On Friday evening, Scott and I have a double date with Sara and Chris Johnson. We ate supper at Kaldera in Pella, then went to the Union Street Players production of "KOLD Radio." It was a very funny play, and I think Scott even laughed out loud! I had a cheeseburgerolpolous at Kaldera for supper--a cheeseburger with gyro meat, tsatziki sauce, and feta cheese. It was delicious...but by bedtime I was remembering why I no longer eat ground beef, my tummy hurt!

Saturday morning we had CERT training at church. That stands for Community Emergency Response Team. Our church is starting a team that will serve primarily Mahaska County, but also surrounding areas in case of a disaster, whether it is weather related, or a disease, or terrorism, etc. We have already completed our CPR/First Aid training, and yesterday we learned about fire safety, as well as how to triage in the event of a mass casualty incident.

After we got home, Scott and I spent most of the rest of the day working in the yard. Scott is on a mission to have a green, vibrant lawn, so he did some "over-seeding," and filled in some bare patches on the lawn. I dug up a gazillion tiger lilies (aka: ditch lilies, aka: the devil's spawn). They are pretty flowers, but when you want them out of a bed, it is next to impossible! I dug about a million of them up last fall, and in that same bed, they came up as thick as ever! Yesterday I got out most of the roots and bulbs, so they may not come back quite as much...

One of our friends moved recently, and donated this chair to us for helping load the truck (and I'm guessing so they didn't have to put it IN the truck). Now we just need another one so we can sit on the porch like an old married couple! We also put up the trellis, finally. I planted sugar snap peas, lettuce, and spinach here in the flower garden...we have yet to put any flowers in this area, so I figured I might as well use it for something useful! This is the side door to our house, and hasn't always been used much. There is an ugly concrete square, and it was almost buried by lilies. After digging it out, I put out a few pots and planted basil, oregano, chives, and cilantro in the pots. I also planted radishes in front of the steps...hopefully the radishes will be able to compete against whatever lily is still buried...

On the other side of the concrete will be the rest of the vegetables: tomatoes, peppers, possible zucchini or summer squash. There were some other weeds in this patch last year (along with the lilies), and after digging everything up last autumn, I put down a couple layers of newspaper, and a whole bunch of leaves. Only a few plants came up this year! I will be buying actual tomato plants from the store eventually, and once those go in, the leaves and newspaper will remain as compost, and i'll put down a layer of straw to keep the weeds from coming back.

Here I am resting on the new chair after a hard day's work in the yard.