Yahoo!!
The new power pole was delivered this morning. Ready and waiting to replace the one the movers broke.
That pole cost almost $400, all on its own. The delivery fee was only $35. It’s treated, and 30ft long. About 5ft of it will be under ground, so the final height will be greater than the old pole, which was 21ft high. Hopefully, that will mean no more possibility of someone catching on the wire again!
The Re-Farmer
Cleaning up the south yard, I finally got around to working on my mother’s little shrine area.
Here are some before pictures.
That statue of Mary has been featured in a few different places in the yard, if I remember correctly.
I don’t know what the pedestal was for.
The little structure to the right is an actual shrine. My oldest brother built it for my mother; it is based on the kapliczki, or roadside shrines, in Poland that my mother remembers from her youth. Sadly, it has not been maintained over the years, and the wood is starting to rot in many places. For a while, it had a place of honour, right on the concrete landing at the main entrance.
Another “before” view of the area, at the fence line. The post in the foreground is for the clothes line. I’m guessing the rope is to keep the post from being pulled by the weight of clothes on the line, but with the amount of slack on there, I’m not quite sure what it is really there to accomplish. :-D
The first area I started cleaning up was the tractor tire planter. It was overrun with vines! The roots had circled under the edge of the tire, with two big clumps of vines pushing their way out in such a large mass, they actually deformed the tire!
I’m starting to develop a strong dislike for those vines. ;-)
Once I was able to reach it safely, I took the statue out completely. Then started working around the back, cutting away and pulling up a huge mass of dead vines.
I then found a whole other flower garden area!
Bricked up and everything.
I vaguely remember noticing a couple of bricks there, shortly after the snow melted away, but did not expect to find this!
It had nothing but dead vines and leaves in it. Any flowers that were ever planted there were long gone.
Feeling how my feet sank when I stepped in it to cut and clean away the debris, I figure it never actually had soil added to it. It’s all basically composted leaf debris!
Here are the after pictures.
When the tire planter and bricked areas were clear, I pruned what I could reach of the willow trees, taking down more vines that had climbed their way up the trunks in the process.
Then I gave Mary a good scrubbing, before returning her to her concrete block. There was moss starting to grow on her!
You can really see the one spot where a clump of vine roots distorted the tire. The other spot is hidden by the pedestal.
With this area, I don’t know about planting anything there again. What I’d really like to do is get rid of the tire planter. I’d like to get rid of all the tire planters! It will be a huge job to clear the tractor tire planters, so it might end up waiting until next year.
Until then, I just want to make sure those vines to take over again!
After finishing this, it was all I could do not to just keep on going and work in another section of the yard!
Have I mentioned, I really love this kind of work? :-D
The Re-Farmer
Today was another awesome day of clean up in the yard. It is looking so great!
I know I’ve mentioned this before, but I so missed this kind of work! I love it so much. There’s the feeling of accomplishment, and at the end of the day, when the body is sore and achy, and I’m tired – it’s a good tired. You know what I mean?
Oh, and I also got some great news today. I got an email from the electrician. The new pole to replace the one the movers broke will be delivered in the next couple of days. Whoot!
Meanwhile…
While the girls started on the HUGE job of raking between the trees I cleared out yesterday, and adding them to the flower garden, I started working on the south yard. I figure, it’s about time I did some work on the parts of the yard people see when they come to our place, rather than the parts hidden away behind houses. ;-)
The first section I worked on was West of the people gate. This is where there was a mass of dead plants that turned out to have a wire fence in it – and a bottomless glass bowl. :-D
Here is what it looked like, before.
This is how it looks now!
Cutting away those vines – both the old, dead ones, and the new ones that had started to grow – was a huge job, all on its own. The mass was so thick, it was hard to find what I needed to cut with the pruning shears (those anvil shears (affiliate link) are amazing!).
Then, after getting the big stuff off, I had to go back and find more vine roots and clip them. They spread through their roots, so there was a lot of pulling up.
I like vines. I really do. But my goodness, they are invasive!!
That done, I moved on to the lilacs section.
This is how it looked after I first started working on it. There was a lot of clipping and pulling out of vines, cutting away dead and dying branches, and figuring out what lilac stems were keepers, and what had to go.
Lilacs also spread through their roots, and can become invasive, if they’re not kept in check. Except when they’re being choked out by vines. :-/
As I worked my way to the far end, I found…
… Seriously?
The biggest lilac bush at the end of the row was growing straight out of a pile of horse droppings.
I’m getting really tired of finding horse droppings all over the place.
Here are the after photos!
This is from the West end of the lilac row, after trimming and raking.
And here’s how it now looks from the East end.
With all the vines I pulled out of there, I think I just extended the life of these lilacs by quite a few years! Well. As long as we keep on top of cutting back the vines as they try and grow back, that is.
I’m pretty sure my mother had flowers planted in here, too, but they don’t seem to have survived the vines. I don’t have any plans to plant anything here this year, but we’ll see what we decide to do with the area next year.
Next post; cleaning up my mother’s… shrine?
The Re-Farmer
Today was very much an outdoors day!
Thanks to the AWESOME riding mower my brother and his wife gave us, I was able to finish mowing the yard yesterday. Which means that one of the goals of the day was to get out the weed trimmer to clear areas the mower can’t get close to.
A loud and messy job, so I waited until after our afternoon appointment with someone from the home care department. This was a follow up on the last visit, with a different person. So while we waited for her to arrive, I started working on cleaning up the flower bed on the west side of the house.
At one end of the flower bed, there is an unusual variety of lilac; it’s bushier, has tiny leaves, and masses of sprays with tiny flower buds right now; it’s blooming period seems quite a bit later than the other lilacs, which are near the end of their blooming period.
One of the problems with it is that there is a maple tree growing out the middle of it.
Plus, lots of dead branches.
So I started cleaning away dead branches and cutting away the many suckers at the base, just to get at the maple. Where I found this.
This is the trunk of the maple tree (which would have been self-sown), bent around a lilac stem.
I had to cut away more of the lilac before I could take out the maple, which had to be done in sections, due to the size.
It was very awkward work. The lilac stems are surprisingly long and bendy, and many were wrapped around each other. So much so, I found myself wondering if someone hadn’t done it deliberately at some point; perhaps they were overhanging the space between the house and the flower bed or something.
Once the maple was out, I could see the damage it did to the lilac.
I’d already had to cut away a branch of that stem, and I’m not sure if I’ll have to cut the rest of it away. Without being regularly pruned, the stems are so long that, without the dead and dying branches (and the maple tree) holding them up, they’re just sort of… flopping.
It was while I was working on this, that the woman from home care arrived.
While she was here, she went over her form questions, double checking my husband’s mobility needs and what we’ve got around the house. She even took a look at our bathroom (higher toilet, bath chair, lots of arm bars in the tub/shower, and we made sure to bring the special hand held shower with us when we moved; you can shut the water off at the handle, rather than at the wall, and it has an extra long hose). She asked about how he finds raising his legs over the side of the tub, and brought up that, if he ever needs it, there is a transfer chair available. Which we already have, as my father needed one, and it’s still quite new.
She checked out the hospital bed as well, confirming that my husband is now able to get in and out of bed without losing his balance. He’s really enjoying that thing, and finding it very comfortable to sleep on, too.
She also went through her list, asking about cooking, shopping, laundry, etc. If the girls and I were not around to take care of this stuff, he would be able to get home care to come in to help. As things stand now, it isn’t needed.
Which brought us to the only thing that we are hoping to be able to get; a ramp, to make it easier for my husband to get in and out of the house with his wheeled walker. One of the things we learned is that, if we were to qualify for a ramp, we would need to get a contractor to give us a quote to pass on to them. Qualifying for funding is another issue. I had found out about the program online and read that there is an income cut off that can change, so they said to contact to find out what it is. I’d sent an email and finally got a response.
Based on that, my husband’s disability payments put him at too high of an income to qualify. :-/
She’s still going to see if there are other programs available, but if we can just get someone to assess the location for us, and give us the information we need, then we will have something to go on to get it done ourselves, at some point.
So that meeting went well.
After she left, I headed back out to work on the yard. I just cleaned up the trimmings I’d cut down earlier, then got out the weed trimmer – and the two 100 ft extension cords we’d been using to get power to the garage. With those, I can reach pretty much anywhere in the yard.
While I worked on that, the girls cleared out the large pile of branches I’d cleared away from the maple grove. The dead stuff went to the piles by the fire pit, but most of it was green. The green wood pile by the fire pit is already getting big, so they decided to add to the pile I’d started outside the yard, when I cleared the back of the garage.
I didn’t think to take photos before I started with the weed trimmer in some areas. After going around the house, I went around the east yard, including clearing a path to the Saskatoon bushes. When I started working on the south west yard, I was finally able to go around parts of the “spare” house in the yard (I have no idea what my mother has in mind for that building; I did ask her, but the only answer I got was that it’s for storage. !! It was originally intended to be moved to one of the other quarter sections, for one of my brothers to use as a home), and the south fence line. There had been a single mowed pathway leading to around the back of the other house. There are several curved rows of spindly trees, planted close together. I’d asked my mom about them, and she told me she planted them to be a “living fence.”
Personally, I’d like to get rid of them, as it’s really not a good place for trees. I don’t think she really thought about what they will be like, at full size.
And that doesn’t even include the two rows of fully grown trees immediately behind the other house.
Very little of the area is mowable, and no one has tried to clear in between the trees, at all. So I started clearing parts of it with the weed trimmer. There isn’t much I can do behind the other house, until we clear away the junk and fallen branches, and random cinder blocks. :-/ It’s a big job, and I wasn’t able to finish it today. Weather willing, I’ll continue tomorrow.
Once done the yard work for the day, I decided we needed to have another cookout. This time, though, I did baked potatoes.
I will post about those, separately. :-D
My husband was even able to come out and join us for a little while. Not long enough for the potatoes of finish, unfortunately, but even a little bit is good. :-)
After the fire was no longer needed to cook food, my younger daughter and I took advantage of it and started adding more from the clean up pile. Unfortunately, we seem to be adding to it much faster than we’ll be able to use it for fire pit fuel! :-D
Since we were tending the fire, anyway, we also took turns cutting down some of the logs to fire pit size lengths.
We’re going to be set for wood for a good, long time!
We’ll just have to find lots of reasons to get the fire pit going, I guess. :-D
The Re-Farmer
More progress on clearing up the trees!
The maple grove behind our house has several rows of trees. I worked on only the two or three (depending on the area) southern ones.
Here is the north side of the furthest row I worked on.
This area starts to have a fair number of trees and branches already down on the ground, including some that had been cut down, cut shorter, and then left there.
This is how it looked after clearing.
Here’s a before picture from between two rows of trees.
Note the dead spruces further along.
I’d originally intended to leave those, but they were small enough that it was practical to use a hand saw to take them down. I just had to cut away a section of dead branches, first, so I could reach the trunks and start cutting.
The first one, I cut leaving a stump about 2 feet high; I will go back to cut it to ground level, another time.
The second was actually two spruces so close together that, as they got larger, they grew into each other at the base. I trimmed branches to reach the trunks, and cut the thinner one down first, then started on the thicker.
At which point, I realized there was a LOT of movement at the base.
So I just tipped the whole thing over.
Telling my younger daughter about it later, she was laughing about her mighty mom, tearing trees out of the ground by the roots. :-D
It came down quite easily.
Here is how this in-between area looked, after.
Oh, and I found something interesting at the base of one of the maples, closest to the pile of chimney blocks. After cutting away the suckers, I found…
What I believe is a gooseberry bush!
It was completely hidden by the maple suckers. Now that it’s cleared, and I’ve trimmed off the dead bits, I hope it will now have enough sunlight to grow well.
All this clearing meant I was getting a rather large pile of cuttings, which my younger daughter says she will start sorting and clearing tomorrow (the green wood will be piled separately, to dry and become fuel for fire pits next year; the deadwood will be for use, this year). Weather willing, of course. We’ve got predictions for more rain tomorrow, and storms the day after, so we’ll see.
By the time I added the second spruce tree to the pile, though, I realized I needed to stop. There just wasn’t room to add to the pile anymore, and I had to leave it off on the side!
That tree the pile is next to, on the right? You can see the fresh cuts from the last of the suckers I’d cut away on there. Most of that tree, plus the lilac beyond it, was cleared last week.
That is a lot of trimmed wood to clear away! All of this, plus the pile from clearing the shed, is just what was cleared away today.
And finally, here is an overview shot.
Complete with a cream separator basin planter, on a stump. :-D I don’t want to move it, because it ensures that no one will trip over the stump or something. ;-)
I am just so happy with this. The whole area just FEELS so much better. It’s now so open and airy! It’ll be a while, yet, before it’s safe to mow under here – there are still many old branches hidden under the dead leaves that will need to be found and cleared out, first. I should be able to get in with the weed trimmer a bit, though. Plus, as things get raked up, I can add more to the flower garden to break down and build up the soil, there.
This is starting to look the way I want it to! A beautiful, open, usable and accessible space.
After all this, I finished the evening with a trip into town with my younger daughter, to see a dear friend and his lady fair, performing in one of the local coffee shops. It has been many years since I’ve seen him singing and playing his guitar, and never together with his lady love, on an electric cello upright bass!
It was a wonderful way to end a wonderful day.
The Re-Farmer
In this photo from my last post, you can see part of the mess I also cleaned up today.
That round thing of rotting wood is the top of a giant spool that was used for electrical cable. It was likely used as an outdoor table or something, at some point – that was a popular thing for a while. This top part, I was able to tilt up and roll away to the back of the shed.
But not before I had a very close call.
There’s a reason I stopped to clear the area around the chimney blocks instead of focusing on the trees. As I stepped towards one of the trees behind the mess, to clear away branches that had already fallen, I felt something go through the sole of my shoe.
I immediately pulled back, put away what I’d been working on, then went back to dig through the dead leaves and old grass.
I found this.
This area became a priority clean up!
This rotten wood turned out to be part of the remains of an old pallet.
The above photo was taken after I’d cleared away the old pallet, and even removed a bundle of wooden stakes.
There’s a tire rim under there.
Because of course there is. There are tire rims fekkin’ everywhere around here! :-D
I’d already moved some sort of basin that was screwed onto a metal base. I have no idea what it was used for since, unlike the other basins I’ve found around the yard, it wasn’t used as a planter.
I used it to hold the rotten, some nail filled, wood I was finding.
Then, when that was full, I used the blue … barrel? … you can see in the previous picture to hold the pieces of wood I found under the top of the wire spool.
But I’m getting ahead of myself.
After moving out a whole bunch of rotten and rotting wood, I tried to move the wagon that was leaning against the chimney bricks.
It promptly disintegrated.
The top half wasn’t as bad, but when I moved the bottom half, even one of the wheels just sloughed off.
I wonder how many years it sat there?
After I moved it, I found something that brought a smile to my face.
My stone “ostrich egg” !!
My late bother and I found this in a field somewhere, when I was a kid, and brought it home. The size and shape made us think of an ostrich egg, so that’s what we called it. It actually turned out to be quite handy. My mother used to make sauerkraut in a big clay crock (which I believe we still have in the basement!). After layering the cabbage, she put an upside down plate on it to keep the cabbage in the liquid. This rock (after being cleaned thoroughly, of course) was put on top of the plate to weigh it down.
I’m so happy to see my rock is still around. :-D
Then I moved on to the mess under the top of the wire spool.
The base of the wire spool itself was completely rotten, falling apart as I pulled it up.
Then I raked up the decaying leaves and whatnot that was under it.
Whoever put the spool there took enough care to place it on bricks.
With enough time, not even that was enough to keep it from rotting.
I did find another mystery, though. Can you see it? Just above the brick at the bottom, right.
Seashells.
There was a pair of seashells under there.
I just… accept mysteries like this, now. :-D
I took out the bricks, cleared away around the chimney bricks – found some more small bricks, and raked around it. Here is how it looks, now.
The little stools had been leaning against the chimney bricks. They really should be tossed, as they’re old to the point of unstable, but they can stay here for now.
I forget what the long clay “pipes” are for.
All cleared!
And – most importantly! – no more rotting wood with nails sticking up.
Back to clearing the trees!
The Re-Farmer
Since the ladder was out anyway, after my daughter caulked the screw holes from the previous satellite dishes on the side of the house, I decided to tackle one of the Chinese elms.
There was a large branch overhanging the vehicle gate into the yard. With the power pole being replaced in a few weeks, I figured I’d better get it down now. I don’t know what kind of equipment will need to be brought into the yard, but it needs to be done anyway, so may as well!
Since we don’t have a (working) chain saw, it ended up taking all three of us, taking turns sawing, until our shoulders got too sore.
And it’s down!
The next while was spent breaking it down and adding it to the pile I’d started with the saplings I’d cut away, earlier.
The remaining log was a bit much to manhandle alone – the wood is remarkably heavy, compared to other types of trees – so it’ll wait until there are two people available to toss it on the pile.
This is so much better!
There is still a higher branch that should probably come down, as it’s half dead, and there’s another that’s completely dead, but that will wait for another time. At least the one big one is now down.
Not bad for a day’s work.
The Re-Farmer
This morning, I made a point of walking around the yard to see if there was any damage from the storms. We’re all still very wet – enough that our sump pump has actually turned on! – and everything is so wonderfully green!
First order of business was to clean out the cat food containers, which were full of water logged kibble.
I had several cats come out to see what I was doing.
None of them were co-operative when it came to getting their pictures taken! :-D
I was very pleased at what the flower garden I’ve been working on looked like.
Absolutely none of the uncovered cardboard blew away. I am quite surprised, really. With the winds we had for a while, I’m surprised quite a lot of things didn’t blow away!
No roof damage. No dead branches fallen down – at least not in the yard. Just some small branches and twigs.
We’re getting to where we should be mowing the lawn soon. We’re expecting more rain today, but even without more rain, the grass is far too wet. Hopefully, we’ll be able to get it done on Monday.
Not that there is much grass to mow.
The above photo is of the yard to the east of the house, between the house and a flower garden on that side (though that “flower” garden is now mostly bushes). On the far side of this garden, there is better grass.
The above photo is the west section of the yard, near the fire pit. Mostly moss, some weeds, and very little actual grass.
The north side of the yard has a dead patch that perfectly corresponds with the overhanging maple branches above. Hmm. Do you think there’s a correlation? LOL
The south areas of the yard has more grass, especially on the south east, but under the Chinese Elm by the kitchen, it’s more weeds and dirt than grass.
That tractor tire is an interesting bit of decor. ;-D
At some point, though not likely this year, we will work to improve the lawn. Even if it’s to move to a ground cover rather than grass. Some areas are sparse because vehicles get driven in to the door fairly regularly, so I wouldn’t expect anything to do well in those areas.
One thing I was seeing a lot of were black ant hills, like these. The one in the middle was the biggest I saw. Most were like the tiny bundle of soil to the left of it. They’re not good to have in the yard, since they destroy root systems with their digging, but I’m not too worried about them at this point.
Our plans for the day will depend a lot on the weather, but I do hope we’ll still get some outside work done. I had been thinking of building a new barb wire gate for the other driveway, and we still might start preparations for it (like seeing if we can salvage the wood fence posts in the flower garden to replace the rotting posts in the existing barb wire gate) today. We shall see how it works out.
Little by little, it’s getting done. :-)
The Re-Farmer
It was much more pleasant working outside in the cooler temperatures! We were heading well towards 30C today.
One of the first things I wanted to do when I went back out was to empty the second tire planter and move it out.
This one still had the other half of the tire attached as a base.
Also…
It was on top of an ants’ nest. The rim was full of ants, some carrying eggs, trying to find their way back to the nest.
I left the planter right where it was. I can get it out tomorrow! :-D
For the garden itself, I focused on trimming, pruning and cutting. There were a few rose bushes at the fence line that I was going to leave, but determined that they were not deliberately planted there, so I took them out. I pruned the apple trees a bit, and cut away deadwood from trees and bushes alike. I cut away lots of those vines, and so on.
Then this happened.
One of the problems we’ve found since moving here, is that so much of my parents’ stuff is gone. The good, working stuff, that is. Tools, equipment, supplies… This was a fully functioning farm and, after 40 + years of farming, my parents had pretty much everything anyone could need, and then some. What we’re finding now is basically the left behind junk. Like these old pruning shears. My husband was able to sharpen them, but they were clearly not going to last long.
Still, I didn’t expect a chunk to actually break off like that!
We’ll have to add “pruning shears” to our list of purchases. Or, should I say, bump it up higher on the list.
So I made do with a small hand saw. There is a large collection of old saws (and axes) here, with most of them being quite large. I remember using smaller saws that would have been perfect for the work I was doing, but I have not seen any of them, anywhere. Instead, we are using my older daughter’s hand saw, that she bought for herself a few years ago.
It did the job. That’s the main thing.
Here is the garden now, from the south west corner.
Clearing that west fence line was the most work.
Here is the garden from the north west corner.
There is still a stick in there, that is supposed to me marking something my mom planted, but I don’t think there’s anything there anymore. I’ll check more thoroughly when I start raking, tomorrow.
The fence posts are going to take a bit more effort to remove. I can wiggle them from side to side quite a lot, but can’t pull them out.
All in all, a very good day’s work!
The Re-Farmer
Today turned out to be a perfect day for working outside. A bit on the cool side, and not too sunny. It would have been nice of those clouds brought some rain, but it did mean we got a lot done outside. Best of all, my husband was actually up to going outside with his walker, and walk up and down the driveway a few times, then just sit outside and enjoy the day. There used to be a bench under the kitchen window that my late brother had built for my dad to sit and enjoy some time outside, but it is among those things that disappeared after my dad died. At some point, we’ll replace it with another bench. It’s a perfect spot to sit and relax.
The biggest accomplishment in the yardwork today is YAY! we finally got that pile of wood in the garden cleaned up. It is DONE.
While taking loads of broken down wood to the fire pit area with the wheelbarrow, I paused to get some photos of the blooming plum trees.
On the one hand, it was really cool to see them starting to bloom.
On the other, it was a bit disheartening to see how few blossoms there were. Just a few sparse branches spread over several trees.
After we finished with the wood pile in the garden, we went back to clearing up around the yard. Soon, I hope to start going into these trees, and the maple grove behind them, clearing up the fallen branches, cutting away the dead wood that hasn’t fallen yet, and taking down some dead trees.
The girls worked their way around to the three big maple trees by the fire pit. These are the ones where I finally wrested away an old awning that had been left under them for some 20 years. Plus the remains of a chair. As they raked around the bases of the trees, they found three old license plates (one of them had stickers for 1981 and 1982 on it!) and a flat plastic thing that looked a bit like the bases in baseball, except for the hole and part of a pipe still attached, and the big MAC logo. They were buried under several inches of soil; composted leaves, really.
I finally got around to working on the flower garden by the old kitchen. The girls had started to rake around the outside of the fence line, and I took the opportunity to start cutting away some of the things that have started to grow on the outside of the fence. I got the dead asparagus foliage cleared away, but there is no sign of new asparagus growing under it.
I forgot to get a picture of my find under the leaves inside the flower garden. A wooden toy rocking horse, completely buried. I’m guessing it was on the bench on the platform for the clothes line and fell, and no one noticed. I ended up having to prune quite a few low hanging branches on the big cherry tree, just to be able to get under it. I could see that it had been pruned back to where I was cutting already, but not recently.
Cleaning that garden up is going to be a huge job. It hasn’t been tending in so many years, making it hard to rake. Plus, there’s some sort of vine that seems to be spreading, and I’m finding it as the rake gets caught on it. The ground is rock hard. Getting out that invasive plant my mom asked me to get rid of is not going to be easy.
It was good to get so much work done today, but my goodness, there is so much more to do.
Well, that’s what my mom asked us to live her to take care of for her! :-)
Now to go pick the burrs out of my clothes before putting them in the laundry… :-D
The Re-Farmer
The Re-Farmer 