I Know I'm Houseblogging When...

...I'm showering at least once a day.
...My hands are cramped in places I didn't know existed.
...I'm washing down the aspirin with whiskey.

It really does feel remarkably similar to last summer, when I was just pushing myself to the physical extreme.

This spring and summer, the focus is on the exterior of the house. I've been doing lots of work in the garden, getting it into shape for the growing season and the sitting-outside-enjoying-the-yard season.

The difference between interior houseblogging and exterior: uh, the sunburn.

We built the second bed, filled it with soil mix (compost, peat moss, and vermiculite), and planted it today. Sounds easy, huh? But it actually involves hauling around hundreds of pounds of soil amendments, followed by the back-breaking work of mixing them. Ouch!

I rounded up a bunch of folks to join a CSA with me, which will provide most of our basic produce for the summer. So we're growing interesting vegetables (mostly Mexican, because D. makes a mean mean mole) and herbs (which are so great to have fresh from the garden and no farm could keep up with our demand). We planted Ancho Chile Peppers, three varieties of tomatillos (green, purple, and pineapple), Principe Tomato (specially for sundrying), marigold, nasturtium, epazote, cilantro, and basil. We use the square foot gardening system of raised beds.
We also planted oregano, flat-leaf parsley, sage, fennel, and more cilantro in pots.

I've pruned some of the grape vine and most of the bee-ivy. That was easy work. Preparing flower beds is not so easy. Even mowing the lawn is work now that we bought a push-mower:

Even with all that complete, there's a long long list of things to do in the garden.

In addition, we're working on a couple of major projects on the exterior. I've been getting estimates on a fence between our yard and the neighbor's and for painting the exterior wood (windows and porches). The fence requires a building permit and approval by the local architectural review board (because we're in the historic district).

The best part about spring: we bought an outdoor dining table at IKEA this weekend, and have already started enjoying it in the evenings.