Fixing what ain't broke

Super awesome weekend! Best yet this year.

I spent the weekend doing nothing but working in the yard. I moved some boulders, put a few in place on the west side of the driveway, bought mulch and put it around my trees and shrubs in the front, watered everything, stirred my compost pile, stacked wood and sticks, mowed, and then did a sort of unnecessary thing - I tore out a perfectly good built-in rock fire pit.

Actually it wasn't perfectly good. I had wanted to redo it and get the fire a bit further away from the patio - don't need more heat playing thermal expansion games with my new concrete. Plus I think someone called it "cute" and/or "litte". And that just ain't right.

So I tore it out.



And rebuilt it.



Now it's bigger, deeper, wider, and probably hotter, too.

Stuff I built - a patio update

This is the patio right after they took the forms off. It looks a lot better now that it has a couple chairs, a bench, another bench, and stuff. Kinda looks like 1/4 of Mickey's head, upside down, doesn't it?

So here are a couple pics of the stuff I've built and put on the patio. First is a cedar trellis, on which I have hung some tiki lights (not pictured). Sort of a screen to section off the AC and firewood area.

Also, I built a cedar planter box/bench combo, which now holds some herbs (also not pictured). Thanks for the herbs, sis!

There's lots of landscaping left to do around the patio - mainly adding dirt, mulch, maybe plants. I still need to complete the boulder wall project in front, so landscaping in back will likely come later. And I keep putting off scraping and painting the house, mostly because I just don't want to do it. I mean who would?

And I shall call it "Timmy"

I threw the summer kick-off party Sunday, the inaugural bash on the new patio. I'd say it was a smashing success. Had a couple of neighbors over, the bro, lots of friends... There was much food, drink and burning of stuff. Adam made pitcher after pitcher of Mojitos, Jenny made some killer peanut butter chocolate bars, among many other tasty treats. We played volleyball in near darkness, then whiffle ball batting practice in complete darkness. As it got cooler we put on extra layers and lit a fire. Hardly anything got broken at all until...

Lee and I decided the patio needed christening (with a bottle of Premium, of course). So after much fanfare and a brief naming brainstorm, the patio was dubbed Kon-Tiki-Tiki-Lau in a glorious spray of golden, foamy beer and shards of glass. It was quite lovely.

I can't wait until the next one...