I was finally able to get back to working on taking out the broken tire planter today, and was able to get it finished!
I am so happy to get that done!
This is where I left off, last time.
Continue readingMonth: September 2019
Critter of the Day: just jogging (plus bonus mystery critter)
We haven’t been seeing deer much lately, though as fall approaches, we are starting to see them in the fields as we drive by again.
Once in a rare while, I will see on in the trail cam, going down our driveway and jumping the chain. I haven’t seen any since the gate got replaced.
Until I checked the files, yesterday.
The motion sensor was triggered by this lone deer, jogging down the road! :-D
I also saw something interesting flash by during the night.
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Left behind
I was able to walk on the lake shore while in town, today.
Algea has been a problem for many years, but I have never seen it like this!
The Re-Farmer
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Critter(s) of the Day: Was there something?
You weren’t wanting to make your bed or anything, were you?
Because Grandma is giving me a bath right now.
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Temporary
With the recent rains and the cooler temperatures, I decided it was time to figure out how to burn the rotten wood I had cleared out of the old wood pile.
I had a bit of a conundrum.
The burn barrel was full, along with a bin beside it, but I didn’t want to use it, because it’s so close to the big pile of branches we’ve been clearing out.
The best place do a burn is in the outer yard. After walking around and deciding on the best spot, I hooked up the remaining usable hoses to the one new hose I got. It gave me a total of 150 feet, but it wasn’t enough to reach where I had wanted to set up. I had to set up closer. At least this put me on a gravel base.
I dug out a large metal ring that has been sitting in the spruce grove for who knows how long, and rolled it over to use as a fire pit. Bits and pieces of rusted out metal broke off the inside as I rolled it over that I had to go back and pick up. The last thing I need is to have one of those slicing open a tire. I also found a sheet of metal near the barn to use as a base.
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Just a bit more…
I wasn’t able to get back to working on getting the tire planter out (I can wiggle it a bit more, though! :-D ), but yesterday evening I decided to deadhead the spirea by the storage house.
I also cut them back from the grapes they were starting to encroach on again.
As I was doing that, I noticed some dead branches and figured I may as well take them out, too.
And those other ones.
Oh, and there are a few more…
Just a bit more…
The next thing I knew…
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What are you looking at?
I was sitting, facing the window, for several minutes before I realized my stuffed cat had company.
David isn’t much bigger than his plush buddy, and he was sitting there, perfectly still. :-D
It’s like he’s wondering what the stuffed cat is looking at so intently out there. :-D
The Re-Farmer
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Clean up: broken tire planter – getting started
Today, I decided to tackle the bent up old tire planter.
Here is how it looked before I started.
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Interesting find, and medical update
While doing my rounds yesterday evening, checking the eastern fence line in the spruce grove, something bright and red caught my eye.
There are quite a few bright red rose hips in the area, but these were completely different.
I tried to use the Lens app on my phone to identify them, but we get no signal – data or wifi – out there, so I wasn’t able to get a search result until I was by the house.
Apparently, we have American Cranberry growing among our spruces!
Which, apparently, are not true cranberries at all!
I went back this morning to get a better look, and take some photos.
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Old kitchen garden, retaining wall progress
I am so happy I was able to get back to working on this today!
It is now basically finished for this year!
Here is where I started today.
I loosened the soil and leveled off the space where we could fit 1 more of the chimney blocks. In the process, I realized that I could completely miss the bunch of chives. However, I wanted to add a block to form a corner, so I decided to dig some out for transplanting, first.
After discussing what we wanted to put in these in the future, we decided to transplant just some of the chives into two blocks, just inside the corner. The bottoms were stuffed with mulch, then topped with peat, before transplanting. More peat was added, later.
I then went to work on the opposite corner, which had a bit of a problem.
That metal fence post is every so slightly in the way.
The ground here also started to slop upwards towards the house on this side, so I had to level the area by taking soil away from the area. On the other side, I had to level the soil by adding to it!
As for placing the block, I found I could push the metal post aside, just enough for it to line up right.
After everything we jammed in and settled into place, the post ended up being very close to straight, still. So I was happy.
On to the next step!
I raked the mulch I had moved aside, right up against the blocks, then used some of it to jam into the openings until they were filled to about an inch or two from the tops.
Next, I put a layer of peat on top of the mulch.
As I worked my way down the line, I added more mulch to some of them before adding the peat, just to make sure there was a deep, tamped down layer.
I then gave all of them a thorough watering, to give the decomposition process a bit of a head start – and wash off the tops of the blocks a bit.
As it breaks down, I expect the mulch and peat to sink by an inch or two. That will give us the space to add soil as we plant things in them.
As for the small openings, my daughter and I talked about filling them with sand or gravel. I don’t mind the idea of filling them with soil and planting things in them, though they are really too small for that. Even just leaving them empty will serve as a layer of insulation to protect the soil in the middle. However, if we were to put sand in them, it would keep unwelcome things from starting to grow in there, plus give a nice base to add garden stakes, supports, or even solar lights for lighting up pathways.
Since we’re stuck with those metal posts anyhow, I like the idea of using them to string decorative LED lights across, too. :-)
I’m pretty happy with how this area is starting to shape up.
For those new to this blog, here is what the area was like, when I started cleaning it up last year.
Part one
Part two
Part three
Part four
We’ve made a lot of progress here! :-)
The Re-Farmer
The Re-Farmer 