My trip to pick up a parcel ended up taking longer than expected. It was a Purolator delivery, which now delivers to our post office, if we use their address, and we pick it up from there. Other times, we’ve had to go to town to pick it up, or to the slightly further town my mother lives in.
Not this time!
For some reason, they decided to drop it off at another, even further, town to the north of us.
Then didn’t tell us.
If the shipping address is just a box number, they call us and ask which depot to drop it off in. My husband got no such call. He didn’t even know it was coming by Purolator. When he placed the order, he thought it was coming by mail. They’re not very good about informing how things will be delivered!
Ah, well. It was just a bit of an extra drive. I still got to pick up the mail, where I found our seed packet arrived, in advance of the crocuses we ordered, as well as my subscription shipment of lysine for the outside cats.
Once I got home, I was soon heading outside to get ready to paint the stump bench and folding table, which included hosing them down and giving them a scrub. I left them to dry while setting up the paint supplies, only to hear a strange noise in the leaves above me.
It was starting to rain!
Of course… 😄
It wasn’t much, but that was okay. I was planning to work on the trellis bed logs while the bench and table dried, anyhow.
I’ll start with the logs.
I wanted to start with the largest log that is going to be a bottom log in the bed. The other large one we recently cut might be an issue. It has a bend in it that I’m either going to have to work around, or find a straighter dead tree of the right size.
I brought over one of our saw horses to make debarking easier. I love that draw knife! The hard part was at the wide end. It just did not want to roll over and stay put, so I could do the underside! It took some fighting, and a handy wedge shaped rock to keep it from rolling back, but eventually, I got it all done.
The next step will be to hose it down, then trim away the branch nubs and other lumps, before moving on to the next log.
Ideally, I would char this before setting it in the ground, but to char a log this size all over, I would need a torch of some kind, and I don’t have one. Still, just debarking it will help, and all the bits of bark will be part of the garden bed layers.
By the time this was done, what little rain we had was long gone, and the bench and table were dry. Here are the before and after pictures.
I debarked the stump supporting the bench, too, then pressure sprayed it with the hose. It really should have been debarked when the bench was first made. I found sawdust and ant damage under the bark. Not enough to affect the stability of the stump, yet. It’ll hold that bench for a few more years!
I did not paint the stump or the end supports. Once all the greenery grows back, it should look like the bench is just floating.
These will get at least one more coat of paint before they’re done. If the forecasts are at all accurate, I should be able to do that tomorrow afternoon, then more rain supposed to hit our area.
It feels good to finally get at least a bit more progress on those trellis bed logs! This project is taking so much longer than it should have. 😕
The Re-Farmer
The Re-Farmer 