Shedding the shed, putting in a pond

Everyone seems very excited to tear down the fence between our yard and the cohousing. Everyone, that is, who doesn't appreciate how many tasks are far higher in priority for us. Xena, for example, flush with power about having a planet named after her, has demanded a functioning toilet for the downstairs floor where we are about to move into. Imagine!

Anyway, Nick and Drea did most of the effort to tear down a rusted out tool shed, which apparently had the job (unknown to them) of holding up the fence between our yard and the other other neighbor's yard. Hmmm, are we going to end up with a giant communal backyard?

Not yet: I tied the fence up to a tree, before it fell down.

Then I drove the metal shards over to the scrap metal recycler. I was super pleased they took my beat-up galvanized steel. I was even more pleased that the giant claw didn't take my beat-up mini-van.

For a guy recovering from affluenza, I gotta tell you, the scrap yard is WAY COOL. Who knew that so many of our consumer products end up as material for new stuff!? Oh, and the sight of big machines crunching on big metal bars really gets my testosterone flowing. I had to leave much sooner than I wanted to... that claw kept reaching closer and closer to my car.

Since Nature abhors a vacuum, I made sure we had a pond to keep balance in the backyard. Drea picked up the water hyacinth. She and Nick found a $50 bill on a walk in the neighborhood, and decided they'd like to buy a fountain with it. So I went online and found a nice little solar powered fountain. The pond is made of some 3mil plastic sheet lining an old crate that Nick and I rebuilt.

Concerned about West Nile? I am a little, so I found out that Vector Control will deliver mosquito fish to us for free, to stock our little pond! I'll call them as soon as the water has less chloramine in it.