Heavy Lifting

It was another busy day yesterday, although I was able to get more accomplished than expected. We've been planning for some time to create a bed for some peonies I have on order. You might recall we took out our neglected iris bed last spring. The plan was to plant peonies last fall, but then the order fell through when the merchant didn't deliver. It meant putting off planting until this year. In the meantime, we had some time to think about how to do this. The project started yesterday morning with a trip to our local Home Depot, or "Home Desperado," as we like to say.

Mike had already scoped out the location in the yard, measured the space, and priced the bricks. The only thing left to do was to start loading. We had to pick among them to weed out any that were broken, and then stoop down to reach the ones toward the back. It was not a back-friendly thing to do. We needed 56 bricks total, and between the two of us, we got 'er done.

When we'd collected them onto this cart, we headed to the front of the store to pay. The cashier told us to "Have a nice day!" I wondered aloud if, just looking at this, he thought we were going to have a nice day.

While we were waiting to pay, I walked around taking pictures of some of the blooming things in the garden section. Surrounded by all this beauty, one wouldn't expect this to be such a back-breaking beginning.

Oh, but we were only just getting started because all those bricks needed to be loaded into the bed of the truck. Mike took the high road, and I took the low road, and together we got them loaded in.

That was kind of the end of my effort. I was willing to help build the wall, but he said he was just going to do it. And let me just say...Fine. With. Me.

The neighbor was running a saw, and with Mike outside working, we decided to let the kitties outside. They have not been out of the house, except for camping trips, since the end of May. Oh my gosh...what a lot of fun they had, running around and acting like cats.

And they were extremely helpful. Sadie snoopervised the unloading of the bricks.

Smitty snoopervised the building of the wall.

Holy Moly, Sadie! This is going to be the biggest potty box EVER!!! I can't wait to dig my paws in there.

The bricks were, of course, staggered, and that meant cutting one of them in half. We had to purchase a special saw blade at Home Depot for this. These things are beyond my pay grade.

It was a big job, but he had it finished in a couple of hours. Now, it just needs dirt, and that will be on today's agenda. Mike says he'll do that too. He says he doesn't see me shoveling dirt. And again, that's just...Fine. With. Me.

Until the wall was finished, I didn't want to get too involved in a canning project, and so I worked on catching up with the Tiny Tuesday blocks. Two were released last week. The first was this Double Nine Patch.

It was set diagonally.

And when the wall was finished, there was plenty of time to get after my zucchini. I turned them into four pints of Zucchini Garden Pepper Relish. It's pretty easy to make, and I love it on sandwiches. I still have three jars left from last year, and so this should keep me in relish for some time.

There was still time left in the day, and so I did the second Tiny Tuesday block. This one is from Libby at Life on the Hill.

It was straight set.

Okay, and so those are caught up. The kitties came in after about an hour. They needed naps. They spent almost the entire hour on the run, and so they were, um, tired pups.

Sadie wanted to be let into the Clubhouse immediately where she could nap without people coming around wanting to take her picture.

As I said, today will be spent shoveling dirt and doing more canning. I'll be getting after the peaches today. I realized I don't have everything I need for the peach barbecue sauce, and so I'll focus on the chutney today. I haven't made peach chutney for a couple of years, and it's one of my favorites. If there's time, I might make some peach jam too. Tomorrow I'll head into town to run some errands, and I'll get the rest of what I need to make the barbecue sauce.

There are still a few things I'd like to accomplish in the sewing room before month's end. I need to make the August block for the Garden Sunshine quilt, and then I'd like to start sewing together the blocks for the Sundress quilt. I finished up the last of the embroidered dresses back in April...this one:

Now it's time to start sewing together the quilt top. I'll be making my first ever Dresden Plate blocks, and so it's a little intimidating. This morning I watched a YouTube video, and it didn't seem as hard as I thought. My friend Marei insists it's easy, and I think, yeah, well...maybe for you. So anyway...still lots on my plate (pun totally intended) for the remainder of the month. For now, I'll just focus on the Sunday morning blueberry oatmeal pancakes.