Toes and Hoes

First let me start of by saying that the title was TaTa's idea....

Like yesterday, today was another busy day. I got up at 7am and headed outside to put the first coat of the sealer on the walkway. The past few mornings have been warm, however, this morning was not. TaTa and Chelsea got up around 8am and came outside to help me. Once the first coat was on, we had to let it dry for 4 hours before putting the second coat on. Below is a before picture (after not yet taken) and a picture of TaTa hard at work.



While the walkway was drying, I began sanding the deck with my new sander. I forgot to take a before and after picture but after 3 hours, I had sanded the deck. Even without staining the deck, the deck look 100% better than it did before. I pretty much sanded off the stain on the base of the deck and evened the high spots and rough spots. Except for some of the nails popping up, the deck is nice and smooth, all set to be stained. TaTa and I are hopefully going to stain the deck in the next few weeks. It will probably take a few coats. While painting is not on the top of my list of things I like to do, staining falls right at the bottom of my list because of the amount of time it takes to pain the railings and all the slats! After I got the deck sanded, the mulch man called and said he was on his way over to deliver the 3 yards of mulch I bought the day prior. After he dropped off the mulch, TaTa and I began spreading it. The bed by the front porch did not take too much mulch because we put down a good layer the year prior. The bed at the end of the driveway took about 2 of the 3 yards. I put down about 4-6 inches of mulch there in the hopes that it would prevent the weeds from coming up and sealing in the much needed moisture for our plants. Last year we did not put a good thick layer down and as a result, the plants dried out pretty quickly. Below are a couple of pictures of our freshly mulched beds. The front bed looks pretty empty because the hydrangeas have not bloomed yet, though the leaves are coming out.



While TaTa and I were outside, Ms. Monroe watched to make sure we were not messing up and/or slacking off. Hired help is hard to find. Occasionally she laid on the driveway or grass and took a nap. At one point she decided to go up to the front porch and sleep for a bit before coming back down to check in on us. Occasionally Chelsea decided to walk down the road, trying to see how far she could get before we noticed. I had asked TaTa to get me a rake while I was spreading the mulch. 2 minutes later I heard her scream "Oh F*CK!" I "strolled" (according to Kristin) up the driveway to fine her laying on the garage floor. When I asked what had happened, she pointed to where the ax had fallen onto her big toe and cracked her nail. I ran inside and got a bowl of water and filled with water and ice. I set the bowl on the walkway while Kristin sat on the step putting her toe in it. Ms. Monroe, who too hurt her toe (monkey see, monkey do) decided she was going to soak her paw in the water too. I took a couple of videos to highlight the two injured soldiers.





After we got done putting down the mulch, TaTa and I put on another coat of the sealer on the walkway. We began noticing that the sealer was making the walkway look somewhat shiny, like it was wet. I am hoping to get a third coat down at some point this week, early in the morning before the sun hits it. After we got done, TaTa headed inside, while I picked up a few things in front. While at the end of the driveway, I noticed someone watching me, occasionally nodding off. Hmmm, I wonder who it was.....



It was about 4:30pm before we came inside. While I vacuumed and mopped the floor, TaTa gave Chelsea a bath and herself one too! I soon thereafter followed suit. After we got washed up, we dried the dog, picked up a few things in the house and did some errands, before coming home and getting ourselves ready for work. All in all it was a good weekend. We got a TON of things done around the house. With the exception of having to stain the deck and put another coat of sealer down, I think we are just about done. The next project will be to get all our pots out and plant flowers. Oh, yeah, and MOW THE DAMN LAWN....Ugh!