OK in for a quick break for lunch, and to throw the ham in the oven 4 dinner.. Karma, the puppy has been pretty good today..but only when I am watching, lol. If I am outside and the garden gate is open, she goes over, looks at me, then I say 'hey outta there' and she goes. SHe's learning..thank god! It IS fun changing stuff around. I moved my dirt piles into the garden where I havent tilled yet, the 'new' area, lol. so she can't dig in them anymore, lol. New fence eh? Gotta keep that peeper out, lol. Hey Kylie, Karma's got a spring peeper! lmao! How is that going by the way, with that nosey ol' neighbor? CC it is supposed to be a high of 75 here today, then tomorrow 55, seems like the extended forecast says mid 50's to upper 60's for the next few days. Perfect working conditions. I dont mind doing it when it's hot, can always jump in the pool to cool off! Kylie, lol, I am trying to take pix, my camera has a mind of its own lately, and only works when it wants. I have a few so far, but I am gonna wait till I have more, then make a slideshow so I can post w/the whole time line thang. Karyn, If you were closer I would def come and help! I can't get enough. I used to help my mom all the time b4 she moved to PA. I did all her digging. Ugh, I havent even gotten mulch yet. I keep forgetting to call the town and see when they are putting out their free stuff. My luck it came and went already, lol. When you hire people to come work in your yard, do you watch them like a hawk? lol, I know I would be..I'd be makin sure they didnt screw anything up. Kristy, have fun fishing! Catch some monsters! And get that pergola!!!!

One reason to time a specific task is to figure out how long it takes, so that you can plan you day a little bit better when that task is on the schedule or just needs to be done. Sometimes, we over-estimated how long something takes. Then we tend to avoid it, because we think we don't have time to do it. You may think washing the dishes after a typical dinner takes half an hour. If you time it, you may find out it only takes 10 or 15 minutes. I was startled to realize that I can vacuum every room in my house in 20-25 minutes. For some reason, I thought it would take much, much longer. (It's a small, one-story house, which helps.) I also time tasks by what I can do while waiting for water to boil. I have an electric kettle to boil water for tea. In the time it takes for water to boil for tea, I can several of these tasks: -empty the dishwasher -put random glasses/dishes in the dishwasher -empty the dish drainer -make a sandwich -wipe down the counters -wipe down the stovetop -tidy the island (which seems to be a clutter magnet) -sweep the kitchen floor -water the plants in the kitchen -inventory the pantry for an upcoming grocery run Most mornings, I stagger out of bed and put the water on for tea and, working on autopilot, empty the dishwasher and dish drainer. Then I have the satisfying feeling that one household chore is Done, first thing in the morning. Sets a good tone for the rest of the day. Another reason to time tasks is to see if you can reduce the time you spend on a given task. For example, in the OP, it takes Plow In 20 minutes to strip her bed and 30 minutes to re-make it with fresh linens. I agree with PPs that this is a fairly long time. It takes me about 3 minutes to strip the bed and about 10 minutes to re-make the bed with clean sheets (I'm impressed with LuAnn's 5 minutes to make a king-size bed.) So look at ways to reduce the time. If your bed is against a wall and you need to move it to change the sheets, that adds time. Can you rearrange the room to make it easier to change the sheets? Do you have tons of layers of sheets, blankets, and quilts on the bed? It's a fashionable look right now, but it takes time take all that off and find a place to put it, then to put it all back on again. I have just the fitted sheet, flat sheet, a blanket and a quilt/bedspread--they change throughout the seasons with the quilt being a down comforter all winter and the bedspread being an old linen tablecloth during the summer, but I've found that more than those 4 layers and making the bed become too much of a chore for me. Also, check out YouTube. There are a ton of how-to videos there--there are many on how to make a bed neatly and quickly. Another thing to do is to determine how neat/clean you want your house to be. If you are living alone and in complete control of the messiness or otherwise of the house, that's one thing. If there are other residents, including kids, that's more work--but it is not necessarily work that has to be done by you. Check out FlyLady for some ideas on how often chores need to be done. Apartment Therapy has some good ideas as well--I've linked to a post there that describes how to keep your house neat in 20 minutes a day. (I will admit that I've tried this schedule and some days took less than 20 minutes and some took more. It depends on the size of your house and how many people are messing it up. But it's a good place to start.) Here is a link that might be useful: 20 minutes a day to a clean house

thanks crackpot and thyme! I stopped halfway through to paint the sides with some white enamel, oh the fumes! but the original leek green paint just didnt go with it. Im still undecided what colour grout to use, Im tossing up between white and the medium grey suggested by crackpotannie, leaning more to the grey I think. here is the latest update with all the tiles on! woohoo! Ive learned a few things doing this, the blue and white tiles had a texture which didnt show up on the small pieces so the background is more plain than I wanted but it's all learning!

i have no experience with this plant.. BUT THAT WONT STOP ME .. LOL... most blue things.. are blue.. due to a wax on the leaf surface... which actually is just reflecting the sky .. so the blue varies across the daylight hours ... and over the season ... but the blue wax does NOT grow on after the leaf emerges ... that said.. here in MI ... not many things are leafed out yet.. let alone fully leafed out ... so it might be hard to see the wax ... in other words.. a lot of my blue hosta ... do not look fully blue.. until they are fully leafed out ... ken ps: dont forget.. you have acreage now ... you have space for this... even if it doenst end up exactly as you like it ... its not like you have one small spot.. for one specimen ... eh???? .. oh.,.. and btw.. never look at a blue plant when the sun is high in the sky ... they wash out.. look at down or dusk.. for its deepest blue color ... e.g. look at the link .... and figure out which pix are in blinding sun.. and the others that arent.. that look the bluest ... https://www.bing.com/images/search?q=Blue+Shadow%22+fothergilla&FORM=HDRSC2