Pick Up The Pieces

 So I promised to show ya'll a few photos of some actual work I have done around here.  I was never really enthused about the idea of painting this bar wall, so when it hit me to sheath it in pallet wood I jumped on that. Allen had been scrounging pallets for me for months and I had stripped a lot of them down to usable wood where they were just waiting for finishing.  So, I finally bit the bullet and sanded, stained, painted, sanded again, and patched for two days to get enough planks to do these 2 walls.  I didn't make a lot of effort to hide any patches, dents, or bangs in the wood.  I mean, it's obviously pallet wood and obviously reclaimed, so there's the "charm".  Ha! Anyway, I thought it came out rather well.  The corners are done in 1 1/2" angle iron and these make helluva good corner guards..  The iron is just stuck on for now because I'll have to take it back off and cut to fit when I run the finish floor and baseboard.  In person it looks better.  The color is a bit washed out in this photo because, due to low light in the warm months in my house, I have a devil of a time getting decent photos.  I often have to use a flash and it just doesn't look right.

 This photo is a little better but it's a little washed out too.  Anyways....I finished this counter top and back splash and wanted to run a little of the glass tile just to see how that was going to look.  I'm very pleased with this but please note; the tile has not been grouted yet, so it will look a little different when finished.  This gives me a lot of motivation to keep going.  I'm very anxious to get the kitchen finished because I think it's really going to be awesome.

 However, I had to take a break from all that and take advantage of the fact we are in an extended drought.  I have needed to fix this basement wall for years after I discovered just how much rain floods down the mountainside during the winter rains.  If the rest of the house were built this area would remain dry but.....we all know that has not happened yet so....I have to treat this as if it is forever an exterior wall.  Which meant chopping the bottom 2 feet off of the wood framing, forming a 4 inch thick wall and pouring it in concrete.  Here you can see the girls inspecting my forms.  It came out real well.  I even played around and did a faux board formed look on the outside.  This 11 foot section is a little less than half of what I need to pour but it's the worst part of the problem.  I admit I should have done this to begin with..but I did not realize the amount of water etc. around here.  And I was under the supreme delusion that the rest of the house would come along soon enough. Ha!!
Anyways, this form has been dropped, the wall sheathed back, and also insulated and covered on the inside.  Snug as a bug!  I'm now running multiple shelves on the inside in an effort to better organize the basement and my studio there.  I'll rub the exterior of the concrete here, below grade, to produce a smoother finish, then waterproof heavily and backfill.  There is still no sign of any rain anywhere in our near future so I shouldn't have any issues finishing this in the dry.

I also thought I'd take advantage of the drought in other ways!  We have ample dried foliage, leaves, flowers, grass and any things else you can think of here, so I gathered up a armful of stuff, a couple handfuls of feathers via some molting chickens and threw together this autumnal wreath.  Not too shabby I guess.  Certainly was cost effective.  haha!

Sunshine Babies

After a gloomy start this morning we finally got a nice sunny afternoon and everyone seemed to enjoy it, despite the humidity.  It has rained and stormed on and off here for several days and I was glad to finally see the sun again too.
The bitties have finally gotten big enough that I felt fairly safe in letting Mama take them out into the yard.  They have been having a blast too and Mama is pretty watchful and careful with them.  Several of the other girls probably have sore spots from getting a little too close and Mama launching herself onto them.

They had a pretty good line formation going out across the lawn today looking for bugs.  Very thorough! lol!  Later in the afternoon Mama Hen will take them back to their little run and ask to be let back in.  (We have to keep the gate closed so the others won't go in there and eat up their food.)  Anyway, they go back in then to get a good helping of ration so they won't go to bed hungry.  I noticed last night that she is now teaching them to sleep on the roost also, so they are growing up fast.

The wild hydrangeas are in full bloom.  I love these things because I don't have to do a thing to them.  Except maybe prune one occasionally to help it fill out a bit.  And the flowers last for a really long time.

I don't know if this is chamomile or feverfew.....I think the latter.  It is not a perennial but rather just resows itself freely every year.  I haven't added much to my herb collection lately and need to remedy that.  I definitely need to add borage, comfrey and maybe another mint. 

Some of the girls thought it was a good day to work on their tan. Ha!  They love to lay out in the sun.  It has taken me quite awhile to get used to this though and not immediately think I have a bunch of dead chickens when I come out and see them strewn about the yard.  I tell ya, the first dozen times I saw them do this it really scared the crap out of me.

The garden is doing well although this is a fairly crappy photo that doesn't show much.  The squash plants were some volunteers I just transplanted into a row.  Hey, why buy them if they are just gonna come up on their own?  Honestly, I'm a lazy gardener; I'll let the plants do as much as they can on their own.  Beyond the squash I have cukes (for pickling), eggplant, peppers and some late cabbage that is probably going to get thrown to the chickens.  Beside the squash I have one row of tomatoes.  I think four are for eating and the rest of for canning.  We also planted some watermelon and in the other run we have peas and green beans.  The bulk of the main garden is planted with corn.  Well, maybe just half.  It's a fair amount of corn though.

My grapes are doing great this year so that kinda makes up for the raspberries that have crapped out and the strawberries, which I have let get overran and are not producing much.  Hopefully the figs will do well this year, since we didn't get any last year.  That's one reason I try to have an assortment of fruits planted; you rarely have a year where everything does well and with an assortment you are going to at least have a couple things that produce.

Of course, seems like the blueberries always do well and this year is no exception.  The bushes have grown at least a foot or more and are loaded down with fruit.  All the fruit is in the border of the main garden and I have various perennial herbs in between the fruits.  In between the blueberries I have lemon thyme, oregano, catnip, sage and another variegated mint.

This variegated mint is not invasive like some peppermints; it seems to behave itself pretty well, and is supposed to be great at repelling mosquitoes and such.  Plus, it's pretty and has blooms on it for the bees.

After I finally had the revelation that I could grow beans vertically (duh), I purchased 3 cattle panels and made some very cool trellises the length of the run.  I then planted my beans in 2 rows, one on each side of the panels.  They are doing well and already starting to climb without us having to train them at all.  We did the same with the peas.  They are a bit shorter right now but should come on up and attach to the panels also.  This should help my back tremendously.

This is looking across the okra and pea/ bean run.  If you look closely you might be able to spy 3 little bitties doing bug patrol!  Mama Hen gets a little upset because she cannot get in there with them but she waits patiently until they get their fill and come back out.

 It's gonna take a lot more to get this soil to a really good level but it is MUCH improved over what it was when I first came here.  Now when we dig we actually find earthworms and hardly any grubs, which is the exact opposite of my first year or two here!  Of course, we regularly amend with chicken poop too, so it's getting there, albeit slowly.

So, that's the garden update.  Hopefully I'll have something a bit more informative next time.

Sunday Stroll

The Christmas fern forest is in full gear.  These are the only ferns here, out of about 8 different type, that I can positively identify.

No idea what this type is.  Maybe a type of bracken fern?

Chigger guards the entrance to the Enchanted Forest.

Okay, now these are definitely sensitive ferns; I do know that one too.  They haven't put up their little brown center stalk yet though.

Some very large trillium.  No idea the variety.  I should have gotten one of the chickens to stand by these because they are easily taller than the girls.

My red azaleas are in excellent form this year.  Very pretty.  I can't wait until they are big!  The ferns around these steps and walls just planted themselves.  I haven't moved any so far.  They seemed to have picked good spots.

My opinion is this is a rattlesnake fern........but I could be wrong.  Maybe some type of grape fern.

My photo designer checkin' out the set up before hand.  She's got an eye for detail.  Actually, she's making sure I didn't drop any treats anywhere in the area.   She's got an eye for that too.

My never-ending quest to get some decent photos of the birds around here.  Didn't do too well today.  We had intermittent showers, so that's my excuse.  I was happy to see a male grosbeak again this year but my photos did not come out well at all.  I hope he will be back.

Grow Your Own

 Not the best of photos I know, but maybe you can make out what I'm so excited about.  The asparagus has started to come up!  Hopefully, it will soon be coming up in a bit more quantity, so that it doesn't take me a week to get one batch.  This is the main reason I added another row this year.  The shoots that do come up are doing well and fat but there is just not enough at one time.  Ahhh, patience weedhopper...

 Since our cold frame is currently disassembled (meaning non-existent), I decided to just sow some lettuce in the one available, clear area that I knew would not get messed with.  It could sort of act like mulch for the asparagus also.  I will sow the rest of this row in about a week so I can stagger my lettuce harvest a bit.  It is about worthless in my opinion to buy loose leaf lettuce at the grocery.  It's expensive, it always goes bad before I can eat it all, plus, it's incredibly easy to grow yourself (and cheap), even with a teeny bit of space and it just sits there until you are ready to harvest a salad amount at a time.  Of course, it will eventually bolt but in cooler weather that takes awhile and you can get many servings before that happens.

Here is a few examples of the shrub starts that I did from prunings.  You can see in front, with the teeny yellow buds, is one forsythia shrub and to the right and behind is 2 blueberry bushes.  Just prune them off and stick 'em in the ground.  Of course, not all take but many do and it's free.  And yes, they are very small at first, just kinda like sticks, but they grow pretty fast, especially if you keep them in rich soil.  Since I know these are rooted well now I'll transfer them soon.

And one of the most wonderful surprises of this week!!!  The morels are starting!!!  I am officially hooked on these things now.

I found enough for a nice supper and we pigged out.  We celebrated their annual return again with a bit of steak and wine but I stuffed myself so on these that I honestly didn't end up eating much steak.  Oh well.  It makes a good breakfast.  Hopefully, I caught these at the beginning of the season here, so I'm hoping to find more in the next couple of weeks.  The Earth has a bounty if you know where to look!

Oh, and I meant to show ya'll these in the last post and forgot!  When we were up at my Mom's for Easter and were outside taking those photos, I noticed a small flock of birds that settled in a great big oak tree right by us.  My brother did not appear to notice but I knew immediately that there was something different about these birds.

Their soft, muted colors and just the way they landed all around us seemed foreign somehow.  Upon closer inspection with my telephoto lens I then knew that I had never seen these before!  Unfortunately, I did not have my most powerful lens (I figured I wouldn't need it! ha!) and so I could not get real close or detailed shots but these are enough that I'm pretty certain that these are Cedar Waxwings.  I was just mesmerized by them.  I would guess there were about 20-25 in this group.

They sat around preening and just enjoying the sun.  Didn't seem bothered by us at all.  Which made me happy.  It was fantastic to get to observe them so such a long time.

I wish a group would come by the house so I could get a better shot (maybe) but I'm ecstatic to have seen them and gotten these.  I really had no idea that Waxwings ever came down here, so it was a real surprise for me.

Silent Sunday (Almost)

The ol' rhubarb actually came back this year!  Well, one root did anyway.  I'm pretty sure I had two in this pot but even this one coming back for the 3rd year is pretty good.

Spring appears to finally be here!!!!  Not a moment too soon either.  In my opinion.

The daffodils are in fine form this year.  They seem a bit more prolific this time around.

Hopefully, we'll actually get some plums this year.

At the end of last summer I actually found one, lone, dried up (but quite large) plum that had stayed on and matured, but that I had somehow missed when I checked for fruit.

So pretty!!!  Makes me happy!!

Perhaps some of the bulbs have multiplied too.

I wanted Zuzu to pose in front of the flowers but had to trick her into thinking there was some great treat there to get her to stay in one spot.  She quickly discovered I was pulling a fast one on her and promptly ran off.

This is a wild spice bush that is native to this area.  It has gotten fairly large since I have cleared out some of the area around it.  It's covered in these teeny yellow blossoms and does have a somewhat pleasant odor.  It's more medicinal smelling than spicy though.  Some people dry clipping of it for potpourri.

Better Than Nothing

Well, there's not a whole lot of anything going on around here right now.  I believe I have truly begun to hate winter.  And yes, I know it's not actually winter yet.  The damp coldness here has become relentless to me.  Like a lot of things.  I am so thankful for the occasional warm and sunny day though and we have had a few lately.  In fact, this whole week is supposed to be warm, although it may be a little rainy at times.  However,  rain is easier to take when it's warm, to me anyway.  And there have been a few new things surprise me this fall.  For one, my little witch hazel tree bloomed for the first time.  I was beginning to wonder if it really was a witch hazel but a couple of weeks back it burst forth in it's little yellow explosions.

The tea plants are not new but they have made considerable progress this past year.  The 3 red blooming bushes did die but the white blooming variety has done well.  One bush is up to about 3 feet tall.

As an experiment I planted 2 on the north-facing hillside behind the house.  It has pretty rich, humousy soil with great drainage.  I planted one other at the bottom of the hollar.  The lowest spot of my valley for ya'll not familiar with the local vernacular.  It also has good dark soil but stays a bit damper than the others.  What the two groups have in common is that they both are in part to mostly shade and they are both doing very well.  I really hope to be able to harvest enough leaves this spring to at least make a little tea.  Or attempt to make tea anyway.

In other news I finally go to the point of desperation and raised my pottery wheel high enough to throw standing up.  I had been able to throw a few things lately but the pain was just getting nerve wrecking.  I threw a number of things and I have to say it worked out pretty well.  I wish I had not been so stubborn and had tried this well before now.  It's easier not only because I'm not sitting down and putting pressure on my butt joint but it's just easier to move around.  I can come and go from the wheel with ease, moving finished products or if I forgot a tool and such.  No standing up and down and up and down.  There are a few little things to work out over time but I'd say this is working well enough to let me get a couple of loads of work to the stores before Christmas.

So, that's about it for now.  Hopefully things will brighten up over the next few days and relieve some of this misery.

Autumn Leaves Revisited

Our area has a lot of red maples which are very colorful, as you might expect, at this time of year.

More beautiful weather lately also, but we did get a little rain the other day.  We did need it though.

Big T or Tillis is the reigning roo at the moment and loves to stand in my pot of lemon thyme.  And poop in it of course.  I sold George to a nice young lady who is the daughter of a fellow I went to high school with.  She is very active in the state 4-H and shows her flock regularly.  George will make his first show appearance at the APA show in December!  I think I am more excited than they are.