Spring Gardening and Thrift Store Finds

I have been gardening almost every day since our weather has been in the high 70's/80's for a while now.  The kids and I raked leaves last weekend and I got my first tick from that.  Caldwell removed it from my back and all is well.  I was out the next day raking some more.  I put some of my outdoor collections around the garden and had to throw out some others since they broke this winter.  I even planted lettuce, kohlrabi and swiss chard in my raised beds.  I bought the kits for the raised beds at Sam's Club 2 years ago and put them together last year.  We had a ton of tomatoes.  It worked out really well.  I put compost in the beds in the fall so I was ready to plant this year when the weather warmed up.  My cousin Barb gave me a cute GARDEN sign that I hooked up to the fence of the raised beds.  I used 2 yard sticks that I got for free from the Jack Franks booth at the 4H fair last summer to be the handles on the chicken wire surrounding the raised beds.  They work great!  The yard is starting to come alive with tulips, hyacinths and other spring flowers.  It is always amazing to see the flowers springing to life.  (Except the deer have already found my daylilies and I had to spray to keep them away.)

We went to the Algonquin Library book sale on Friday night and bought some video games, dvd's and books.  We did have our free cookies and lemonade.  The next sale is July 19-22.

I stopped at the Huntley Goodwill today.  I haven't been there in awhile.  I found 3 pieces of aluminum for $1.99 each, a wonderful Japanese jewelry box for $2.99, 4 dvd's for $1.98 each and a rose print for 99 cents.  It was a good day.  The Sweet Repeats Thrift store and the McHenry Goodwill didn't have anything for me today. 

The McHenry Parks and Rec Garage Sale is this Saturday at MMS.  We will be at the Pokemon State Tournament in Des Plaines and can't go.  But, I'm still finding stuff to sell at the McHenry County Garage Sale on March 31 at the Huntley Rec Center.  I'm in booth 11.  All of the items that don't sell will go to the Goodwill down the road.  It should be a lot of fun.