Outdoor Christmas Tree

We are enjoying a snow day today!

My daughter and I started a new tradition of decorating a tree in our front yard.  The big bobbles show up the best.

And a few cute pics of my little man in his new sled:

DIY Maple Slab Coffee Table

We try and keep our posts on DDS focused on  yard and garden topics.  Though you might say a DIY coffee table does not fall into the general scheme I will attempt to justify my DIY coffee table post as follows: 1.  Technically the Maple Slab came from a yard (my parent's actually) and it is indeed organic. 2.  The ground is frozen making time spent digging in the yard more challenging right now!

Though a natural coffee table is not everybody's style I am very pleased at how it all turned out.

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Several year's ago Dad had to take down a large Maple Tree in his back yard that was diseased and beginning to rot.  I requested a hunk of wood be saved  to be reborn as some form of furniture.  Dad chainsawed me two eight inch slabs from the base of the trunk where the tree "v"d into two.  The slabs then sat in my garage getting in the way for several years, drying and curing while I procrastinated from starting to work on them.  Finally last year I started to literally chip away at the project, first planing off the deep rough chainsaw cuts with a power planer. I then used an orbital grinder, starting with an 80 grit sand paper and working up to a fine 240 grit.  Finally, I gave it a coat of Beeswax polish (Clapham's Beeswax Salad Bowl Finish).  The legs were pre-cut and threaded galvanized pipe from a big box store that I just screwed together with half inch fittings in the plumbing aisle and then spray painted black.  My HH helped me with the tricky part of attaching the legs to a very unlevelled underside which involved much shimming  (this is adding little wedge pieces to level out the leg where it is to be attached).  Overall this project cost less than $30 for the galvanized pipe legs and spray paint.  Shannon loaned me the beeswax which is about $16, though I had to promise not to use too much. 

 

 One winter project off the list!

-L.

all i want for Christmas...

Lauren's wish list:

Gardeners wash basket: A functional harvest basket that looks good

Light weight hedge trimmer: An excellent bush wacker for my box woods

Outdoor chairs from ikea: Shannon and I might be fighting over these.  Unfortunately they are sold out of these very mod yet comfortable composite chairs until March of 2014.

The pit of despair, under the deck project to be complete!

Shannon's wish list:

Wall garden planter from Lee Valley: I've wanted to put a wall planter on my west exterior wall that is below my cedar pergola to bring interest to the big expanse of stucco and for the fun of growing vertically.  I know there are lots of diy options out there but I like the watering system with this one and that it doesn't allow the roots to grow through and cause problems with the stucco. 

 



Rapid Reel hose reel: I fist spotted this hose reel in the background of a picture on a blog I frequent: Chezerbey.  I'm tired of my plastic hose real that I'm always fighting with that is located near my front door, this would provide a much better looking and hopefully smooth reeling option for years to come. 

Floating row cover from West Coast Seeds:I've wanted to try a row cover to protect my cabbage from cabbage pests.  Last year I spent too much time pulling and squishing green guys off my cabbage.

Book: All the Dirt: This book looks like a good read and will hopefully provide some useful information.