More Home Improvement...

More progress towards making the house a bit less of an eyesore, this is just the warm up for the REALLY big projects coming up in June and July--first we're having the old juniper stumps removed, the overhanging trees trimmed, the back part of the property drug, all the debri removed and some planting holes for trees & shrubs dug--I'm DONE trying to dig holes in this ground without the aid of major machinery.  Once the holes are dug we can plant the trees and bushes...

Then in mid-July will come the VERY long awaited chain link fencing!  I'm so excited for that I can hardly stand it, because it means that after more than two years, the chickens will finally get to roam the yard safely.

Meanwhile, smaller projects are getting done.  The other day we got a new mailbox but hadn't put it up yet...the old one then suddenly just fell over, pole and all, in apparent despair.  Mailbox suicide. It's zip-tied in place for now lookin' all classy 'n stuff until the hole for the new mailbox pole gets dug.

Today was new front porch lights!  Because the old ones were cheap, ugly, too small and looked like they wanted to burn the house down.  Before:

Yeeeaah....aggressively ugly.  My favorite part is the ghostly outline of the previous porch lights.

New ones!  Much more attractive and the right freakin' size.

Yay.  The weird wood strip above the door is getting replaced with a painted bit of trim that will match the rest of the doorway, then the front entrance should look a bit more inviting and cease resembling the local haunted house.  We also managed to get a monster flag holder to bolt to the house, we planned pretty carefully for the wind in locating it, making sure it's mounted securely to a corner.  Hopefully we won't be buying a new flag once a week...