This weekend was full of projects around here. Among the many things we juggled, we put the final touches on the garden, built the border on the new bed out front, mulched the paths, stored the starter pots, cut the grass and started building a sandbox. Now that the garden is fully planted, Zinnia's winter sandbox (aka the dirt of the garden bed) is no longer the best place to drive her digger. We decided a few weeks ago that she'd enjoy her very own place to dig so we started discussing plans for a sandbox.
Just last week, some neighbors hired a landscaping crew to tear down the raised garden beds in their front yard (why people want to replace xeriscaping with sod in this climate is baffling). After a day or two of work Steve noticed a huge pile of perfectly good landscaping timbers thrown haphazardly in the street and he walked over to investigate. As you might imagine, the crew was preparing to cart the entire lot to the landfill. What a waste! Those timbers go for $12-15 bucks and there was a stack of at least twenty. Within minutes, they were being carted, one-by-one to a neat pile on our driveway.
This weekend, they found new life with two projects: in the front yard, they're lining our newest garden bed and in the back yard, they're being used to construct Zinnia's sandbox. We'll take the remaining timbers to our local salvage yard, Resource, where they'll be used by someone else for another DIY project.
Now, reclaiming and recycling timbers is good and all and we'll pat ourselves on the back later, but did you see my girl working that drill? She was so proud of herself and Dada was tickled pink, too.
