Today was another good day to get pictures of the goldfinches outside our living room window.
They are so fun to watch!
And from the looks of it, they find us fun to watch, too!
The Re-Farmer
Author: Re-Farmer
Birds and Buck
I moved the bird feeder stand closer to the house last night. Here are a couple of pictures I got this morning. (click on the images to see the larger version)
This evening, while heading out to pick up my daughter from work, we saw a deer on the road, then another dashing across when we were almost home.
What I didn’t expect was to see one outside our window! We got a visit from a young buck, and there was enough light out still that I was able to get a few shots.
When I first saw it, it was coming through the tall grass in the main garden. It stayed and grazed by an apple tree, before making its way over towards the house. Then it started enthusiastically eating some elm leaves! It was here for only a short time when something startled it, mid chomp, and off it ran.
The deer are so much more brightly coloured, this time of year. This guy is all legs! :-D
I am so happy to still be seeing them in the yard, and to actually get some pictures, too! :-D
The Re-Farmer
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The Sun room – finished!
Yes! It’s done!
The sun room is now cleaned and put back together into a usable space!
The challenge in rearranging the room was that is has to fit two uses. One is to have a nice space to just sit and enjoy. The other is to put away and store tools and supplies.
The initial cleaning was a huge job, so the difference is very stark! Here are the before and after pictures, starting with the East side. (click on them for larger images)
The dresser now holds the tools that I found in the sun room as I was cleaning it up, including a collection of saws. I even found one with a long, very thin blade that would be perfect for cutting branches in odd places. Except it looks completely dull, so we’ll see. I also found several different types of hammers and hatchets, including a hatchet that is also a hammer. :-D Buckets of screws, clothes pins, and even the containers I used to take deer feed out, are all now tucked away into the dresser.
I just realized, I forgot to check under the seat of my dad’s walker. He used to keep tools in there, too. :-D
That tiny instrument hanging on the wall is a music box. I remember it from when I was a child!
Now, instead of pictures on the walls, I have saws.
Which is much more my style, anyhow. :-D
On the West side…
I chose a before picture that was taken after the dresser was moved out, since that was added by us from another room and was only there for the winter. I’d also already moved the plastic couch that is in the East side “after” pictures.
Whoever wants to use the rocker will have to move my dad’s walker out of the way. Depending on how things work out when we clear out the old kitchen, it might end up being stored in there. My mother likes to use it when she visits.
In the “before” picture, about half of that stuff is what we brought into the room, including the weed trimmer.
I am keeping the prie dieu and plan to pick up some wood oil for it. The side facing the wall is in much better shape. I am guessing the majority of the damage to it is from the sun (as I notice it is in a sun spot…). It’s a bit rickety at a pair of joins on the bottom, and I want to investigate the best way to repair it.
There are a few things not going back in, including one shelf (the dresser is a much more useful and attractive fit for the space) and the metal table. Having packed all of the books, phone books and magazines my mother had in there, the two shelves I did decide to keep have nothing to put in them for now!
Knowing us, that won’t last long. :-D
My dad’s favourite seat is a glider rocker that has lengths of pipe added to the legs to make it higher, so it would be easier for him to get in and out of it. I am happily keeping those, since we’re not exactly limber, either. I plan to replace the cushions when I get the chance. These original ones are very old, and very stained!
With both the glider rocker and the rocking chair on the same side, we have to make sure they don’t get pushed back too far, so no one will bump into the windows!
There will, of course, be other changes made over time. I want to add some hooks on the wall by the old kitchen window, so I can hang the extension cord when it’s not being used. We might even add some decorative items on the walls. Who knows? Minor stuff. For the more major stuff, the outside doors need to be replaced completely. The screen door doesn’t even close properly anymore, and the inner door has a lot of water damage on the bottom. Even the doors into the old kitchen should be replaced at some point, but they are in better shape.
No hurry on any of that, though. The main thing is that the room has been packed up, cleaned and can once again be used!
Next and last room (not counting the basements) to pack up, clear, clean and rearrange: the old kitchen!
The Re-Farmer
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Looking around, planning ahead
The heat is on for the next few days, with some thunderstorms predicted by the end of the week. This will limit what we can do in the yard, and when, for a while.
After dropping my younger daughter off for her first shift at her new job, I decided to finish up the sun room. I’ve emptied it out completely, and mopped the concrete floor. I’d originally intended to take a hose to it, but there is nowhere for the water to drain.
I mopped that floor three times, with many changes of water. I swept it as much as I could, but there was just so much dust left behind!!
It is now drying, so I figured this was a good time to make a post. :-)
Yesterday was our day of rest, and I took advantage of it to just walk around, checking things out now that it’s all as green as it’s going to get, and thinking ahead.
After I finish with the area I’ve been working on for the past while, I intend to slowly work my way through the maple grove to the garden area.
There was a time when this space was a path to the garden. I think that stick next to the dead spruce tree is marking one side of where it used to be.
As you can see by the dead branches in the foreground, there’s more than dead spruces blocking the old path. There is where there are a bunch of maples that had been cut down, cut into pieces, then left there. I don’t know who started the work and then stopped part way through; for all I know, it was my late brother, which might also explain why it was left unfinished.
Before we can even start on taking down the small dead trees (the big ones will wait until we have a chain saw), I will have to clean up all the deadwood on the ground.
We’re going to have several years worth of fire wood for cookouts, by the time it’s done!
I squeezed my way through to check out the West end of the garden space. There, I discovered a huge mass of horseradish! My mother had told me she’d transplanted some there, but that the younger of my brothers had plowed too close to the pole and dug it up, so she transplanted it again, under a spruce three nearer the house. Clearly, she missed some, and it is thriving!
When I was younger, this area was pretty much all open. Now, there is a dense, virtually impenetrable wall of trees where I remember we once had a cabbage patch. From what I could see, along with the usual maple, elm and black spruce, I believe there is also some Colorado blue spruce and birch.
Unfortunately, the trees near the pole are tall enough that they are reaching the power lines! I think they are still clear enough, though, that we can safely cut them down without hitting the the lines. At the very least, we will need to thin the area down. It is so dense, everything is fighting for survival. I can tell quite a bit of it is deliberately planted, such as the Colorado blue spruce (not a native species) and the row of birches, plus the rows of black spruce, but I’m pretty sure there is quite a bit that is self sown. Some of the black spruces, perhaps, and most likely the maples and elms. I am hoping to save as much as I can; the birches look pretty good, but I will likely be removing 2 out of every 3 trees in the rows of spruces. Though just removing the dead ones might achieve the same goal. I would really like to save the Colorado blues.
A number of years ago, the Canadian government was encouraging people living on farms to plant more trees and shelter belts. They had a program where people could sign up and order all kinds of trees, shipped to them for free. I have no idea if this program is still available, but I know lots of people took advantage of it. I am thinking that this is how my parents ended up planting so many of the trees I’m finding, including the shelter belt outside of the yard, along where the cow fence is now.
After checking this area out, I took a look at the North fence line. At this end, there are a number of trees that look like they were deliberately planted, along with some obvious self-sown ones. There is a gap between the big trees and the fence line, which is good. I’d like to clear that gap, so that the fence is accessible. Once the lilac hedge starts, though, I couldn’t see the the fence line at all, and couldn’t tell if there was a space between the bushes and the fence. While walking along the lilacs to try and see, I did find a couple of chokecherry trees.
There are quite a few berries forming, though a lot of them seem to have insect damage to them. We shall see how they do throughout the season.
Eventually, I found a gap in the lilacs and went to see how close to the fence line they are and found…
… some mystery wire.
I have no idea what kind of wire this is, other than it is NOT fence wire. I can’t even see anything nearby that it might be from, or that might explain why it is here.
Something else I’m going to have to clear out and add to the haul-away pile.
The lilacs, meanwhile, are well into the fence line. Not going to be able to clear a path out. Ah, well.
As I was finishing up, I went past a bush my mother planted by the clothes line platform. I had ruthlessly pruned it down, because it was in the way of trying to hang things on the line.
It seems to have like the pruning, because it is now completely dense with foliage, and covered with flower buds, including one early bloomer!
Based on how many buds I’m seeing, by the time this bush is in full bloom, we’ll hardly be able to see any leaves at all; it’ll be a mass of white!
I’m rather looking forward to seeing that.
Well, I think the sun room floor has had enough time to dry. Now I have to decide what to put back, and what will have to go into storage!
By the end of the day, we should finally have a usable sun room. :-)
The Re-Farmer
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Father’s Day is for the birds!
A Happy Father’s Day to all the wonderful dads out there! Especially to my wonderful husband. Thank you for all you do for us. <3
My husband has front row views of the bird feeders out our living room window, and has been getting some photos, as well. He got a bunch from yesterday.
The feeders had masses of goldfinches on them for the past while, with the occasional nuthatch popping by. Yesterday, they were outnumbered by another bird. I’d thought they were some of the ones we’ve been seeing for a while, until I could see the yellow in their wings.
From what I’ve been able to find, they are pine siskins – and they sure love the platform feeder!
This morning, the crowd of them was back. Just as I was getting up to take some photos, they got chased away by this guy…
Finally, I was able to get a good photo of a blue jay! For the past while, I’ve found myself wondering if they can somehow feel the camera’s sensor, because as soon as I try to focus on them, they fly off. :-D
I am thinking of looking over the area in front of the living room window to see if there is level ground closer to the house I can move the feeder to, so we can see them better without having to zoom in so much with the camera. :-)
The Re-Farmer
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This is concerning, plus progress
Not a lot was done in the yard today. We made a much needed dump run with garbage and recycling – including a lot of garbage from cleaning the sun room out, then my younger daughter and I went into town to run some errands (plus play some Pokemon Go for community day, while we were there ;-) ). It was almost evening when we got back, but I still wanted to get at least a bit more clean up done today.
As I headed over to the Eastern end of of the bushes and trees I’ve been clearing out, I found something very disorienting.
In the false spirea I was planning to clean out was a large branch.
Funny, I think to myself. I thought I’d cleared away the crab apple branches I’d cut. Did I miss one?
Except this branch wasn’t a dead branch. It was mostly green. I didn’t remember cutting a green branch in that area and leaving it there. Also, it wasn’t apple.
Then I started to pull it out and saw the end of it.
At which point, I stopped to take pictures.
Here is the branch I found.
It’s a maple. Aside from a couple of small dead side branches, it is in full leaf.
That’s burnt wood right there.
What the heck?
I started looking around to see where it came from. Then I called my daughters out to look, too, just to make sure I wasn’t jumping to conclusions.
This is where we think it came from.
The arrow at the top is pointing to the end of a branch that we think it came from.
The double ended arrow is between the two power lines.
If my guess is correct, some time during the night, the branch hit the live power line, got burned, then broke and fell down.
Now, I can’t say for sure that this is where it came from, but it must at least be close to the source. There just aren’t any other maples close enough.
I am not feeling confident about this.
I had asked for the electric company to come out and check the line a second time when, after the first time they came out, the woman who followed up with me could not see anything that said they’d checked more than our own power line to the house. The second call, I basically was told the same thing as the first time; whenever we hire someone to clear the lines, let them know and they’ll cut the power for us. I don’t know when anyone came to check the lines a second time; this was after we had to put locks on our gates, and we did not get a call from anyone to let them in. However, someone could have stopped on the main road and simply ducked through the barbed wire fencing. The locks just keep vehicles out. People can get through easily.
I’ll be asking some advice from family who works with the electric company before I call them again. There’s no point in calling again, if they expect us to clear their lines.
After clearing the burned branch away, I cut back the spirea completely. Here is the before picture from a few days ago.
All I did was cut away the spirea, plus break off a few dead lilac branches that were overhanging them, so I wouldn’t stab myself in the face or something.
Here is how it looks now.
To the right of the lilacs was the beginning of a path to the big garden. It is now almost clear and open again. At least at this end. The other end has dead spruces partially blocking it.
Here is another look at the lilacs.
You can see where I broke off the branches that were overhanging the spirea. Most of the lilacs appear dead. These lilacs used to be so thick with greenery and flowers, you couldn’t see stems and branches.
It should be interesting to see how they recover, once all this is cleared up and they are getting sun and space again. It might take a few years, but lilacs are so resilient, I am sure they will grow back well.
There is still lots of work to do, but it doesn’t take much for it to look so much better.
The Re-Farmer
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Dead Wood Down, and cat models
With yesterday’s heat, I did not head out until the evening, to clean up the piles of wood I’d cleared out the day before. We had caught just the edge of the storm that night, with some rain and high winds, but nothing near as bad as the areas to the south of us. Some places got tennis ball sized hail, and there were power outages in places.
When I got to where I’d left the cut wood, I noticed a branch, just off by itself, but still near the pile of deadwood. Had I missed it, somehow how?
Then I looked up.
The big maple tree reaches out over this area, and it has a lot of dead branches. One of them was broken in the high winds we got, and the bigger part of it got hung up on other dead branches.
Lovely.
After I clearer away the piles of wood, I added another length to the extended pruning saw. I was able to pull down the dangling branch, then with the extra length, was able to cut down two dead branches.
The first one was the one at the bottom of the dangling branch you can see in the picture above. The other was a larger one, that you can see part of, above the big, thick main branch. That one was being partly held up by the main branch.
You can see all three branches, here. The big one, as it got hung up on the main branch on the way down, basically exploded, sending side branches and twigs all over the place! (That would be Rolando Moon, in the background. :-D )
After taking out the big branches, I filled two wheelbarrows with small branches and twigs, just from here!
We had a wiener roast shortly after, and when we were done eating, I stayed longer to clear both wheelbarrows. :-)
While we were having our cook out, we got visited by Nasty Crime Boy, who decided that one of the folding chairs we brought out would be a great place to hang out.
When my daughter came closer with her phone to take pictures, he was very curious about the whole thing, sticking his face up to the phone, then reaching out to grab her with his paws!
Too adorable. :-D
I ended up staying out several hours, tending the fire and watching the sun setting behind the trees while listening to the renter’s cows mooing, with frogs and cranes, croaking in the distance. By the time the girls came out to check on me, it was fully dark except for the glowing coals in the fire pit.
Life is good.
The Re-Farmer
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Royal Colours
More goldfinches came, en masse – with a purple finch joining them for a bit!
My older daughter took the photos with the purple finch. :-)
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A Golden Opportunity
Clean up: after
I have just finished working on the bushes in the west yard, near the fire pit, for the day. It’s not finished, but there is a storm moving in, and I did get the big stuff done.
So I have after pictures I can show you.
I actually went deeper in then I’d intended to. I started in the area around the linden and plum trees, to get more dead branches down, and everything was getting so hung up, I had to go further in, just to stop that from happening.
In the process, I found the lilacs that used to form a tunnel I’d crawled into as a child.
Yeah. Most of the lilacs are dead.
Between these and the tree directly behind the linden tree, there was just no way to avoid getting hung up on dead branches.
Here is the after, for this area.
Still lots to clean up, but the dead stuff is mostly gone. The remains of the lilacs might actually survive. They are very hardy.
Here is what it looked like around the linden tree, when I finished up.
Then I started working my way down the rows.
Here is the before of the first section;
I believe this is another crab apple tree, and it looks like it has some sort of fungal disease. I cut away lots. Here is it, now.
I freed up more plum trees in the process.
There are still signs of spotted and yellowing leaves higher up in the apple tree, but I got as much as I could reach for now.
While working in between the rows (there are three rows in total, in this location), if I had to choose between getting rid of a caragana and something else, or a false spirea and something else, I would choose the something else. This was not a difficult thing as, in the process, as the “something else” was usually a fruit tree. I also found a giant caragana in the back row. Unfortunately, the biggest trunk of it was dead and so rotten, I broke it off and yanked it out without having to cut anything.
In fact, I was doing that a lot, today. Yanking stuff out right by the roots, or breaking them and pulling them out.
The next section has a dead tree in it. Here is what it looked like before.
There was a lot of false spirea around the base of it. In clearing that out…
… I freed up some more plum trees.
That dead tree is going to need more than the little hand saw to take it down! So it stays, for now. Though I was able to just break a branch off of it.
Next was another crab apple tree.
This one has a lot of tiny apples starting to grow on it, but it also is starting to show spots on the leaves. :-(
Also, a lot more of it was dead then I thought!
I was taking out lots of dead branches, and even a couple of trunks.
Like this one.
This is probably the biggest thing I cleaned out today. It wasn’t until I cut it, then started dragging it out, that I realized how big it was, so much was hidden among the branches.
There is still lots to do here, including clearing out the section of false spirea at the end, so I can reach the dead lilacs behind it. It’s going to be a while before all the bits of dead branches and twigs on the ground are cleaned up, though I did take out the hidden ones I found by stepping on them.
All of this was about 3 hours of work, give or take.
When I was a kid and mowing the lawn in this area, when the crab apples at the end of the row were full of fruit, I would pick a whole bunch of them when I went under it, I would eat them as I mowed my circuit, then gather more when I got back. They were small, hard green apples, and very sour. I loved them!
We also had a pear tree next to this crab apple tree. It was another small, hard variety. My father told me about having this variety when he was growing up in Poland. They were too hard to eat as they were, but they would be gathered and buried under rocks in the fall. In the winter, they would freeze. Later, the rocks would be removed, and the frozen pears taken out. The freezing not only softened them, but made them sweet, as well.
I have no idea what happened to that tree.
I also wonder what happened to the mountain ash (aka rowan) that used to be here, about were the current diseased apple tree is. We had a few of them. They never got very big; nothing like the ones in the city we just moved from – I had no idea they got that big until we started living there! But they were beautiful, and produced masses of red berries.
A lot has changed over the years we’ve been away, but a surprising amount has stayed the same, too.
The Re-Farmer
