coming up + going down

Nothing more rewarding than seeds taking their first peak at sunlight. I love it when I can get things to grow. I'm extremely proud of the fact that I have finally learned how to not only keep my gardenia alive, but have managed to get it to bloom 2 or 3 times since getting it and keeping it inside as a houseplant. Next up: keep an orchid alive and get it to bloom again. I always manage to lose them. I wouldn't say I have a black thumb, but it definitely could be a little greener.

We had a very comical evening last night mending our fence. For months we've been watching it teeter. My dad suggested that it would be a whole lot easier to reinforce it before it falls down. Yeah, we see that now. I wouldn't say we were intentionally waiting - not like we wanted to test that theory - we just procrastinated a little too long. On Sunday morning, at precisely the moment I happened to be looking out the window to witness the whole thing (which is kind of strange), 3 panels of the fence at the top of a steep slope in our backyard came crashing down. So we dug new holes, mixed up some concrete and put in metal poles to replace the rotted wooden ones. That part was easy. Last night, however, we had to get the fence up. Not so easy when you're trying to push it up on a slope covered with ice plant. Finally got the bugger up and screwed into place. A lot of slipping and falling on our rear ends. I'm just thankful that one of us didn't end up squooshed underneath the fence. There were points where one of us would be on the downward sloping side and that thing could have easily gone over. Yeah, we see that now.