Farm-to-Table: Harvest and clean-up

Yesterday evening we cleaned out the garden.  Weeded what was the tomato bed and pulled out the soaker hose.  Harvested the last good watermelon (the other one was rotting on the vine) and pulled the plants.  Surprisingly harvested sweet potatoes in their garbage pail (we thought they didn't produce anything from when we had checked on them earlier.  Then we dumped the soil from the cans into the old tomato bed.  When I went to dump the soil from the failed potato experiment we discovered that it wasn't a complete failure after all.  From three trash cans we harvested a grand total of five small potatoes!!  We're gobsmacked!  There's a couple of banana peppers still on the plant, but we didn't harvest them yet.

After harvesting, we peeled back the damaged weed block cloth and threw it out, removed the rocks that helped hold it down and stacked them under the stoop so they weren't in the way for mowing, and dumped the soil from the empty containers into the wallows we had created to help keep the containers from drying out (but became mosquito cesspools instead) and into the old tomato bed.

The corn, green beans, and tomatoes failed this year.  They didn't survive the boys' lack of care.  We found that our garden grew better when planted into our clay soil rather than in a raised bed with "garden mix" fetched from a local landscaping company, so our long-term garden plans are reconfigured.

No fall garden.  Didn't have sufficient opportunity to get it put in when it was viable planting time.  I was thinking of experimenting with mini hoop-houses, but there's been no headway on that pondering either.  Compost happens...

Advent, Maybe

We're behind.

Things have been a bit hectic with Cub Scouts, Grandma's move, and life in general.  We managed to get the tree up this weekend...and mostly decorated.  We found suitable white candles for our advent wreath we started assembling in 2006 (and have yet to use)--we're still in search of an adequate purple pillar to use with it.  The Jesse Tree ornaments I cross-stitched before Wee-one was born are MIA--hopefully we'll find them in time to use this spring.

We have not managed to integrate any of the Danish traditions we were wanting to explore this season.

We found our stack of Advent cards and finally utilized them today.  No credit or copyright is designated on them and I don't recall where we got them from.  They've been puttering about in our collection of holiday paraphernalia but we kept forgetting to do them.  We're starting where we are, instead of trying to catch up on the ones we missed.  We intend to do them at bedtime--read the blurb, read the scripture, play the hymn from our hymnbook discs, and go to bed with visions of our Savior dancing through our head.

Reading to Brother

Wee-one reading to El Torro during lessons.

Outdoor Hour #2: Using Your Words

So it's only been three years since we last participated in the Outdoor Hour Challenges...but we finally got our behinds in gear and put some purpose in our stroll.

We were delayed, first by dawdling over lessons, then by our very first teleclass participation.  My closed shoes are nowhere to be found (logically) so we didn't go into the back woods because mama don't play that habitat in flip-flops.  We strolled across the front yard, up the old driveway, and down the street to the stop sign before heading back home.

Of course in the shoe-hunt mayhem I forgot to bring along a camera to take pics of the things we spied: the wildflowers at the abandoned house across the street, a couple of black beetles, a carolina wolf spider, and a couple roadkill insects.  The boys also found a couple of dried out earthworms that made enough of an impression to journal about.  The vultures are back, but with the trees still leafed it's difficult to determine the quantity.

Shortly after we returned inside we spied a vulture walking across the front yard--they're a lot bigger up close than they seem to be in the treetops!

The boys' auditory observations included the wind rustling the leaves, crickets and other noisy insects, and little dogs barking inside a neighbor's house.

Grandma's Visit

A month later I've realized that we never blogged about Grandma's visit.

We took her to Lego. 

We like to avoid rush hour heading to Lego by heading to a museum earlier in the afternoon.

Wee-one was stoked to finally be able to do the monthly build!

We took her to a park date. 

We spent a few hours at Barnes&Noble (and fetched some Take It to Your Seat centers books for this fall). 

Not this particular workbook, but this brand.

We survived a day without A/C during 90* temps.

A non-functioning blower does iced lines make.

Trying to cool down the baby.  While some would leave a hot baby nekkid, we kept a onesie on him to prevent sticking.

We went to a neighbor's Independence Day cook-out.  

We went blackberry picking and she made us freezer jam. 

We took her to the last two swim lessons (and she enjoyed conversation with Ms. Vanessa) of the first summer session. 

She started reading The Hardy Boys to the boys.

I feel like I'm forgetting some events/activities...

We're eager for another visit! (From either grandmother!!) 

Sent on the Sprint® Now Network from my BlackBerry®

The Flower Bed

MIL is visiting us for a few weeks (waiting for this bun in the oven to finish baking) and she decided to do a flower bed with the kids.  They loved the project, but Wee-one didn't want to do the work of prepping the bed.  Part way through we got brilliant and put up the pop-up so the sun wasn't so hot.  I sat on the sidelines with my puffy feet up, but couldn't stand spectating any longer once the flowers were laid out for planting.  I paid dearly for my foolishness of planting about a third of the bed, but it was nice to get into the dirt!

Digging the bed.

Digging the bed in the shade.



Removing some of the mud to make room for the soil to be
mixed in.



Wee-one laying down on the job.



After planting: snapdragons, gerbera daisies, african daisies,
dwarf marigolds, petunias, "fire plant," and something else
I don't recall the name of.



Finished product--the kids ferreted out large rocks from
the yard to hold in the mulch.



The Arrival of Spring

It was noticeable a few weeks ago when my allergies started up, but it's been visibly noticeable the last couple weeks.  Those ghastly Bradford Pears are blooming, and will be stinking it up soon.  Our maples have little red tufts on them.  The bulbs have sprouted their leaves; daffodils elsewhere are in full-bloom.  The peepers have returned.  Last week I spied the first small grasshopper.  Tuesday night, while burning a brush pile, we spied a possom finding quite the buffet on the back slope.  We also heard a pack of coyotes in the distance.  Later a couple of amphibians started a short chorus at the creek, to be taken up by another group farther off in the woods.  DH followed a rabbit around the yard for a bit as well.  Oh, and we have our first two gnats/fruit flies of the season in the house.  *grumble*

The maple at the head of the old driveway.  Can no longer recall
if it is a Red Maple or a Silver Maple.  We need to restart our tree
study of the property...



Turkey-tails on a log that's been waiting patiently to be cut into rounds.



Yeah, I don't remember what this tree was either...might be one of the
tulip poplars, or a horse chestnut....

Property: Driveway Relocation

After months and months of trying to get ground conditions and schedules to mesh, the driveway relocation was finally going to be underway!  The kids and I were housebound during business hours ALL week because we were waiting for the pipe to be delivered.  They never called so we had no clue that they had actually delivered first thing Tuesday morning.  When DH called them Thursday morning we all figured out that it had been set down at the end of the cul-de-sac, much to the bewilderment of the neighbors down there.  Fortunately they moved it to our property Thursday afternoon.

Apparently we assumed incorrectly that since they wanted the location
marked it meant they were lining the pipe up for us.

Friday morning DH's co-worker arrived with his bobcat.  He made quick work of clearing the saplings that had regrown and cutting the new drive.  A couple other co-workers arrived and between the four of them (plus the bobcat) they got the pipes lined up and stabilized for the backfill.

Starting on the backfill.

The bobcat made quick work of pulling up the gravel from the old driveway to use as backfill for the piping.  He didn't even really get any up from the lower drive and parking area (where the future orchard will be going once we get it cleaned and prepped).



Can you spy the end of the pipe?



Looking up the new driveway towards the road (and the
abandoned house across the street).

Once the pipe and backfill was accomplished, it was time to take out the two oak trees in the mound so the mound (that took me three seasons of manual labor to create in an effort to reduce the flooding of the front walk) could be demolitioned in our effort to reduce our erosion impact.

The mound isn't as impressive as it was in 2005 when I stopped
working on it--a lot of it eroded away across the parking area.
No nests were sighted in the trees prior to felling.



I jokingly asked a good friend "How many Rednecks does it take to fell a tree?" 
She responded:  As many as know about it.
They're good kids, and they were a tremendous help! 
It was just too humorous to not snap a pic.



Down goes the first one.

Looking down the old drive to the second oak.  This one was a bit frightening.
The angle of their cut wasn't exactly perfect so when it finally went,
it thumped straight down onto its base then started leaning in a
different direction than it was cut.  The guys did a great job of
 scrambling out of the way, but initially (from my vantage point in
the house) it appeared to be heading straight for them.  It wasn't.

After the two trees were felled they were pulled to the vicinity of the woodpile, and the large tree that fell in the back woods last winter (ground got too soggy for it to stay put) was pulled out as well.  The bobcat returned the mound to a better slope for the run-off and everybody went home.

The following Wednesday 18.5 tons of crush-n-run gravel was delivered (between rainstorms) and DH spent all morning spreading it on the first length of the new driveway.  At least one more load will be needed (if not two) to finish the drive and the parking area.  One of three brush piles (from the felled trees) was burned the night before the gravel to make sure it wouldn't be in the way.  A parking shelter is also to be added.  Once all of those deliveries are made I can start working on beautification of the new drive area, as well as prepping for the orchard to go in next season.

[I need to get pics taken of the mound area, the brush piles, and the length of gravel]