Resurrecting the Yard

These tulips always sprout up in the Spring, then die off after a couple weeks.

'Sup gang.

Here we are in the first weekend of May, at long last.  This month is like Summer's Pre-Season (similar to what November is to December), and this is when we Houghs really start itching to be outdoors throwing back drinks with friends, boating on the lake with family, or being out in our backyard bronzing and doing yard work. 

This weekend didn't see as much of the former two activities, but plenty of the third.  Kris had been pestering me for weeks - nay, months - to set up our gazebo (yes, Kris bought a gazebo last fall and the large box has been sitting in our garage taking up all kinds of valuable space.)  I've kept telling her 'no' because the rain and snow kept coming and I didn't want the assembly to get all jacked up, but this weekend we've had nothing but awesome, sunny weather.

We have this magnolia tree in the backyard that is absolutely gorgeous. . . for about two weeks, while the flowers are in bloom.  Then all the petals wither and fall off the tree and the tree looks like any other tree.  Still. . . for those two weeks we get some pretty awesome pics.

Well, today I finally relented.

Alayna and Kris start assembling the infamous gazebo on the patio. 

While she and Alayna threw together the gazebo, Yours Truly began trimming a crap-load of trees in our backyard that I've been wanting to scale down for years now.  I then, rather stupidly, decided to burn all the brush so that I wouldn't have to worry about bagging it up in those lawn bags you can pick up from hardware stores.  The trees took forever to catch on fire, as they were still full of moisture, so when they eventually did catch fire they shot up the most ridiculous amount of smoke I've ever witnessed in a backyard bonfire.

Whoops.

Anyway, we had ourselves a labor-intensive but enjoyable Saturday, and felt pretty damn productive by the end of the evening, all things considered.

Check it out, folks. . .

Close up shot of the magnolias (is that the name of the flower, or the tree?)

I offered to help them a few times, but they were being 'independent women' about needing a man's help.  Oh well.

(You can spot the smoke starting to climb up from my fire in the background, there.)

I took a long, long time - with plenty of cardboard, firestarter, kindling, and gasoline - to get this thing going.  Those tree branches were far from dead.

Kris attempts to hang the hook from the center of the structure.  Almost has it.

She loves her picture being taken.

Just about finished with the gazebo. . .

Guess which child this is.  Go ahead.  Guess.

The neighbors must have LOVED me today. . .

Taking a break (and yes, I'm aware my lawn shoes are gross.)

Finished product (though Kris and I later this weekend went out and bought a set of black-and-white matching chair cushions - I'm sure you'll see pics of those in May's installment of monthly randoms.)

Not a lot of smoke now - after hours of burning trees, I had a solid bed of coals going.  Anything that fell into that pit of death instantly caught on fire.

Spied the girls 'fighting' in the backyard - I took this of the two of them screwing around from inside the kitchen.

Spotted.

After dinner, we decided to play some cards with the girls under our newly-assembled gazebo.  I honored the occasion with one of my all-time favorite beers.

The dogs love the recently-mowed grass (while my rider was being worked on by the folks over Ace Hardware, I had to push mow the entirety of the property - takes about two frickin' hours.)

I hate this game.

Umm. . . time to play a new game.

This squirrel fell out of the tree once and the dogs almost got him.  He then clamored up this super-thin branch - a mere seven feet off the ground - that was on the verge of snapping under his considerable girth.  This squirrel must eat babies or something.

The girls wanted to 'do my hair' while we were winding down from cards.  Not sure if I'm gonna keep my hair like this or not.

Later that evening, winding down with our usual couch hang-out in front of the TV.  Definitely deserved after a day toiling way in the yard, I'll say that much.

- Brian