New Homemade Playhouse for the Kids!

The pre-built playhouse we purchased online a few years back, has proved to be quite a poor investment... the lightweight wood started to split, the playhouse became sort of twisted and out-of-square. And the whole thing would rock and quake with even the slightest swing of the swingset. 

So, after the majority of our home had been repaired from the fire, we got to work on tearing down the old playhouse and building a new one, from the ground up. 

I didn't get any pictures of us building the base and floor, but we set it up high enough that the kids could play underneath, which they love to do. The treated 4x4 posts are set in concrete. Floor joists are 2x6.  

The big boys helped us with some cutting, carrying, and holding. 

All framed up. 

1/4" plywood on walls. 

The ramp is done. Originally we thought we'd put old tires on the ramp as a climb-up spot, but that seemed dangerous to me, as well as a potential haven for wasps.

All done! This was our first time painting anything in camouflage, so we didn't really know what we were doing. 

We used a few different colors of paint, and some pieces of branches off our trees, and just started covering the whole thing with these "stencils". I think it turned out pretty cool!

It really does blend right in with the yard. 

The kids LOVE it! It's big enough and sturdy enough that even the older boys can play and swing on it too. Hopefully we'll get many years of use out of this!

New Fence Going Up

We started work on our new front yard fence recently. We really like the way it is coming along. It'll encompass our entire front yard, and will make it so much safer for the kids to play.

Predrilling the holes on the pickets.

We used six-foot privacy fence pickets, cut in half. Fence will be just over three-feet tall when finished.



A Rose is a Rose

I love my roses so much, I just can't stop taking pictures of them!

Bountiful Beauty

I cannot even describe the level of contentment I feel while spending time outside. Everything is so full of life right now and there is beauty around every corner. I love our little plot of earth and feel so blessed.

Our baby tomatoes, coming in nicely. I'm doing container gardening again this year, since I'm not sure if the grasshoppers will make their return this summer or not. So far we haven't seen a single one, but it's still early.

 

One of my "new" roses, given to me by my mom two years ago. It is SO full of buds!

 

Above, one of our Knockout rose bushes.

 

The two little guys love spending time in the yard...

 

As you can see by all the toys, our new "rose garden" is a favorite place to play.

 

An "old" rose that was here when we moved in.

 

This was a surprise... a strange-looking "bush" that up until this spring had never had so much as a flower on it, now has baby peaches!

 

This is our massive old rose bush that we've discovered actually has two smaller roses growing under/within it. It's so wonderful seeing all the beautiful surprises in nature!

 

Old-fashioned Beauty

I love these old roses that have probably been growing for decades. I rarely do any pruning to them, and every year they are adorned with the most beautiful, fragrant roses.

Pumpkins in the Compost Pile

After throwing an old Halloween pumpkin into the compost pile, I didn't think the chickens would leave it alone enough to grow. I was wrong!