TheBanyanTree: It's FINALLY Spring in Alaska!... and Kentucky!

[Laura]

On 4 May 2004 , snowgoose made this statement:

> I could go on indefinitely . . . the advent of Spring brings out the
> ramble in me. But nature calls and I must answer - it's time to go outside
> and play!!

OOoh, me too!  

My feet hurt, my ankles hurt, my wrists hurt, my back hurts.  But oh! 
what a wonderful hurt!  This past weekend, after a long but sucessful 
yard sale, we finally got out and bought a fountain for our front garden. 
 It will go next to the front stoop, in front of the dryer vent.  That 
vent is strategically placed to kill anything you plant under the front 
windows.  We're hoping that water plants sunk down into a nice water 
feature will be able to withstand the hot blasts of moist air a bit 
better than our previous plants.

Today was so beautiful, I let the kids off easy with their schoolwork, 
and we all went outside.  We all got to play in the mud digging the hole 
for the basin.  Rob assigned himself the job of 'kid who gets to play 
with the hose', so any time we needed water, we had to get his attention 
and direct his waterplay toward the actual water feature.

Matt was *such* a big help!  He just dives right into work like a great 
draft horse.  He dug most of the hole, he carried the 50 pound bag of 
sand around the house, and he pushed 100 pounds of topsoil and mulch 
around from the garage to the front stoop.  Not bad for a kid who just 
turned 11.

Rob was also a big help, but his way of helping is a bit more erratic.  
He is a wonderful go-fer, and believe me, when your Mom is as 
scatterbrained as I am, a good go-fer can be a life saver.  For example, 
I had my hands wrist deep in the mud, two inches of mud stuck to the 
bottom of my shoes, and had to have a towel from inside the house.  If 
Rob hadn't been here to go-fer it for me, I'd probably still be out there 
working.

We got the hole dug, poured a bag and a half of sand in the bottom, and 
put the basin in place.  We leveled it by laying a long level across it 
and scootching the basin around in the sand until the bubble was in the 
middle no matter which way you turned the level.  Then we started packing 
the dirt in around the basin, re-checking the level after every layer of 
dirt.  Then we had to clean the mud out of the bottom of the basin so we 
could put the pump and the rocks in.  Oops.  I didn't expect the sandy 
sludge in the bottom of the bag of rocks.  Guess I shoulda washed those 
rocks off first, huh?   We may have to pump the dirty water out, but I'm 
going to let it sit over night and see if it clears before I make a 
decision about that.

Now that it's in place, we are really loving the fountain.  It burbles 
and bubbles and splashes, right under our front window.  It's wonderful!  
There are no plants in it yet, that has to wait until the water is 
treated and is at least 'room' temperature.  I don't want to shock those 
tiny  miniature water lillies and irises. Then of course, we still have 
to get actual plants in the ground around the basin.  We're not quite 
sure what we're going to put in, but we have some ideas.

I think the best part of the day was, well, the day!  It was 70 degrees, 
sunny, and a nice cool breeze to keep the sweat off.  We had such fun 
playing in our garden today.  I'm *so* glad it's actually spring again!

-- 
Laura
wolfljsh at insightbb.com
http://home.insightbb.com/~wolfljsh/index.html