Some yard work/Bubble play

It's a good thing I bought some mulch a couple of weeks ago.  Not sure when I am going to head back to the store again for garden "stuff".  Have a few things I need to get but Bobby just asked "Are they essentials?"  Well, technically not but...

Anyway, I did fix up part of the drain that was continuing to overflow into the neighbor's side.  It was such a chore to move all those pebbles.  Glad the boys were helping out (somewhat).  But first, I had to re-tilt the rain barrel. It was sort of leaning to one side of the house as the soil is sinking on that side!

So the best I could do for now was to wedge something in between the cinder blocks.  And the most convenient thing that I could find was an old thing of hose that I had previously used for the overflow of the rain barrel.  "Good enough!", as Graham would say when he finishes some sort of project:

Good enough is true for now, as that rain barrel is filled up to the rim and we are expecting even more rain today! I just hope the support is strong enough to hold up the rain barrel if/when it does come down.  I mean, it's screwed into the side of the house! It should... right??!

Okay, back to improving our drain!  This drain has been quite the process:

I've been having to walk out during the rain to see what's working and what's not:

The water is still not draining to the front of the house, where the other (new) part of the drain is:

I told the boys to get a hat and look what hat Charlie brought out.  He is stylin'! Ha ha!

I found the old hose that I had buried in the drain so I pulled that through the makeshift liner a.k.a black garbage bag. Let's see if any of this works! What can possibly go wrong when duct tape is involved :-)

Back to normal! As if nothing had happened.  Wow, but what is this pain I am feeling in my hips and legs this morning???! :-\

Bubble time!

Graham and Charlie haven't played with bubbles in such a long time:

We ran out of bubble solution so the boys decided to use whatever leftover suds to clean up Daddy's car:

Finally mulched up the rest of the front yard too!  Looks so much better!!! 

I didn't think about how to capture/stop the mulch at the bottom of the pathway so looks like I need to get a few more pavers for that.

I found some bugs on our flowers while working in the front yard so I sprayed them with some insecticides.  And then, on the other side where the bugs were also present, I saw a little lady bug!  Talk about a feast for this little guy:

And look what's growing! I "borrowed" some of these hanging succulents from a building in front of the Manhattan Beach library :-D

I had been wanting to do some things with all of our old shoes.  I had seen how people were using Crocs as planters.  So.... I couldn't find any other succulent I wanted to transplant so figured this might work?

Maybe you can see them better with a little vignette effect:

Or not.  Ha ha!  I hope that is not bad Feng Shui to hang shoes in front of the house like this!

Another project/idea that I found online involved cutting up some shoes:

Something about recycling old soles as a pathway.  I haven't "planted" them into the ground yet, but I don't think it looks too bad.  Somewhat whimsical perhaps?

So then, I cut into another pair. I'm glad I didn't jab myself with that pair of scissors.  The screwdriver was bad enough!

These shoes were not easy to get through!

Hmmm... maybe?  Will have to ponder on this for a few more days :-)  Maybe if I mismatched the colors?

In the meantime, back in the backyard... I decided to work on my bonsai skills: 

More braiding on this plant.  The poor plant is probably thinking - "What are you doing to me??!" and it is literally bleeding sap every time I pull a leaf or baby branch off:

Not exactly sure what "pattern" I want this plant to eventually look like but maybe somehow a heart???  This project is obviously on-going and will probably take forever!

My bougainvillea is not looking so happy :-(

Boys have been making a mess with broken cement.  Boys I tell you!

And then, Charlie especially has been playing a lot of tennis in the backyard against the wall, but he keeps hitting the mesh!

I always warn them about mice and rats getting in but at this stage, even a raccoon and sunk can get in!  And trust me, we have seen both!  Here's the other part of the house where the mesh keeps getting hit. Grrr....

So most of the time we only see 2 raccoons on our Ring video.  But now... check out these 3 happy chubby raccoons!  Most of the time they are going the opposite direction but tonight they are going away from the house. I'm not complaining!

We are planning on growing some corn and edamame in the backyard.  Wish us luck!