Take a Trip With Me...

...inside my mind and how it works! Sometimes even I don't know how I get from point A to point B. Many times there is no plan...and yet, somehow, I get led around a convoluted path that, in the end, is right where I would have wanted to be if I had planned it! Does that even make sense?

On the morning I was waiting for my brother and sister-in-law to arrive to begin the pool deck, I happened out to the "other" side of the back yard. This is where the swing set used to be and where we still play some family games when the whole gang is here. But, it is an area I don't get to very often as it is pretty shady and really not conducive to gardening...at least not for me. As I was walking around, I noticed that many of the fence slats were rotting off at the bottom. This fence was built a long time ago so I would expect that to be the natural progression but, I noticed that there were piles and piles of leaves blown up against the bottom of the fence not to mention a lot of bricks and pavers left over from other projects. I know that that is not a good thing but, somehow over the years, I have just not realized what I was doing until this morning. And that's when I saw it with those darn "new eyes"!

Since that was the morning that would start many mornings of heavy duty cleaning and staining, I didn't get very far...and, quite honestly, didn't think of it again until the other day. Since today was supposed to start out fairly cool, today was the day!

I had forgotten just how many bricks and pavers there were so as I was moving them so that I could rake out the leaves I thought about the area where I store the garbage cans?! Wouldn't everyone?

This is on the side of the garage and I built that fence section years ago so that the garbage cans are not visible from the front. The area has a very deep slope away from the wall and with each rain, it seems to get worse so I am always out there trying to level it off. That is when the thought hit! Why not take all of these bricks and pavers and make a level pad for the cans? And so, as I raked and shoveled the leaves away from the fence, I took the piles that were full of dirt as well and moved it to this spot to start to build some sort of ramp to make moving the cans easier.

Then, I laid the bricks and pavers. I didn't think it would bother me that they were all different...and it wouldn't have but there was something about the bricks that made rolling the cans up difficult.

 And so, the bricks were out and the pavers were all in. Of course, now I need to buy about 27 more to make this as large as it needs to be...assuming, that is, that they are still available. We'll soon find out. And the rest of the bricks will be gone soon. I am still not done raking and shoveling the fence area but, I am done for today!

When I got up this morning, this caught my attention:

And then this:

I think I will spend the rest of the day on this side of the yard! The fruits of my labor are finally paying off over here. Maybe they will be on the other side soon as well. Stay tuned.