Patio Cover is Done!

Petkus finished the patio cover Friday afternoon and Doug and Matt got our citrus trees planted in the ground.It's so nice to check off 2 more projects from our To Do list. I really hope our trees don't kick off all their fruit because of the shock to their system being in the ground now.

I was moving dirt over to our soon-to-be garden area and Kevin stopped by to see the patio cover. Then after he took the wood from the tractor work (I am SO grateful he took that wood to throw out for us!! It has been such a nuisance), I decided to sit outside with a thermometer to check the difference under the patio cover and out in the sun. Under the patio cover the temperature was 76 degrees, but sitting out in the sun was about 82 degrees, but it got up to 90 degrees. That's a pretty big difference from 76 to 82 degrees. I also kept stepping, barefoot, on the cement in the sun and under the patio cover; even at 2pm it was cool to the touch under the patio cover. It seems like such a simple thing, but it's amazing to have shade in our backyard!This is underneath to show the solid and open lattice:From upstairs:Look! It's 2pm and we have shade! AND the wood is GONE! (it was leaning against that fence for a couple months!)There were landscapers fixing the grass at the neighbors house; I asked them about the grass and house they were working on. They had to come back and re-sod the yard because the owner told them not to turn the sprinklers on because they had a plumbing leak. Who the heck plants new grass and doesn't water it?? What a waste! Anyways, we chatted about the new patio cover and the permit and neighbor signatures needed for improvements; then about an hour later one guy hops up on the fence to look into our backyard and says how much he likes our backyard and then said, "If I were your neighbor, I wouldn't sign for an improvement because I'd be jealous of your yard." Then he hopped off the fence and kept on working. I was cracking up!

P.S. After Kevin took the wood away, there was the biggest black widow I've ever seen. I, of course, sprayed it with Raid. It kept moving, so I kept spraying and spraying. Then I found a fairly long stick and poked at it. After 5 minutes I went back to see it it was still there and sprayed it again and again. It wouldn't stop moving. AND, I even took a picture of it! How brave am I????!!!!! Okay, not very brave....I can't put the picture on the blog because I'll freak out if I see it.