A little death, a lot of life...

R.I.P.: The pump for our pool died. Boo Hoo! We looked in 3 different WalMarts for a replacement, for a week, and couldn't find one. Adam finally ordered one online. He's been maintaining the pool water quality rather well without it, I must add. I tell him he ought to look into being the "cool pool guy" as an alternate profession :)

And the kitchen faucet handle died too. We had to buy a whole new faucet assembly, just to get a new handle. Sigh.

And Adam's sweet peas, which he grew from seed and babied along, just never could make it. They dried up and withered away, no matter what he did. My mom has sweet peas that she can't keep down! We'll probably just stick some begonias in these hanging baskets now.

On the brighter side: It turns out our 2 apple trees in the backyard are NOT crabapples! My brilliant brother has identified them as probably either red or golden delicious. They are ripening up well, and this year they don't look Crabby at all! Maybe our lack of water last year made them so small and ugly.
And these sunflowers? They're not the short variety after all. 7 feet tall, for goodness sakes!

Our tomatoes are doing lovely as well. Here are our cute little Romas; a few are turning red already.

Sorry I couldn't turn this photo for you. I had to take it sideways, because the tomatoes are getting so tall!

And my fig tree/bush is finally making a recovery!! I'm so excited - I thought it would NEVER come around. I wonder if I'll get fruit this year?

Adam's work on the oven progresses. As you see, now he's done another, smaller, arch in the front. Where the wooden support is, that's where the oven door will go.

And he's closing up the back of the oven box as well.