Garden!

Yesterday, much to our delight, we spent a few hours with a friend/neighbor constructing and planting a couple of raised beds in her yard.  We've often wished we could do a garden, but have never lived anyplace where we had property available for gardening onsite and/or have never looked into community garden plots at the right time of year and/or have never thought it was worth the undertaking to feed only me while E is gone during the summers.  But this year E is home, our friend around the corner has a bunch of yard space available, and all three of us wanted to go for it!  So we did.

To make the beds, E and I had some boards available from a previous project.  I could leave it at that, but the back story is half of the fun.

When we moved here we had, as usual, a whole bunch of books.  Normally, when we move to a new place, we get several bookshelves off Craigslist (which may or may not actually look good or coordinate with one another) and fill them up.  This time we thought, "Why don't we just make shelves of our own, designed however we choose, that are big enough to hold our book collection?"  Great idea, right?  The answer is more or less yes, as long as your standards aren't too high.  Because, let's face it, our approach to DIY is a little rough around the edges - think more utility, less aesthetic, and definitely less resale value.

We decided we wanted two sets of shelves - each 6 feet tall and 4 feet wide.  So immediately after moving into our (previous) apartment, when we didn't really have any other furniture yet, we bought some boards and set to work on sanding, staining, and finishing them.  They were spread out across stacks of boxes while they dried.  And then we put them together with some pretty basic brackets and screws.

Really, the wood looked pretty nice with the staining and all, although I should note that, during assembly, we became keenly aware of all the knots, warps, and slight variations in length of these boards.  Most importantly, the finished product was big.  And with the cheap brackets, and no bracing on the back, they weren't exactly the strongest construction design on the bookshelf market, particularly once they were loaded up with books.  But perhaps that's the beauty of living in a small apartment: given the limited space, we more or less had to wedge the shelves in between, say, bed and wall, so we didn't have any too much trouble with the shelves leaning at crazy angles.

But then, last winter, we started to get ready for whenever the next big move will come.  One thing we opted to do, which we never have previously, was to get rid of most of the books.  E started listing them on Amazon, and they started getting shipped off to readers all over the country.  And eventually, the giant shelves were unnecessary, so we took them apart and stashed the boards away (in E's office, which is another story).

Until we started brainstorming the Garden.  And now, our knotty, warpy boards have a second life.

We nailed them together, covered them in plastic to try to stave off any weird leaching from the finish, and dumped in the dirt.  

2 beds have been filled with tomatoes (Roma, yellow pear, tomatillo), jalapenos, bell peppers, onions, corn, peas, zucchini, cucumbers, eggplant, lettuce, spinach, and cantaloupe, and a third bed is ready to be planted.

31 weeks

My Current Favorite Thing

This pair of shoes...

...which were part of a stash of clothes, blankets, and bottles that we got on Craigslist. 

And More Destruction

Over the last couple of weeks, the rest of the block has gradually been cleared out.

NASW Conference

I got out of the office for three and a half days this week!  My employer graciously sent me to our state's NASW chapter conference, which was held at the Arlington Hotel in Hot Springs.  Camera stayed at home, so I have no pictures of anything from this trip.  But I can tell you that it was a pretty good trip.

It involved a long, winding, hilly drive through the Ouachita National Forest.  The weather was beautiful all three days in Hot Springs, so I got to spend all my break time walking around the park or up and down Central Ave.  Unfortunately, I did not have time to visit the aquarium, the Wax Museum, or the Gangster Museum, but I ate some pretty good food.  Oh, and the conference itself was productive and engaging. 

The End of 524

It's been 7 weeks since we moved.  March 12 was the move-out deadline for our apartment complex, and things have definitely started to happen since then. 

This is what the whole block used to look like:

Our building was the one at the bottom center of the shot above.  As far as we can tell, the people living in the three houses in the lower right haven't moved out yet, but everyone is out of the apartment buildings along the left/center.  The building at the top right hasn't been used at all during the time we've lived here, but the parking lot was used for commuters.  After the move-out date, things happened with our building almost immediately.  We've made a couple recent visits to see the progress.

March 19 (Ethan had been by a couple of days earlier when apparently there were just a few holes in the roof, but by the time we got there with a camera, this is what we found):

 Standing outside our bedroom window:

 Former laundry room:

And by March 23, this:

Gearing Up

We are lucky, particularly when it comes to baby prep, to live in an area that has tons of thrift stores, well-supplied ones, generally with some pretty good stuff.  This weekend we went a step further and attended a giant consignment event that carries all manner of baby stuff.  There are two of these events held in this area in both the spring and the fall.  Parents-to-be can get a pre-sale pass to shop on Saturday afternoon right before the week of the event.  So, we printed our pass, got there barely early enough to find a parking space, and then waited in line. 

There were a lot of people.  And once the doors were opened, it was pretty intense. 

Fortunately, we went with an agenda.  It was still pretty exhausting, but at least we weren't wandering aimlessly through small spaces filled with pregnant women and manic grandmas.  After a looong wait in the line to pay by credit card (note to self: bring cash next time), we made it out with a car seat, a tub, and a bouncy seat, for a total of about $45.  I guess that means success!

Then we brought the gear home, set it on our living room floor, and thought, "What is this stuff doing here?"  There won't be a baby in this house for another 3.5 months, so it's actually a little disorienting to have this stuff around at this stage.