Five Outdoor Things I am Really Excited About

Here are some things outside of the house that I'm a big fan of at our new home.


- Pond

Don’t tell the girls yet (or ever?), but there is a pond in the pasture next to us. Sometimes there are ducks on it. It’s very pretty. I wouldn’t ever swim in it (my uncle keeps cows in that pasture sometimes), but it is nice to look at. And in the winter, you can take your chance sliding around on the ice a little bit. It’s not ice-skating per se, but something kind of close to it.

- Basketball Hoops

My grandparents’ old hoop is still up over by the hanger (though it needs to be rehung and restrung) and there are plenty of other cement places to put up a hoop someday. We didn’t have any good cement pads at the old house, so we kind of hit the basketball jackpot here. Horse, anyone?

- Garden Space

My Grandma loved flowers. She had a lot of gardens going, even the last couple years she was living here when she probably shouldn’t have been out in the garden at all. And despite them not being cared for as closely the last couple years, those gardens are still doing all right. We have an iris bed; an assortment of daisies, poppies, lilies, and roses by the driveway; and several peony bushes lined up by the sidewalks. Plus, we have plenty of room to plant whatever else we want. Maybe some vegetables someday? The rabbits say yes.

- Trees

We have a lot of trees. I love trees. Sadly, some of these trees are very old and nearing their end stages. But that also means we can think about planting some new trees, which is fun, too. We especially need to plant some kind of shelterbelt to the west over the next several years. I’m excited see what we can get growing around here.

- Doorbells

At our old house, the previous owner took the indoor box component of the doorbell with them when they moved. The cheap doorbell we bought was not reliable, so we ended up taking it down. Not only to we have a doorbell on our main door, but we have one on the door we don’t use very much, too. And they have different rings. Emmy especially loves to guess which doorbell goes with which door. Just don’t ring one during naptime. Seriously. Not ever.