As the title of this post says, we have dirt! The dump trucks came yesterday and delivered three truckloads of dirt for the foundation of our carport/woodshop. They were supposed to start last Wednesday, but because of all the rain we’ve had lately, the dirt was too wet. Carlos, our cement guy called yesterday when we were on our way home and said, “Where are you? They’re coming with the dirt.” So we hurried home and met up with him. The trucks arrived shortly after. Now we’ve got three big piles of dirt, and the plan is for Carlos and his crew to set up the forms next Tuesday. Once the forms are up, the cement pouring can begin. We’re very excited about this. Since moving here we’ve had all our shop equipment stashed in our yard shed and haven’t been able to do much because we don’t have the space. We’ve been planning for a woodshop since before buying the place but had to wait until our finances were in place. Now they are, and things are happening!

If you ignore the guy in the photo to the left, you can see our original carport behind him. It wasn’t much, just a roof held up by steel poles. It served its purpose, however. We took it down in preparation for the new one.

Then it looked like this. (right)

The waiting is the hardest part for me. I want it done now! I want to get in there and set up our shop. (Okay, step back, take a deep breath. It’ll happen. It will!)

In Other News…

In other news, a couple days ago we built a frame for growing gourds with the steel poles that once held up the old carport. Barb makes things with gourds, like bird feeders, birdhouses, planters, and art projects. We have the seeds, and we have a big bag of hay to lay down for mulch. As soon as we think the weather will cooperate, the seeds are going in the ground.

Speaking of planting, Barb planted three big Elephant Ear bulbs two days back. These things are huge!

We also happened upon a great deal through Barb’s sister Mary. She has a neighbor who is moving and wants to get rid of some things. So we got these two planting tanks, the stands to hold them up, and all the dirt, for $60. We decided we wanted to do above ground planting for our vegetable garden because our soil is not so good here. It’s mostly clay and in the summer it’s hard as rock! We’re pretty sure we can score some other good deals from Mary’s neighbor. Mary says there are lots of things her neighbor doesn’t want to move.

Last week we got another bucket of pecans to shell from Mary, so we’ve been passing the time doing that. You can see that an acorn snuck in with the pecans, but Barb found him.

Well, it’s Saturday morning and it’s raining again. We’ve had over an inch since last night and we have a pond for a yard again. We had just about got the previous rain dried up and now we’re back to standing water. It’s a combination of clay soil and a very high water table. When we first moved here, Southeast Texas was in the middle of a drought. The ground was hard as rock with big cracks through it. Now it’s squishy and our boots squelch in the mud as we walk around. Hopefully it should be dry enough for the cement guys to get to work next week. We can’t wait!