Planted and grouted

This weekend was so beautiful outside, so we decided to start our vegetable garden and landscaping.  We didn't want to do too much this year, since we want to see what will grow on its own, so Matt raked out a bunch of the beds in the front of the house and sprinkled wildflower seeds around.  He had found a little planter that is supposed to be for city-dwellers with little decks, but we're using it to start seedlings and then we'll move them to the bigger above-ground planting beds that we're planning on building.

We're planning on cucumbers (mmmm.... homemade pickles...), zucchini (I have the best zucchini bread recipe ever), carrots, green beans, basil, oregano, and two kinds of tomatoes - roma and slicing - that are out in the middle of the yard in Home Depot buckets.

classy

And we have a kitchen backsplash!  This is the before...

...and during...

...and, just this morning, all grouted and pretty!

We're so happy we went with the herringbone pattern above the stove.  It's just a little different to make it a little bit of a focal point.

Matt also has a closet now, so I was able to kick his stuff out of mine.  Again, WAY before:

and now:

Eventually we'll get doors on those, but even now it's so much better than having trash bags and boxes all over the floor.

Things are getting unpacked and slowly finding places.  Here is the little "library" area we're setting up in the loft.

Last night we went for a walk down a road/trail by our house that is popular with four-wheelers and mountain bikers.  We walked for about an hour and a half (45 min in and 45 min out) and we hadn't even gotten to the end of the road/trail.

Here is where our property line ends at the little stream (taken from the road):

Matt is desperate to try fishing in there - he's heard from a few people that there's good fish.

We also came across the place bad husbands are sent:

Actually, town pounds are fairly common up here in older farming communities.  If you came across some cattle or a horse that wasn't yours, you brought it to the town pound; and if you discovered you were missing livestock, you would go over to the pound and check to see if your cow was waiting.