Firsts

Many years ago, before Kieran was even born, I planted a grapevine. The idea was that the grapevine would grow up and produce . . . grapes. Easy-peasy like. Somehow, however, my ideas about things don't always translate into reality. Take, for instance, the grapevine. 

Over the past five or so years, I've never gotten a harvest of the delicious seedless Concord grapes I was originally dreaming about. One year there was a drought that we couldn't overcome by carrying buckets of water from the creek to the plants. The next year, the deer and other animals ate the leaves from the vines early in the summer. The next year, I put netting around the vine but the deer reached over the netting to get at the vines. And so it went. 

This year, I determined I would have grapes from the vine and sprayed Deer-Out around the base of the vine in late spring. And then again, for good measure, in the middle of summer.

My efforts have finally been rewarded.

And the other day, I harvested my very first grapes from the vine. 

They tasted even better than I thought they would.

Cael agreed with me and asked for some for his snack that evening (along with some chocolate cake).

. . .

In other "first" news, Kieran has had his first appropriately loose tooth for several weeks (he knocked his two top front teeth on the playset last year and we thought he might loose them but they hung on). He hasn't been wiggling it or otherwise getting it to come out, so when Seth saw how loose it was the other day, he decided to go ahead and pull it so that Kieran didn't accidentally swallow it when it decided to pop out on its own.

So he and Kieran spent part of last Saturday afternoon working on getting the tooth out -- Kieran spent it crying in anticipation of the tooth-pulling and Seth spent it trying to get Kieran to keep his mouth open so that he could get a good grip on the tooth.

It ended well, with Kieran barely even knowing when the tooth actually came out (and I was thankful Seth didn't resort to the door trick or the rocket-pulling trick). Ever since, he's been happy to show people his "loose tooth." 

(Yes, he's only five and that seems early to lose a tooth. I've heard anecdotal evidence that others with Williams syndrome have also lost their teeth at an earlier-than-usual age but don't have a particular reason for it.)

He showed his music therapist his mouth today and she asked if he had been brave. He said, "No, I wasn't brave. I was scared." At least he's honest!

"My" "Weekend" "Project"

Let me just get this out of the way: This is not one of those DIY posts about how to make a patio easily and cheaply out of a used washing machine drum and other found objects, including--but not limited to--paper towel tubes, chenille stems, and used bird netting. First, the used washing machine drum is in our neighbor's yard and I'm scared to venture over there because the house is being foreclosed on and that's where Seth threw the mink he euthanized several months ago. Second, I have no idea how to transform any of that stuff into anything, anyway--even with Pinterest's help. 

Instead, this post is about how to make a patio using lots of money and pretty much no found objects whatsoever. Consider yourself warned. 

A few months ago, I found a pile of old bricks down by our creek and hauled them up to the house, with the thought that if I got enough of them, I could just lay them down on that dirt area beside the concrete patio on the side of our house and make a nice DIY patio that I could blog about and everyone would rave over how handy I was. Sadly for me, my dreams were dashed when I realized that the number of bricks I'd pulled from the pile was enough to cover about two square feet.  

We've had this bare space beside the patio for more years than I can remember. Seth has repeatedly talked about doing something about it but never has the time and continues to spray it for weeds (since he can't get the lawnmower in there), leaving it a nice dirt patch/mud pit when it rains for us to walk through. I've hated it and finally, after the DIY brick-thing didn't work, decided to take matters into my own hands over Memorial Day weekend. How hard can it be to build a patio? People do it all the time. Dig up a little ground, put some pavers down, and voila! I thought to myself. 

So, on the hot Friday afternoon before Memorial Day -- right when the sun was at its highest -- I texted Seth to ask if I could start digging out the ground to prepare it for pavers and he said yes. I started digging. And then, about an hour later, I realized that I wasn't accomplishing much and that I would probably need to involve Seth in "my" weekend project.

That evening, when he got home from work, I mentioned that it might be easier to dig up the area if we (and by "we" I mainly meant "he") got out the tiller. 

Good husband that he is, he got out the tiller. 

He tilled and then we began scooping the dirt into the wagon on the back of the quad. Cael was only too glad to help. 

Kieran was only too glad to stand around with his ear muffs on carefully watching the quad because he doesn't like the noise it makes and is scared of it. 

Seth drove the dirt down to the creek and dumped it there. 

Soon enough, we had a nice space cleared for our weekend project. 

One of our neighbors stopped by on his quad to see what we were doing and mentioned that he had a bunch of old pavers just sitting around that he would be happy for us to use. Oh, good, I thought, maybe this WILL turn out to be a real DIY project using found objects after all!

And then we saw the pavers he was trying to get rid of. Because of their odd pattern, they would have required quite a bit of cutting along the edges to make them fit. Seth nixed that idea. 

And then he told me about the paver sand and gravel that needed to be laid down before the pavers. What? You can't just dig a hole and put pieces of cement in there and make a patio? I did actually say that out loud and Seth did actually raise his eyebrow at my wonderings. Despite that setback, I still thought we'd be able to complete our weekend project over the weekend. 

We went to Lowe's and filled up with bags of paver sand and gravel and got it put down in the hole. And then Seth mentioned The Tamper. Apparently, you can't just put down paver sand and gravel and then just put down pavers to make a patio. Apparently, said sand and gravel needs to be tamped. I quickly Googled "do I need a tamper to make a patio" and found out that Seth was, yet again, right. I also quickly texted my handy-man BIL "do I really need a tamper?" but he never replied. I think he felt sorry for Seth. 

It was then that I realized my hopes for completing my weekend project over the weekend would be dashed. We finished with the gravel and sand Saturday evening and found out the equipment rental place would be closed for the rest of Memorial Day weekend (imagine that!). Not only that, but Seth already had work-related plans for the following weekend and so The Project would be on hold for two weeks. 

"My" "Weekend" Project had quickly become Our Weeks-Long Project. 

Two weeks later, we rented the tamper and Seth began the tamping.

Cael was excited about helping with it.

Kieran was excited about staying inside with his ear muffs on and watching through the closed door.

After the tamper came another layer of paver base. I talked Seth into using these newfangled plastic sheet-type-things instead as they were supposed to be cheaper and easier to use than the paver base. IMO, they were. 

And then, finally, two weeks after "my" "weekend" project began, we were able to lay the pavers we'd bought. Of course, we had to take them up and re-lay them several times since they kept shifting before we were able to get the side wall in to hold them in place. 

We rented a paver-cutting saw so that Seth could cut the pavers we used for the side retaining walls to fit the space.

Cael helped to haul the stones over to the saw with his tractor and wagon. Kieran helped to watch with his ear muffs on.

And finally, three weeks after we began, our weeks-long ordeal was finished.

I'm very happy with how it turned out (despite the fact that it didn't turn out to be a cheap DIY project) and the boys have enjoyed the extra space to ride bikes and play on. Another job well done, Seth.