Thank You Daddy!!!!

My sweet dad, he has been devoting more days than planned to help me around the house. He is working on my herb garden here. We didn't dig up most of the herbs, we wanted to wait till we were ready to fill it so there is as little shock to the roots as possible. What you see here is just the box, almost ready to fill. He added some brick along the side to widen the walk way between the herbs and the stairs.

* The following picture and information is mostly for Jamie's benefit. :) It's a pretty simple box, and my dad is so resourceful, (if anyone wonders where I get it from), he found a lot of materials for free from the construction sites around.

So first he used treated wood, (not redwood that has to be coated like a deck, and has a tendency to rot faster over time), and made a simple box. He used some scrap sheets of galvanized steel from a construction site, cut them, painted them copper, bent to 90 degree angle, and screwed on the outside of each corner to reinforce the box. Then he took some plastic and nylon, (also from a construction site), and stapled them to the inside of the box so the dirt would not be right up against the wood and cause it to rot over the years. Last, he took this protective plastic yard edging, and screwed it all along the top inside, (it looks like wood, but it's not), to protect the plastic and nylon cover from the elements. We might make a winter cover for it later, to protect the plants during the snow season.
I love how the copper corners will look against the nice green herbs along with my nifty copper/wood herb markers. (if you have not seen them yet, go to my art blog)
Again, my resourceful father didn't want to spend the money on soil. He made this pretty cool contraption from left over construction site wood, to sift the dirt from rocks. He took the kids out to a dump site near our house to get the dirt, (which he will later mix with compost/manure), and the kids went to town with the sifting. But they also had fun with the mounds of dirt. :)

It's pretty dang cool, the sifter hangs from the beam and the kids just rock it back and forth and the dirt falls in the wheelbarrow.
Josh wanted me to take a bunch of pictures, so here you go.

This is a more accurate picture of the whole adventure. Josh was off exploring mounds of dirt, while Jade helped grandpa.
Thank you mom and dad!!! (my mom has been the organizing queen and helping me get the art room set up while my dad is slaving away in the sun) I love you guys SO SO much!!!