Mr Project

In May, Kenny and I celebrated our seventh anniversary. One of the greatest things about marriage is that no matter how well you think you know someone, they'll continue to surprise you. I knew seven years ago that Ken was a capable guy who could do anything he set his mind to do, but what I didn't know (until the last couple years) is that he is Mr. Yardman (he says that if we were ever to be independently wealthy he'd be a landscaper just for fun) and Mr. Fix-it. There's no project too big or too small. He loves the challenge of figuring something out.

After a long day at work, Kenny's favorite thing is to work in our yard. He'll come home from work around 5ish, come into the house long enough to change his clothes, and then out he goes to work until bedtime (literally, till 10:30/11pm). Amy, Ian, and I will help him or play beside him until their bedtime. The hard work has paid off, as this year we've had our best garden ever. We've already harvested spinach, strawberries and peas (Amy's favorite). Tomatoes, Beans, Peppers (several types), lettuce, carrots, cucumbers, squash, cantaloupe (hopefully), and radishes are still to come. And rather than buy "fun" things, he's been spending money on flowers, plants, and pots. Who'd have thought?

A couple weeks ago our sprinkler system broke in our back yard. Amy and I were playing when I noticed that my heel sunk in the ground a little more than normal. Kenny checked it out and sure enough our sprinkler box was filled with water and the lawn around it was slushy. Not having worked with sprinklers on a level like this before, Ken wasn't quite sure what to do, but by the time we went to bed that night he had the water drained, the ground around the pipes dug up, found two cracks, and had figured out how he needed to fix it. By the next day our sprinkler system was once again up and running and you could hardly tell he had to disassemble the castle rock curbing, cut out a 2 x 2 ft square of grass, apply an epoxy to the pipe, and put it all back together again.

A few days ago he imagined a yard with volleyball and badminton (Yes, I love badminton). He got the idea to create one of those portable volleyball/badminton courts. Now the project's almost complete. This afternoon, on his second (maybe third) trip to Home Depot he purchased the needed items (he found the two tires last night on our way home from a reception) and so if you want to come over and play volleyball (or badminton), we're game!