Those were the [10] days

One year ago today, we:

Phoned in a pizza order
Met our dumpster
Narrowed down some bathroom colors
Cut the stone sink top
Cleaned up the bedroom
Squared off the kitchen floor planks
Turned the back porch electricity on
Put up a plastic ceiling in the bedroom

Faithful readers will remember the start of the 10 Day Challenge. That was one year ago today!

Yesterday evening, as we enjoyed a beer outside after potting up 26 pepper plants, transplanting a half dozen cucumbers, and planting fennel and a dhalia, we thought about what things were like at this time last year. We also agreed that we're just about ready to dive back in and finish a few things that we've left undone: ceiling and vertical trim in the living and dining rooms, thresholds/floor repair under the beams, light fixtures, porch painting. Well, we're almost ready to dive back in.

Most of our efforts over the past few months have gone into the garden. We've managed to prepare about 300 square feet of space by hand (with the exception of that time we used the truck to pull out a huge chunk o' granite) and plant a number of our favorite spring veggies. We just finished putting our tomato plants out - 47 in all (and we gave a dozen away, too...excellent germination this time around!). From our garden, we've been eating lettuces, arugula, spinach, chard, radishes, and our turnips are bustin' out the dirt. There's still a lot of space to prepare and there's still a lot of veggies to go.

It has been nice to enjoy the spring outside this year. We've got some amazing flowers and flowering trees: great bearded irises, lilac, rhododendron, apple, cherry, red bud, dogwood, locust.

Anyway, the point of this post was to say, happy 10 Day Challenge-iversary! And remember, it's much more relaxing to pick a salad than to put up a plastic ceiling in the bedroom!

- John

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