1st Year at the New House: Part 3

If you haven’t checked out the first 2 parts of this 1st Year at the New House series, makes sure to do so now!

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In January, I finally unpacked all of the boxes in my craft room.  I got the smaller 5-tier metal shelves on Amazon, and I purchased the really large one at a local big box store.

I also got my gardening shed moved.  I built it with help before we sold our last house, back in March of last year.  I wasn’t about to leave it behind with my 1st greenhouse.  So in January of this year, I finally got it moved to the area behind my current greenhouse.

I also got my greenhouse tables moved to flank both sides of the greenhouse.  These were built at the other house too and were much wider (two @ 4 x 8 feet).  Not long after moving, I split them up, making 4 tables out of them, so they weren’t so wide.  When I moved them to flank the greenhouse, I had to redo the legs and added 2×4 pieces to place another shelf lower to the ground.  That helped stabilize them after sitting at an angle like you see in the picture below for almost half a year.

As you can see from the picture above, Valiente was hanging out with me while I was working outside that day.  Both of them like to hang out with me while doing yard work now.  Valiente is turning into the biggest little love bug!

Also in January, Bucky made his first known reappearance {that I am aware of}.  Bucky would be the groundhog I mentioned in my first post of this series.  Yup, we named him after having called him Mr Groundhog for the longest.  I feel like January is a little early to come out of hibernation, but then again, I was out in short sleeves for some of January.

Nothing around the house or outside got done in February.  I focused on doing a lot of work, and then Angela and I went to Turks & Caicos for a week-long vacation.  I’m glad we did our yearly trip in February rather than waiting for May when we usually go (covid-19 shut down the country in April/May).  It was beautiful in Turks & Caicos, and I will share just a few pictures below.  If you are on the fence about going to Turks & Caicos, my advice would be DON’T.  It was beautiful, but there isn’t much to do except ATV-related excursions, boat trips/tours, and laying on the beach.  If that’s your thing, you will love it.  Everything is WAY overpriced though.  I realize it’s an island that needs to import a lot of stuff, but Angela and I went to Aruba the year before, and the price difference is crazy!  Our last day in Turks & Caicos was the best because we found this little private beach area that was amazing!  We wish we’d found it earlier in the trip.

In March, I decided to convert my plant stand into a tiered herb planter.  I built the plant stand back in 2017 to go on the backside of my 1st greenhouse, but with all the outside table space now, I really didn’t need it to hold plants in pots anymore.  I used cedar boards to make the boxes and screwed them down on the the stair stringers.  NOTE: I originally assembled these boxes with just nail gun nails (brad nails) with my Ryobi brad nailer.  Don’t.  Use screws!  Not even a month into use, the weight of the dirt was causing the boards to push away where the nails were, so I had to clamp them tight and screw them together.  Don’t make the same mistake I made…  For those wondering, I put dividers where the oregano and mint would be to prevent them from taking over their respective tiers.

I also built 2 small planters to go on each side of the greenhouse door.  These are made out of treated pine picket fence boards.  I also attached the automatic vent opener to the window I made.  I purchased the vent opener on Amazon.  No electricity needed!

In April, we discovered Bucky the Groundhog was a Becky…  the babies came out once {that I’m aware of}, and then I never really saw them again.  I got these images on my trail camera.

I created an Instagram and Facebook page for Bucky/Becky, but I haven’t really posted much lately.  We really need to trap and relocate them because living under our porch isn’t an option.

Check out part 4 of this series here!