Moving on.
We got the garage organized so that we could make a new pea trellis. Like it?
They're nine and a half inch squares and it's also been stained to resist moisture. This was so easy to make. And it gives that space a little more interest too. I Love It! The first batch of 11 Sugar Snap Peas were planted 2-3 inches apart (the left half), but when I watered the dirt a few of the seeds popped up and swept out of their designated growing areas. I pushed them back down, but they won't be coming up in that nice straight row they were originally in.
Good luck Peas! You're the first of many seeds to be planted in the ground here in our first garden. (Wipes a misty eye -I'm feeling a bit sentimental about my little peas...)
High: 50 Low: 28, sunny; Lunar Phase: Third Quarter, 52% of full.
Updated progress on grass removal from our new garden:
The bottom right of the rectangle is virtually grass free so we’re just going to till that part like the bottom right of the next picture.
The stick represents the end of the vegetable garden. That’s how much more grass needs dug out. It’s a little less than the first half. The trick to such tedious work is to stay focused on the small part you're doing at the moment. Don't look ahead to what needs to be done. Next thing you know, you're already there!
Pitchfork for compost aeration. 
Old wheelbarrow for all my hauling needs. 
Compost/rock sifter Matt made from that 
It's attached using screws with washers.
A family friend gave us a large food-grade barrel we intend to make into a rain barrel to go where it is in this picture.
Last for your viewing pleasure but certainly not least, although a little off-topic, a practically brand new Mongoose mountain bike. There's hardly even any dirt on the tires. It was also given to us by a family friend. I haven’t ridden a bike since I was a kid so this might be interesting. Stay tuned for updates on that.
I’m going to try to get outside and do some digging in the vegetable garden today. I’ve gotten some more done since the last pictures I showed but I’ll just show you that along with today’s progress tomorrow. The wheelbarrow has changed the whole pace of things.
Here's the leggy Broccoli. On the far right is the 3rd batch. If they don't do well, I'm throwing in the towel and buying plants in May. 
Here's everything. See how some look a little droopy? For two mornings now when the light goes off and I check on them, certain ones have been drooped over. At first I freaked out and thought I'd killed off nearly half my crop, but after I poured some water on them, they stood back up like nothing had ever happened. I've been increasing their water, and concluded that they need to be watered twice a day now instead of just once. Our babies are graduating!
High: 53 Low: 32, hail, rain, cloudy, some sun..go figure; Lunar Phase: Waning Gibbous, 86% of full.
Nice, but I wanted to plant Rosemary on either side of the crawspace well. So, it had to go.
There's some tiny fern stuff growing by that manhole. (Manhole..that's a funny word. Wouldn't it be crazy if I were weeding one day and a man popped up out of it?)
(Insert mad and frustrated face here.) Why God? Why?! 
We're thinking about removing the red brick border things from around the trees in front and just having mulch around them. The Crimson King border is worse than the Eastern Pine bed was, although that hasn't been started on yet. I also dug out the non-performing shrub from the west facing bed. It was tough, but I won in the end.
Yes sir. That front side bed is about to spring to life. They're tulips and daffodils, but I don't know which one is which. I'm guessing the top one is the tulip. I'm just so proud that they're sprouting. 
Just kidding.
You lived 8 good years, Holy Tree.
Your trunk made 4 good legs for a future bench.
And your little twigs got composted. 
That took no time at all to fill. That’s even the last level of block on top too. Spring just couldn’t wait for us to get the others cut in time to finish the front. We still need about 6-8 more inches of material to be 3 feet tall, but that‘s no problem. All this came from just the leftover wastes we already had and Sunday’s hoeing and raking. It’s lasagna’d, and I don’t expect this pile to be getting turned over much. I left the stake still in the middle because I haven’t officially said ‘Go’ yet. That’s probably today.
Here’s the somewhat improved south-east corner. It doesn’t look like much, but actually a lot of debris is gone.
Saturday not much got done because it was just cloudy and chilly, but I did get the other half of the flower bed cleaned of rocks and weeds. I used a wire rack thing we’ve been moving around with for years to sift the bad stuff out. Glad that finally found a purpose.
It’s hard metal, and perfectly suited for compost sifting too. Maybe we’ll make a frame for it.
Today I’m going to remove more sod and fill the compost bin the rest of the way up with the grass stuff. -If the weather cooperates. There's 30% chance of rain and more for the next two days.
This is our new gadget that’s right outside the patio doors. It shows the weather, time, temp (plus highs and lows of the day), humidity, and moon phase. Handy. I'm gonna start using this as my weather source instead of the Weather Channel Desktop, although that's handy too.
Then I leveled the area and began building it correctly. 
But I got stuck on that 4th level. See the ends there? They need two half blocks to continue building up one more level so Matt is going to get some blocks cut for me. The measurement on this structure is 3 feet by 3 feet, but does it need to be 3 feet tall? If so, then I’ll need to double the height of the walls and that means obtaining more block somewhere. I already robbed the west side tree of all its blocks. By the way, those blocks are not touching the fence at any point either. That was important during construction.
That put a little delay in my plan, so after a good long break; I started making the edge of the new garden using a tight string as my guide.
Holy Moley!
Digging into the bed, I removed all the pine needles and started getting out the rocks when I hit a tree leg:
It’s right at the surface, so that means I can’t re-sink those brick things. They’re going to have to go up higher or be taken out. If they go up higher, I need another section to finish.
But before a plan had been hatched about the bed, I got a major case of 
I didn’t want to discuss it until a plan had come together, so here it is:
and carried them over to the corner bed along with some other straggler blocks from around the yard.
Then I thought, “I’ll bet I can push that ‘Holy Tree’ over with my bare hands."
And now we need to get a chainsaw and chop that up. (I say we but that’s really a Matt job.)
Well, in my defense, the ground was soft and the rocks came up easily and …I had to. Ok? I had to! Notice how I craftily placed the big rock pile on the other side of the walk where now Matt has to get it up quickly? Heh, heh. A lady knows her man. Although I might just wait it out until I’ve dug up more areas so that we can get it all at the same time. That would be smartest, I guess. Less gas mileage at least.
