Yards of fun for everyone!

Happy Mother’s Day, everyone!  We are preparing for a family barbecue here at the “compound” later today.

Yesterday DH set up his new barbecue, connected directly to the natural gas line here at the laneway.  He tried it out on a couple of wonderful rib eye steaks — it works great!  This afternoon he will be creating his patented hamburgers with fixings — I won’t lift a finger as it is, after all, Mother’s Day — and the family will gather to enjoy.

DH also got out the brand new push mower and cut the grass in the back yard.  I then raked it.  It’s nice to have the push mower, DH enjoys the work out, and listening now to the annoying buzz of a neighbour’s power mower grinding through the window I appreciate the swoosh of the pusher mower even more.

I really enjoyed raking the back yard.  It’s a very small space, and took less than half an hour.  When I was a kid my day was made when my Dad got a power mower with a grass-catcher and my raking chore was made obsolete.  Funny how now it seems like fun and good exercise.

The yard is coming together nicely.  It has a slope, of course, the lot slopes so much that you can’t make a level space without creating boggy drainage problems.  But the sod has taken well and we will be able to set up lawn chairs and blankets and enjoy our dinner.

One feature I would like to see — if we only had the space — is a fire pit.  It would be like having an outdoor fireplace, a space where we could gather in the evening to watch the flames and make s’mores.

Fire pits can be big and fancy in the middle of a special patio.

This one has me intrigued because we already have lots of river rock on the property and we could put it together when we need it and take it apart in the fall — or anytime we didn’t want it around.