garden bed[s].

I've been promising my wife garden beds for a while now. So after spending last weekend in on-again-off-again weather in the mountains - knowing this weekend called for rain - we stayed home to be productive, wiring the garage lights and then - building garden beds.

It started a few weeks ago when we scoped out the southside yard that we knew would be a perfect spot for beds - a) cos the grass pretty much fried last summer and we didn't feel like keeping it and b) cos it gets lots of sun. Oh, and I had a bunch of cedar leftover because I had miscalculated when I built the fence - but it came in handy for these beds. I threw together a quick design, then went to work notching all the ends on the table saw - enough for four beds.

A quick test for squareness and to see if this design would work -

(The 4x4 posts were from back behind the garage - they've been there since I moved in, so I finally found a use for them... )

Then we borrowed my father-in-law's rototiller to dig up half the side yard - the thing just loved to dig, it was like a pup on steroids. Oh, and his posthole digger. Father-in-laws can be a good thing to have around, particularly the handy variety like mine happens to be. K turned the dirt, and I got to work building the thing.

Had to make sure it was level...

It went together really easily. The part that almost took longer was digging dirt from our dirtpile that we made when we cleared the space for the patio. We also sifted dirt from our compost pile using an old screen -

Finally, as it started to rain, K did what she's probably been dying to do... plant the seedlings we picked up at the Farmer's Market in town the day before...

And boom. Done. I just need more of those little plastic 4" caps, and I'll also likely stain it to match the fence (the skinny plank dark, the fat plank light).

a patio.

So... a long time ago (when I first bought the house) in the backyard, there sat... a gazebo.

Made (of course) from lattice. Someone who lived here loved lattice. A lot. If you look closely, that photo is of myself and my dad, well, tearing that business down.

And then my mom and I sweeping up the mess...

In between then and now, I completely regraded and replanted the lawn - whilst having the foresight to plan out where a patio (complete with cedar cover, Christmas mood lights, a BBQ, furniture, and such) would go -

And there it sat. More or less like that. Sure, every so often the weeds would grow too high and need to be pulled. It was a trash collection center before taking stuff to the dump. It was a place to clean tools, and such. It was handy, I'll admit. But it wasn't a patio. And we want a patio.

So it was time to get to work.

This is where having something like InDesign is good. Once the pavers were picked out (same ones as the sidewalk), I was able to easily (read: step and repeat) create a bunch of different patterns as options - eventually going with this one -

Once I knew the size (based off the InDesign layout, which was built to scale), it was time to clear and level the dirt (K had already diligently pulled all the weeds, so this was relatively easy). Then, get a truckload of sand from the landscaping place for $28 (Stuart - you. are. awesome!) and spread it out -

Then, try not to walk in it much (and keep the pup out)...

To level it, K and I took a 2x6 I cut to the width of the space and just pulled it lengthwise. Boom. Then it was time to get (took three trips) and start laying out... pavers. Lots of pavers.

But it went surprisingly well, and quick. I had to adjust the edges I had laid, but no big deal. As I went, I kept checking the levelness of it all...

Perfect! And after more of the same, row after row, some tackled in the evenings after work, then finally completed while K was off on her backpacking bachelorette adventure, it was done!

I rather liked it...

The last step was to fill in all the cracks (and solidify the pavers) with sand -

And (really) done! Now I am working on drawing up plans for a patio cover - half of it will be covered, and half will be left open (the half where we'll build a firepit). And there will be more planters to build around it, and raised walls, that we'll fill with landscaping. Oh, and the final touch... mood lighting, like I originally envisioned all those years ago after tearing down that lattice monstrosity...

time for a fence.

So after we lost Whisper to the neighbor's dog, I took it upon myself to (maybe, at long last) build a fence. This temporary chicken wire one just wouldn't do -

Nor would the six-foot-tall behemoth fence Trevor built a few years ago -

I guess I was looking for something that would fit more with the style of the house... So I drafted up some plans in my trusty sketch book -

I was going for a gate header that was notched just like the architectural beams on the house (and the ones I similarly replicated back on the garage)...

Then figured out supplies. I wanted to do this pattern of a 1x6 with three 1x2s in between, but holy cow were cedar 1x2s expensive. So... enter table saw. Its first real project! The beauty is that 1x4s were ridiculously cheap (I think they were something like $0.60 for a 1x4x5' #3). So with the table saw -

a pile of 1x4s -

and a Julian helper I set out to rip a bunch of them in half -

A half hour later... wallah - a stack of 1x2s -

That was the easy part, and the table saw was seriously a thing of beauty to use, if that phrase even makes sense (which I'm not entirely sure it works in this case). Anyway, I discovered at some point that cedar is not measured the same as other dimensional lumber... in that, a 1x6 is actually 6" wide (instead of 5-1/2"). It's kind of a good thing I discovered this before I started stapling the cedar to the frame - as it happened, it was just a matter of redoing my math (and then realizing of course that I had too much lumber... ).

But up went the 4x4 posts in quick order -

And then the 2x4 joists -

Making sure they were level -

That was actually kind of fun, I have to admit. And relatively easy. Measure 8' in between the posts, dig a post hole, plop a 4x4 post in the hole, level, and fill with concrete. And then I stained them...

Then it was time to start stapling the cedar boards. The math worked out perfectly - with a 3/4" gap in between each board (I intentionally had a maybe-larger-than-typical gap for the style I was after). But that meant I could just use a scrap piece of 1x lumber to set the gap - and so it moved along pretty quickly -

I won't go into the details of the nearly two months the fence sat with half a section in place because of my stapler that sprung a leak, my frustration of ordering a couple different parts kits but not being able to seal every leak, and the repair place in Seattle that then took another month-and-a-half to fix it. Needless to say, it will be a cold day in H-E-double-hockey-sticks before I take a tool there again to be fixed.

Anyway... then I had to build the header I had in mind from 2x6s and 2x4s. This required a jig saw to cut the 2x6 cross joist (and a wood file to smooth the cuts) -

And then a hack saw (to cut the 1/2" threaded pipe that was a little detail I was including to attach the 2x6s to the posts) -

Then attach the six 2x4s (similarly notched) and the header was finished -

Then... the gate, which I built from 2x4s -

K stained it, and I hung it -

And finally, the last little detail I planned was to stain the 1x2 boards the same dark stain as the cedar shakes above the house (and garage), and the wider 1x6 boards a much lighter stain. And then it was finished -

I have to admit - I like it. And I kind of like having a fence. Now I just need to build something between the back of the house and the garage to completely secure those three little chickens...

backyard chickens.

So with a little bit of cajoling from K - I caved and agreed to getting some chicks to raise in the backyard. It seemed like they'd pretty much take care of themselves, they're 'green' (i.e. they create great - umm, waste - for compost that people actually buy at big box home improvement stores and they eat food scraps and bugs and take care of the yard), and - maybe best of all - they'll lay delicious eggs.

It seems the idea of raising a backyard flock is pretty popular these days so by no means is this anything revolutionary, but it's sort of a big step for me. No worries though - as soon as we got our cardboard box of chirping chicks home from the local feed store I was hooked.

Our little chicks act more like puppies playing with each other than chickens... they chase each other around, never peck at one another, and sleep in a big ball of feathers with their heads all on one another. They're adorable.

But clearly getting chicks necessitated building them a suitable home. Not wanting to invest hundreds and hundreds of dollars whilst trying to keep things simple I opted for an A-frame design. But I couldn't just throw together some 2x4 + plywood monstrosity... I wanted it to - well - sort of match the house. Or at least look like it belonged in the same yard. Details details...

So I went to The Depot and picked out a bunch of outdoor treated (not pressure-treated) stock and got to work...

First things first... construct the A-frame and attach the chicken wire -

One end would have a door for them to come in and out cos we planned on letting them free range in the backyard (which would mean having to throw up a chicken fence - but fortunately I found a huge spool of 2x2" fence wire behind the garage perfectly suited for that) and the other would be solid. I had lots of leftover cedar shake from doing the front porch gable (and finishing it) and garage so I thought that'd be a nice touch.

So then for the nest box something like this -

To build each of the panels I just used a sheet of thin plywood I had leftover - then tacked on some leftover roofing felt and 1x3s for trim to get things started -

Then stapled on the shingles -

and boom!

Same thing for the back -

Added some acrylic sheet roofing to the non-nest side for wind/rain protection whilst still letting in light, painted the trim to match the garage and back doors (Benjamin Moore HC-10 stuart gold) and stained the cedar to match the gables and... A-frame chicken coop!

Granted... it'll require some improvements - like another matching panel to go below the nest box on the west side of the coop to protect the little girls from wind/rain and keep them dry (stupid rain). And we'll see what else - but at least for now they have a nice little home for when they're not out and about pecking in their run.

I do love these little chickens...

(Whisper - New Hampshire Red - in front with her sister Willow - same breed - behind... and little Thump - Americauna - on the right... )

(Thump and - umm - either Whisper or Willow... )

(Thump... the crazy one... )

(And little Dori... )