This weekend was consumed by outdoor activities of the manual laboring kind, which was a welcome respite from a week spent behind a computer or on the road. Mama kicked off Saturday with a cleanout of the greenhouse, while I assembled our new stainless propane grill. It’s about a third larger than the old grill and built a lot more solidly. Then, after a surprisingly fast dump run, I got to work pulling out the rotten edging on the west side of the house and replacing it with new pressure-treated wood.

Meanwhile, Jen collected unused garden dirt which we used to fill in the hole left by the concrete walk to the right of the front door. It’s been an empty pit for about two years now, so it looks much better filled. At dinnertime, we christened the grill with two steaks, a foil package full of root vegetables, and some fresh asparagus.

Sunday was filled with more yardwork; after the girls returned from a birthday party we finished most of the projects we’d started and got the dirt covered with 2″ of fresh mulch. Mama’s head started hurting after dinner so Finn and I celebrated Father’s Day with a ride in the Scout down to Opie’s. She had a root beer snowball and I got a chocolate shake. Then we ran off some of the sugar at the playground. I woke up this morning sore but satisfied with our progress. I’m actually considering hauling the rest of the concrete out and filling that side with dirt before the parade–but I’m almost sure I wouldn’t get it done in time.