New Yard Toy!

Vermont has this great web-based community board called Front Porch Forum, organized by town or region (I'm part of the Mad River Valley FPF), based on your street address. It's a pretty sweet free service - a community bulletin board for the digital age. I've scored a few things as well as sent other items to new homes, found a roommate, read about lost-then-found dogs, heard about - then attended - some cool free events, and learned tonight that someone got a kayak stolen from their yard (definitely not cool!). If you're in VT, and not on FPF, you're missing out, and frankly around here, it's more exciting than my facebook feed most days.

Why the excitement? This:

NEW WHEELBARROW!! 

A nearly-new, less than two year old wheelbarrow! For $35! From a really sweet older woman who needed to get a two-wheeled rig. I'm so dang excited. I know, I need a life, but seriously - no more dragging the big blue tarp around, or filling the blue recycling bin. Given how much needs raking from the yard and garden, I'm super excited to have scored this. Now I just need to find the time to get the yard work done. . .



Speaking of the gardens - the daffodils are coming up! I have a TON of bulbs in the gardens, and these guys have started blooming (the first five actually showed up in time for my birthday a few weeks ago!). Still waiting to see what else will emerge. That's the joy of buying a place in the fall when all the spring plantings have long passed.

my favorite spring flower

I also need to borrow a rototiller and set up the new veggie gardens. The more gardens, the less to mow! The yard & gardens aren't the only thing on the spring to-do list. A little sneak peak at the makings of an upcoming house project. This one requires some man-hours and might be longer term. You'll see these guys later, but certainly not on the exterior. Talk about another score - $10 each at the ReStore building supply up in Burlington. They need some sanding and new paint, and I need to extend the length of this top one (there's another shorty hiding to the right, just out of the frame), and you'll see the whole project later.

guess the future of these wooden shutters!

More importantly, or at least something that needs doing soon,  is fixing the garage door. Technically, the garage door opener unit needs fixing. Probably a bigger job than I want to tackle (or hire someone to tackle) so instead I'm going to unhook the unit and put a handle on each side of the door. Problem solved. I bought the parts for less than $6. I just need to take the 15 minutes to do it. Tomorrow. Or maybe on Friday. But definitely soon, since I need to mow in the next week or so and I don't want to drag the mower through the backroom.