Today, phase one of Ann’s garden is finally complete. I had hoped to have it done by Mother’s Day, but I missed that target date by three weeks. The biggest hurdle was that I had some mystery health issue with fatigue, uneasiness, sleep issues, and tightness in my chest (I really thought I might have a heart issue), yet I never felt sick or had a temp. I had attributed it to accidentally handling some strong fertilizer with my hands. However, over the last three days (which was a day after I went to see the doctor .. and he indicated he thought my heart was fine) everything has dissipated. Unfortunately, today Ann seems to have come down with what I had. So maybe it was type of illness after all??

Anyhow, I can now turn my attention back to the racer, finally. I have an extremely happy wife, which was worth all the work.

As a reminder, here’s what the area looked like when we first bought the place in April of 2021.

In Feb of 2022 we had the willows removed. Then I began tearing stuff down.

One year later, we have the following … And here we have a short video (yes, I do mention horses mooing and I accidentally call a rail a railroad tie … ) 😄

Before and after pics:

Before:

Before:

After (note how much shade there is in the afternoon .. great place to enjoy a warm day):

And some additional random pics:

The wall in back with the rough paint will get a make over this fall. We have spare siding to add that will reach the top of the wall’s door, then we’ll use a similar pattern of clear siding and install it to the roof so that it continues to have natural light.

Note the railroad rail holding the right gate in place. That rail was from my grandfather’s mine in northern Idaho (Palisade Mine). The rail sat outside our garage for 40 years. I welded some 5/8″ pins onto the bottom and slid them into holes in a treated 4×4. I added two tabs to the top so the door bolts to the rail. Two thumb screws hold the door to the rail.

The latch design is based on a similar design on another gate. The paint will scratch on the slider, but we aren’t all that worried about it.

This last photo shows how the garden uses solar lights to give it a neat glow at night.