Believe it or not… we didn’t have any big house/construction projects this year, as we are taking the year off, but we will probably add a couple new projects to next year’s to-do list. Outside in the garden, we supposedly finished everything up last year and this year was just supposed to some routine maintenance, but we have probably made just as many changes this year as we did all of last year. We realized we over-planted in some areas, had to fight off some diseases with some of our other flowers and forgot to put in yard fabric in a couple of our raised beds that resulted in the arborvitae roots taking over. To say the least, Mom and Sam have been quite busy in the garden and have a lot of changes in store for next year. Not to mention the drought has been a struggle, followed by to much rain in a short time span – then more dry conditions (today the heat index is 106°). The good news is that is sounds like we should be getting a lot of moisture from El Niño this winter, so the drought may at least be over by next year.

Below are some of the finished projects from last year and some garden images from this year, as well as few photos of neighbors stopping in for a visit.