building process. Thursday evening we went to Home Depot and spent hours there (3 to be exact, ugh!) picking out wood, the exact wood, the exact cuts, the exact measurements. I hate planning at HD, but we do it so much! I drew it all out and we decided to go with Option 2, but of course, things changed at the store.

(My notes and drawings, and long planks of redwood)

(That's a lot of wood! Heavy too!)

(So we spent close to $200 (!!!) on redwood itself!! Yes, scary. A $200 planter is NOT worth it right?
Yes, it was alittle painful, but it's a learning experience. And yes, this is the Man's
jerry-ridged version of a truck again)

(Saturday morning, Valentine's day, got up early and got started! Spreading out the pieces in our garage)

(90 degree corners are important!)

(Spread out in our backyard)

(I actually helped quite a bit, I held down the planks and held them together while
the Man drilled in the screws. It was a team effort!)

(First level box done! Two more to go! Of course HD didn't cut all the pieces on
point, so we had some short, some long pieces. Annoying....)

(My clever Man made a template for all the screws to go in the same position on
every piece of wood! Made things go by so much faster, and looks even too!)

(And Voila! El Fin...not quite, but here's 3 levels of boxes! It came out GREAT!! Look how fantastic that looks!!!
Amazed that it actually came out great looking. And the redwood is beautiful)

(Now for the actual hard part...the lip or ledge on this planter. The Man had a hard time
mitering the edges and making it all come together)

(Well here it is!! We had to use the nail gun and some gorilla glue to hold the miter
edges together. This came out great. The 45 degrees actually came together quite well.
Gorilla glue is the only glue I will use for projects like this)

(Finished product! Looks AMAZING!!! Can't wait to get plants and dirt in there!)

Actually, we're not quite done yet....looks done but we're putting on a water sealer coat so the wood doesn't rot. Then we got to put the corner pieces on to hide the butt joints on the corners. Another aesthetic thing, not structural support.

Then we have to line the thing with liner, fill the whole thing up with soil (yes lots of it!) and then finally, finally we get to plant some seeds! Long process folks!

Determined,
The Lady

Spring Is Here: Vegetable Garden & Raised Bed Planters

So it's beginning to warm up...and it's only February!! We have had really nice weather so far, this week it has been in the mid-80s!! Wonderful weather!

Which only means one thing......time to start the vegetable garden! I have a nasty habit to start something (like a fun project such as this) and then lose interest and not finish it! However, this one, I have to finish, I want to finish!! I'm tired of running out to the grocery store and paying $2-3 for a bunch of basil and about $1 for cilantro! We use it so much, it should be readily available. Hence my motivation for really getting this veggie garden started.

I also want to plant some tomatoes, lettuce, kale, green beans, and herbs........a little too optimistic and  a little much for a novice?! Yes....perhaps. I have no clue what I'm doing. They probably won't even sprout. But well, here goes. I definitely want to do tomatoes because spending summers in Japan at my grandparent's house, where my grandpa always had tomatoes, cucumbers and all kinds of veggies, I definitely want that feeling again. We ate tomatoes for days and days, breakfast, lunch and dinner. There was so much, you didn't know what to do with it. It was fantastic. I would love a garden like my grandparents'.

So here we go. I approached the Man about this, to this he scoffed a little bit mostly because he knows how I start projects and then don't finish them....which basically means, he has to take over. I drew up some plans for my raised bed planter boxes and we're going to build them this weekend!! Woohoo!! Hope it all goes well! This is how we spend out Valentine's Day, building planter boxes and getting our backyard ready to plant some veggies (as in cut some ugly trees down, mow the lawn, pull out weeds!!)......ah do we sound like a bunch of retirees now? Lol.

Inspirations {found some neat images online}

(Gorgeous! I would love multiple planter boxes and a backyard this big!)

Our designs {I'm leaning towards Option 2}

Motivated,

The Lady

Babies......

It seems like I am at the age where every which way I look, there are babies. Friends who have babies, friends whose babies are growing up, friends who are pregnant, friends who want to get pregnant, babies, babies, babies.

I am at an age where I should probably have a kid already, at least one. But we have chosen not to have children yet....and frankly, I am fine with that. I really think not every couple should have children. I find as I get older without children, I am realizing it may not be necessary to have children at all.....

However, something inside me cringes every time I see an update on Facebook or Instagram that another friend is pregnant, or the cute baby pictures of their babies. Like I should have children, it's the right thing to do. Have a family, have little ones to watch grow up so one day they can take care of us. Yes, a part of me wants that, but a bigger part of me doesn't.

Call me selfish, call me crazy. It's a lot of responsibility. We are the ones that mold this child's life. There are so many screwed up people in the world, what if my kid turns out like that?! I don't know. I love watching my friends grow into parenthood, I love their children too. I love going to birthday parties and watching them grow, as well as watching my friends transform from a person I knew to a responsible parent. It's hard. The life they have to let go. I'm not sure I want to do that. Like ever.

Yes, is that selfish? Probably. But having children is a choice. And right now, I choose not to. The Man and I choose not to. Our parents must think we're nuts or something. They have certainly brought it up.

I go back and forth constantly, but as I get older and older (in my 30s) and time's ticking, I think do I want children? The Man and I have gotten along fine and it's been only the two of us for the last decade. For now, I will admire from far the babies and children in my life only through the lives of friends and family. And I am okay with that. Really.

Childless and OK with that,
The Lady

Never judge a book by its cover

My dad always said, never judge a book by its cover.

Well, I am human and I pre-judged our neighborhood. Both the Man and I. The streets are dirty and littered with trash, there's hardly any trees like where we live currently, there's a lot of poor or homeless people wandering around, definitely a lower income neighborhood than what we are used to. So I judged.

I have been proven wrong. Recently, the Man was approached by our friendly neighbor who lives right behind us. Luck would have it, he was working in the garage when she was pulling up into her garage. She invited us to the Neighborhood Watch meeting that the surrounding neighborhood has once a month. First off, that was really nice of her to reach out and invite us.

When the day came around, we were excited and a little apprehensive about it. Again, don't judge a book by its cover. Well, in this case, don't judge the people by the neighborhood. Turns out, EVERYONE, no joke, everyone was so very welcoming, so nice, so eclectic and just so friendly. I was blown away. We lived in a fairly decent neighborhood and we never talked to our neighbors. I thought no one talks to their neighbors anymore!

I was overwhelmed that everyone welcomed us with open arms. Everyone wanted to shared their stories, talk to us about our house, talk about restoration of old craftsman homes, talk about the neighborhood, the goods and the bads. It was simply astonishing. Never in my life have I felt such a strong, community presence in a group of people. It was wonderful. Most of the them there for over a decade, some even for 30+ years if not their whole lives. I loved how they watch out for each other, having seasonal get-togethers and coffee together on the weekends on the porch. Everyone knew what was going on in the neighbor as well as the renovation process of their homes. It was great. We heard so many great stories and met so many great and different people.

Despite the look of our neighborhood and the condition its in, there are people in this area who want to make it better and make it inviting. That kind of motivation and willingness makes me want to make our neighborhood better as well. To join this group and be the persistent force behind bettering the community and having something to be proud of. 

So kids, don't judge anything by its cover. Not till you get to know it a little. Trust me. 

Pleasantly surprised,

The Lady