we've got shade!

I put the shade cloth up yesterday. It was so hot, and even though I was really itching to get some more wood moved, I decided it made sense to do that first. What a difference it makes! There is still some sun that gets in, but it's cooler and it makes sitting on the deck so much more enjoyable. Feels kind of homey having a ceiling of sorts. My friend Amlan came with his friend Travis last night, and Travis recommended I put posts under the cloth to create a higher ceiling. It was a really smart idea. I ended up using the xmas tree stands, and found some old wood that worked. I will probably replace one of the posts because I'm concerned about its strength, but overall, I like it! I'll have to move them around when I get the second part of the shade cloth up.

Oh, I was able to hook up the shade cloth by using old mattress support thingys. Not the springs, but those really curvy sections. I found them in the fire pit after burning an old mattress last year. Saved them for something, and bingo, something came up.

Here's the deck before:



And after:



And look! No bricks or apple wood sitting in the front yard! Man, it is really going to look amazing when it's all cleaned up. I think you can see the manure pile by the barn. I still have one whole section to do. It will probably double the pile! Yikes!