Notes on 9 Acres: Outdoor entertaining

Since the day we started moving in, it has been cold and rainy. Really cold (for our neck of the woods) and really rainy. Working outside has been anything but an appealing idea. This weekend, however, the sun finally decided to come out. It was still cold and very windy, but at least it’s not wet. Looking ahead to my son’s birthday coming up this weekend, he and I decided that we needed to upgrade our outdoor space while my husband got to work on the horse stalls.

Before--scraggly and NOT pretty or inviting.

We have a circle drive in front of the house with some lovely trees creating a fabulous spot for outdoor entertaining. Previous Owner had left a firepit behind in this area, but it was surrounded by broken bricks and piles of limbs and sticks and sad, patchy grass. Conveniently, we had some leftover gravel from when my father-in-law leveled out our road. This would be the perfect base for a fire pit area and would cover up the patchy grass. My son and I surveyed the area and decided the best way to lay things out and asked Grandpa to bring over the big tractor to move a few loads of gravel to our spot. We planned where we would place our existing outdoor furniture and the small metal fire pit we already had, intending to add a stone pit in the future.

A trip to McCoy’s for supplies for the horse stalls led to a serendipitous finding. As my husband was getting the trailer loaded up with wood and tin, I noticed a fire ring package in front of the store—3 layers of 4 perfectly-sized cement bricks forming a perfectly-sized fire ring—exactly what I had envisioned. I was certain it would be out of the price range I had budgeted, but I decided to check anyway. That piece was half-off that day and fit my budget exactly!

We got home and all three kids got to work. We trimmed hedges that looked like they hadn't received any attention since the 90s, raked leaves and got to work on our outdoor entertaining space. The kids leveled out the gravel Grandpa had moved for us and found and placed rocks to create a surround for the gravel. (They worked SO HARD and refused to take breaks!) My son and I marked the spot for our pit and hauled and stacked each of the twelve 40+ pounds bricks in place. By nightfall, we had a fire blazing and marshmallows roasting while hot cocoa was working in conjunction with the fire to warm us all up. I foresee many more days and evenings being spent out here.

The sofa was a dumpster find a while back. We cut it down to a smaller width and painted it. The cushions were a great buy at Garden Ridge where I also purchased cushions for the chairs on our front porch.

It's amazing what a coat of spray paint can do to a yucky old bench, which, by the way, is a teeny tiny kid bench and is super cute. We need guests with tiny kids to come sit on it.

The black adirondack was made by my husband's grandfather years ago. It is one of the sturdiest chairs I own.

A few days later, the kids decided we needed a tire swing, so they took it upon themselves to haul over an old tire, found some rope and figured out how to get the rope over a sturdy limb. Working together, they heaved the tire up and tied it up as securely as three kids can do.