It's A Wee Bit Hot Out There

The week that The Boy was gone started a cycle of rain that we were in for another week. It also included high humidity.Needless to say,it put a damper ( no pun intended!) on the outdoor plans. It put us a couple of weeks behind in laying down the loam and seeding. Last week,the chance of rain lessened as the week went on,but the temps have been in the 90's,with over 70% humidity-which put the actual temperature around 100 degrees. Rick has been out there,determined to get the loam spread as best as he can. Scoop up a load with the tractor,dump it in the area,and spread it out manually. I have been telling him to come inside where the AC keeps the house nice and cool every so often to rest a bit.He has been drinking plenty of water. We have also been fighting with the pool. We bought Green to Blue from HTH. Unfortunately,it didn't say on the bottle that it's not for use for a cartridge filter system,and that you need a material vacuum system for your pool. It broke down the metals,etc in the water and made them settle,but because our filter is not designed to pick up this sort of material well,when we vacuum the sediment spews back out of the outtake into the pool again. I finally looked this issue up last night,and found out that we have been using the wrong chemicals. Sigh. So we blasted the pool with chlorine,and have to start all over. I joked that by the time we can use the pool,the weather will turn to cold and rainy. Live and learn. I am hopeful that we can get the pool functioning for this coming weekend. We are having our Boy Scout Troop to the house for their Year Planning Weekend. It would be nice for them to use it.If not,then we do have the beach down at Sunrise Lake.

I think The Boy came back a carrier from NYLT,because on Monday at Yoga,My Dear Friend Michelle mentioned that her son,Ethan,who was at NYLT was sick with a cold. That night,I started having a scratchy throat,and by Tuesday AM I felt like I was swallowing glass. I was in bed for three days,even most of the Fourth,so it didn't feel much like a holiday for me. I did make some potato salad,and we had chicken ka bobs and corn  on the cob with the salad. We set off some fireworks (no ordinances here in town,though anything after 11:00 PM is noise nuisance)which is our yearly thing. Each day I do a bit more,not to over do it. My poor garden was so sad and full of weeds-Friday I got out there and weeded,finally. The Girls loved the weeds. The mornings are a bit rough.It takes a while for my head to clear,and I am bit stuffy,Mostly I just feel tired all the time,but I just putter along and yesterday was the first day I didn't nap or lay down.

The broilers have all been processed. Rick vacuum sealed them,some whole as roasters,some cut up. It took him over 6 hours to do it. We had about 28 broilers,give or take. We did lose a few over the course of time. That seems to be normal. Michelle and her hubby  were kind enough to lend us their homemade chicken plucker,and it was a time saver. The plucker is all clean and under cover. We just need to return it,I think it will be sometime this week.

In between rainstorms,I have been able to pick a couple few things.......

Some German Chamomile . I used my tea infusers to dry out the flowers. You can see the dried ones on the right, and the freshly picked ones waiting to be dried on the left. I am going to try some Chamomile tea this year.

This has been the best year for our strawberries so far. I have made it point,no matter what the weather or how I feel,to go out and pick the ones that are ready.I wash them,pluck the stems (which I then compost) and put them freezer bags.I am hopeful that I will have enough of my own berries this year to make jam with them.If not,I will have to go to the local farm and get some to combine them with. We have three harvests,and this was a sample of what I was gathering during our first.It has since gone down to just four or five berries at a time,but now we are getting some new blossoms for the second harvest.

We have invested in a roadside sign. We put it out on on the Fourth. Folks have been slowing down when they pass,which is good. Yesterday I sold three dozen eggs.We will have a regular sign by the road with our farm name,and this sign will be used just for what we are selling,which will increase with time.

Hopefully everyone out there is staying cool...if you work outside, please don't over do!!

Have a fabulous day on this Fabulous Planet!

Inner and Outer Peace

Many things have been going on lately...here at home,and in my head.

I have begun yoga. My Dear Friend Michelle told me that she is enjoying her class,and I should give it a try. I love it. I told our instructor,Laurie on Monday that it has helped me tremendously in finding inner peace and relaxation. I practice lyengar yoga,which focuses on posture and breath control. I can get very sore after our classes,but I love it.I look forward to our twice a week class. Granted, I can find relaxation going outside and listening to the birds singing,seeing the blue of the sky and the white of clouds,and watching the green leaves moving in the breeze,but this gives me a bit more of a foundation,as it were. I seem to be more relaxed,and I use breathing techniques that I have learned when things start getting stressful for me. I send my breath to the parts of my  body that need it,I get rid of the negative thoughts,and I feel so happy and one with all that is around me. This has been a big help in my quest to be a better,more positive person. I catch negative thoughts or bad feelings and turn them around.Such a wonder!

Rick has been working on the yard,grading,etc,and we are planning how to set up new walkways. We have areas that just don't seem to like to grow grass,no matter who much seed we  have put down in the past,so,instead of fighting against the nature of our land,we have decided to embrace it and work with it.Plans are underway for our next project,the mud room. The windows are all screened-they are more or less screens with wood framed around them-and we have to cover them with plastic each winter. We are going to put in real windows,a real door,dry wall,and flooring,as well as electrical outlets and make it a year round mud room. We are going to put new porch steps as well. After that is done,our next big project is painting the house. Then it's getting the basics of the goat/sheep barn set up before the snow flies.

Yesterday we went down to my Mom's a picked up dresser that she is getting rid of to use in our bedroom.Her house is sold,as long as the loan goes through.It only took a week and half on the market to find not one,but two buyers.She is going to move in with my sister and brother in law until they all move to TN in the fall of 2014,so she is getting rid of everything that she can. We are redoing the bedroom,so the dresser comes in handy. We had a dresser,once,but it was a big old dress that took up too much space,so we got rid of it and we used the two closets for all our clothes,putting the clothing that we would normally put in the dresser on the shelves in our respective closets.Then we wanted to switch things up again ,downsize and use one closet for our clothes,and one closet for storage (blankets,etc).

I have mentioned before that our bedroom is one of,if not the,most neglected room(s) in the house. It hasn't been painted 2006.Things get thrown in there. The elliptical machine,which took up a lot of space in front of Rick's closet (which is another reason we wanted to combine into my closet)was nothing more than a place to hang clothes. I always had the best of intentions to use it,but Rick finally put his size 12 foot down-we either use it,or we sell it. I had to decide. After much hemming and hawing I finally came to the reality that if I have only used it perhaps a grand total of 20 times in over four years,then we should probably get rid of it. Out came the elliptical. We packed away any winter clothes we wanted to keep and donated the rest.( Remember, we only have two closets right now. When the mud room is finished and a closet is put out there,then that can serve as our winter coat storage).The winter clothes are going up in the attic today. The big old gun safe,which is also in our room because we have no other place for it,is going to go into Rick's old closet. The shelves,etc are going to get ripped out and revamped. The room is going to be a haven,not a  confused mess. It's been an embarrassment for years,which is why I always keep the door closed!

Here's a sample of the hideousness of it....
I needed a table for the DVD player and the cable box after we took the bureau out. (Yes, I know it is not considered a good thing to have a TV in the bedroom,but I enjoy watching it in bed at night. Plus,when the Menfolk have their hunting/fishing shows going in the living room and I want to watch a home improvement show,I can go into this room for refuge!) I had this little table so I used that. Note the lamp on the floor that I still haven't rewired after three years. So lovely...NOT!!!!

Here is the area now.The walls are going to be repainted. The color is going to be very similar to the jewelry box on the bureau,and the bureau it's self is going to to painted and I am going to put new knobs on it. I am still mulling what kind to get. The floor lamp that is next to it will probably go into the mud room when it's finished. The teddy bear was a gift from Zach a few years ago.You can see just a bit of the old table to the left. That is going into the garage.If I use it in the house I will put a nice cloth over it so it will look pretty.

So,as you can see,I have been working on inner and outer peace. What are you working on?

Have a Fabulous Day on this Fabulous Planet!

Around The Farm

Yes, it's been forever and a day since I posted last. I have been reading,planning,and doing a lot of thinking...as well as planting,etc.

Our big project of late was fixing our leach field. It died on us. There is nothing like sitting out on the deck with raw sewage bubbling up from the septic tank a few feet away. Ah,the fragrance!!

We had to rent a couple of pieces of equipment for the job,and happily,our neighbor  Kelly is licensed to do such work. So,even though it rained all day on Saturday,he and Brother B were out there digging away. We had to buy a few truckloads of gravel and sand,plus the french drainage pipes for the job.

This is what the leach field area looks like now.

The front yard after the machines went back and forth in the rain:

The corner. the gravel and sand were in our driveway,and this was the only way to get to it. Looks like some loam and reseeding will be in our future!

Even though the yard got tore up,it's A-OK. It needed to be done. Of course,if the weather was cooperative,it wouldn't have been so bad.

There are some great signs of spring:

The green beans are coming up:

The broilers are getting big:

The leaves are out!

The strawberries are flowering:

The lilacs are in bloom and their fragrance flows on the breeze:

We have a little bird's nest on the rafter of our wood shelter. The bird flew away just as I was taking the picture!

Have a fabulous day on this Fabulous Planet!

Fall Day in NH

 It's my favorite time of the year-Fall in NH. To me,Fall is the quintessential New England season. The leaves turn color,the air turns chilly, pumpkins and apples are ready for picking,and we keep trying to put off starting the wood stove for as long as possible. Gray days are lantern lighting days,and I have to have Pumpkin Spice candles going to make the house smell fabulous and help make it cozy.

The weather this past week has not been the best-we have had rain and overcast days,with just a few glimpses of sun in between. Saturday we took a chance,since the forecast said the rain was going to hold off until later in the day,and we drove up to Fryeburg,ME for the annual Fryeburg Fair. We love the Fryeburg Fair because it's mostly an agricultural fair.  We looked at the goats,sheep,poultry,oxen,horses,and cows. I fell even more in love with goats and sheep. We are trying to decide if we want to get some dairy goats,and perhaps a sheep or two. The sheep would be for making yarn. It's amazing at how thick their wool is-they felt like one of those tempurpedic mattresses! The Fiber Barn was very interesting-knitted goods,yarn skeins,and bulk wool were for sale,and ladies were demonstrating how to spin your own yarn. I wanted to buy a  homemade skein of yarn-until I saw that all the skeins were 4 oz and cost $26. That's a tad out of my price range. In the Specialty Food barn,Zach's eagle eye found Moxie Jelly. Moxie is a New England soda that has been around for about a hundred years. It's not sweet,and it's called Moxie because you have to have moxie to drink it! Zach loves Moxie,and we have never seen Moxie jelly,so of course we had to buy a couple of jars. I got some potpourri -Maine Christmas and Pumpkin Fall. They smell fabulous!

Sunday the weather was slightly overcast,but no rain hit until last night,so I puttered around the yard for while checking things out. I still haven't closed up my garden because  things are still growing and we haven't had a hard frost yet,though I know we are due for one anytime.  I have been paying attention to the weather forecast daily.

Since we gave our apple tree quite the trimming last Spring,we figured that we probably shocked the tree and we wouldn't get many apples,if any,this year. Last year we had over 60. This year,we did squeak out two:

Poor lonely apples! Our apple tree has dropped the majority of their leaves. The wind has helped the all the trees around us shed their leaves.Up Avon Lane,it looked almost like carpet:

Our grapes have been coming along. I have been tasting them every other day to see when they are ready to pick. I wasn't sure how to tell when they were ready,but everything I have read says it's all in how the taste.They are not quite sweet yet,but they are getting there:

I was surprised to still see white blossoms in my strawberry patch. There are still strawberries in various states of  growth. I will have to cover them up soon:

This is one of my favorite maple trees. Each year,this branch starts turning color in such a brilliant way-light green,to yellow,to orange,to red. It's like a foliage rainbow! I can see it from my bedroom window. I wish the sun was shining so that you could really see how bright and lovely it is:

One of our goals to is try and get our chicken yard to the point where it drains better. Whenever it rains,it becomes a muddy mess,and it REEKS until it dries out. Plus,the poor Girls are walking around in muck. Chicken poo that is wet smells even worse than dry poop. It's horrible. It makes me gag,and we are mindful that we have a responsibility to our neighbors to keep the area as stink free as possible.We are going to try some gravel mix to cover it. Anyone have any other suggestions?

 We still have tomatoes growing,though you can't seem too well in this photo,because they are green. I will probably have to pick them and make fried green tomatoes before the frost hits:

You can see in this photo how we have lost leaves from our trees. The foliage still isn't at it's peak here,but up in the Great North Woods,it's already past:

Our potatoes are still going strong,though some of the plants are seeing a bit of brown on their edges. I wasn't sure when to pick potatoes,because last year,Brother B picked them before they were ready ( our neighbor told him to pick them in Sept-too early!) Usually they are picked in Oct,when the plants are dead. I did decide to check around the hills to see if anything was ready to pick,however:

I came up with these taters!! These are Kennebec potatoes from Maine. I also had some green beans that were ready to pick,too.

Today we are going apple picking and pumpkin picking. Our favorite farm,Butternut,is closed for the season,but another local farm is still open so we will be going there. I am still bummed that my pumpkin seedlings did NOTHING this year. Sigh. I hate to have to buy pumpkins,but I have to get some sugar ones to make my puree,as well bigger ones for decoration. Our neighbor can get hay bales for only $2.00 a bale from a friend of hers,so that will be savings!

Have a fabulous day on this Fabulous Planet!

Compost Bin Is Done...And So Is Our Tom

Rick finished up the compost bin on Friday afternoon. The area is now nice and clear,and the tractor can get in and out. We have three sections: soil on the left,and the breaking down areas in the middle and to the right:

Rick didn't want to put side walls up on the ends,because he wanted to be able to access the piles from either angle with the tractor to dump and turn compost,or to retrieve soil for the garden. Good plan. He just used old pallets,held them together with rope,and used some lumber to support the back.Finally! That area is cleaned up and all our composting and composted materials are where they should be!

Sunday evening it finally started to rain.I left the bedroom window open a bit,and it was fabulous to wake up during the night and hear the rain outside. Monday it rain all day,and though we desperately needed it,it would've been more beneficial to have a a few days of good,slow,leisurely rain than one day of downpours.At this point,however,we will take whatever we can get!!! The grass did start greening up,and we have seen more leaves on the trees.

Yesterday we had to take care of our Tom.One of the females (we had 2) died,because the Tom wouldn't let her eat,apparently.He was also getting very aggressive when anyone went near the cage,and jumped up towards the door of the cage with his talons front and center. Not good. It was long overdue,anyway. So Zach did the deed,and after Tom was dead we weighed him-he was 50 lbs! We had to cut him up to get the meat into the fridge,and we still didn't almost have enough space. He was a big'un!!!

Tuesday we went down to North Hampton to visit Rick's Dad Dick,and Brother Spencer. Dick was kind enought dig out the old Shaw family bible so I could double check some dates:

The bible was given to Rick's great x 3 grandmother for Christmas in 1873.It has beautiful illustrations in it that still have tissue paper over them. Marriages,births,and deaths all have their proper pages,in lovely handwritten script.(My dates were right,by the way)

Yesterday I brought Zach down to my Mom's for an overnight visit,and I stayed for lunch and chatted. She had just returned the previous day from VA. My great nephew had his christening,and Mom went down with my sister and her husband (they are the grandparents). Zach always likes visiting his Nana. She is going to bring him back today. We had an early morning as we had to be down in Manchester for an 8:00 AM eye appt for Rick. His double vision is starting to go away,which is good. This was just an annual checkup.

Today I am going to start my cukes and pumpkins.

Working On The Compost Area and Treeline

Good morning,friends! 

Yesterday,Rick and I got outside for a few hours and continued working on the compost/treeline area. Our goal is to clean it all up,regain some property,and organize our compost area by building bins. Since we bought the house in 2003,we have never done anything with this area,for the most part. Pallets,used lumber,etc found their way into this part of our yard and it looked awful. It's been a sore point with me for quite awhile. I mentioned to Rick last month that I wanted to build bins for our compost using whatever pallets and wood were still good in that mess. Whatever was bad,we could burn or chip.

As you saw in a couple posts back,we started working first on the compost area. There were quite a few sticks and saplings in the pile that we had to separate from the pile:

98% of this pile was taken from the compost area. Any big sticks from the treeline got put in this pile was well. It would be great to have bonfire,but right now things are so dry here that we have had red flag warnings for almost a week now,and no fire permits are being issued.

This is what the compost area looked like the last time I posted about it,remember?

Still had quite a pile to sort through.Put the soil in one pile,the leaves,etc in another. This is what it looked like as of yesterday:

After we got the pile situated,Rick back dragged the area and I did a bit of raking further back towards the trees. (You can see the neighbors property that I was discussing yesterday.In the summer,the leaves hide a good deal of this view). It's in this spot that we are going to build our compost bins.

Now that we have our piles separated,we had to pull out the pallets and the wood from their areas. Rick worked on that some this week.Once the pallets were pulled out,he once again back-dragged the area,and I raked it out,putting sticks in the stick pile,and putting any trash in the trash bag. Apparently at some point,someone used this area as a dumping ground,because we have found paper trash,an Elmo,and an old metal coil box-spring that had a small tree growing around it-all this was under the dirt. Rick even found an old fire ring,still intact! All kinds of "fun" treats.

Rick getting the tractor going.You can see the soil pile to the right and the leaf,etc pile to the left:

I didn't get a photo of the area before the pallets were cleaned out,but this where they were. More back dragging and raking ensued. We then called it a day.

Here are the pallets that Rick pulled out. Any good ones we will use to build the compost bins. The broken ones we will burn,whenever we can burn again:

There are some saplings that we are going to cut,but we are going to make sure we maintain a privacy line.

Have fabulous day on this fabulous planet!

Being Neighborly

We are fairly close to our neighbors in proximity here. We can see their homes,and one of them we could hit with a rock if we threw it hard enough. Personally,I would love to have a home where we saw no one,but that's OK.

We have had neighbors come and go. We had one young couple and their little girl leave and we all breathed a sigh of relief. He would drink,she would pop pills,and the cops were there many times.Both were arrested for domestic violence at one point or another. We always felt so bad for their little girl. He would work on cars in his garage until four in the morning and we could hear her screaming at him. She also,for whatever reason,wound up hating us. It made for a very uncomfortable situation,but they lost their house and moved. Good riddance. 

Right now,all our neighbors are good people. The Evil Couple had their house bought by a gentleman who wound up putting in our kitchen floor. He rented out the house to a guy we know from Cub Scouts! Then,our neighbor across the dirt road moved,and the new owner rented out his house-to a lady we also knew from Scouting. Small world!! Our good friends,Kelly and Darlene,still live behind us,thankfully.At the end of the dirt road still live Ron and Jean,an older couple whom we are also friends with. Across from them is a single gentleman who is rarely home because of his job,and we have a typical neighbor relationship-small talk,a smile and wave in passing-your basic cordial interaction.

We always try to help our neighbors if they need it,and if we have the capability to do so. More so Kelly and Darlene,and Ron and Jean. If we need something for a recipe,some coffee,or whatnot,they are there,and vise versa. Need help with a vehicle? Brother B,who was a mechanic in the National Guard,is your man. Truck stuck in the snow? Rick can pull you out with his 4 wheel drive truck. It works both ways. We have had neighbors help with landscaping,working on the driveway,give us wood chips,etc. We have borrowed tools and had tools borrowed. Our neighbors are very responsible folks.

Then we have our other neighbors,who live next door to us.Our properties are side by side.Now,they are nice folks,don't get me wrong,but they don't help themselves and truthfully,seem to lack basic common sense. The father does have health issues (bad heart). But there are many able bodied people living there.(His girlfriend,his son,and his son's ex girlfriend who is the mother of his baby and the daughter of the father's girlfriend-got all that? There is also a young man who lives there).Their yard is a junkyard,trash is all over the front yard from garbage bags getting ripped open,and...well...you get the jist. Now, my yard is not perfect-our tree line has old lumber,pallets,etc in it that we are in the process of cleaning up-but theirs is a bit much. Every once in a while,they will get out there and putter around. The problem is they ruin every tool they have,or misuse them so they don't work properly. They had a  brand new riding lawn mower that they were cutting the grass with last year.Bear in mind the grass was at least three feet high. Instead of weed wacking it down to a reasonable height so they could see what was hiding the grass,they went ahead with the mower-and proceeded to ruin the blades.They got stuck on a rock and tried to get off it instead of shutting the mower down. We were outside and just shook our heads.The mower sat there for months before they fixed the blades.

The other day,we were outside and the Neighbor Son came over wondering if he could borrow our wheelbarrow. He broke the handle on theirs. Rick,knowing how careless they are,asked what he needed it for. "I just need to move a few small rocks," he replied. I could tell that Rick really wanted to say no,but he also wanted to be a good neighbor. "How long do you need it for?" Rick inquired. "Just a little while,we'll bring it right back," Neighbor Son assured him."Well,alright,but don't overload it," Rick told him. "Are you sure you want to lend him anything? That wheelbarrow wasn't cheap. If he breaks it,I will be pissed," I said to  Rick as I watched Neighbor Son push the wheelbarrow into their yard."I"m going to sit right here and watch him,"Rick assured me."If he overloads it I'm going over there and getting it back." I'm not sure what they were doing,but it involved,like Neighbor Son said,moving rocks. And,apparently,concrete. And not small rocks and concrete. Rick saw the other boy who lives there trying in vain to push the wheelbarrow. It was filled to the brim,and was so heavy he couldn't even move it!!! So that's how they broke their handle. Rick was over there in a split second. He came back with the wheel barrow shaking his head. "I told them not overload it! They had huge pieces of concrete in it. Damn kid couldn't even move it!" Total time they had the wheelbarrow:10 minutes.

Have a fabulous day on this fabulous planet!

A Bit of This,A Bit of That

Friday Rick had  a hearing test at the VA.The constant ringing in his ears has gotten louder,and the Dr said that was due to him losing some of his higher frequency hearing since his last ear appt (which was six years ago).His overall hearing is good,but of course,the tinnitus is a big old pain in the butt. This explains why he likes background noise -it helps mask the ringing in his ears.

Yesterday Rick and Zach went fishing (NH Fish and Game have begun stocking lakes,etc) and Zach got a nice brown trout,and a big sucker (he threw the sucker back-kept the trout).After they got home,Rick worked more on the compost pile. I haven't taken a new photo of it,but it's almost done.

Last night at midnight,we got a phone call-apparently another deer got hit.So Rick woke up Brother B and they went to pick it up. It's a small female,but still has some meat that we can use.

This morning is pretty,and I am loving hearing all the birds singing. It's a chorus of hundreds!! Or,at least it sounds that way. That is one of my most favorite things about Spring-my bird friends come back and serenade me :) Rick and Brother B are out fishing for a while ( or,as they refer to it as,"drowning a worm")and later we have to go to the shoe store. Rick needs new work boots,his old steel toed ones are worn out,and Zach has outgrown his hiking boots. I should get myself some new sneakers that actually have some arch support. When we get home Rick wants to continue working outside.It's a good day for it.

Tonight is the season premiere of "Game of Thrones"-I can't wait!!!

Have fabulous day where ever you are on this fabulous planet!!

Taking Advantage Of Beautiful Weather

Thanks to everyone who sent their kind words and sympathies regarding our Little Mo. We appreciate it! 

The weather last week was gorgeous,as I previously posted. Buds are coming out on trees,some flowers have bloomed,which is just weird for NH in March. Usually,we still have lots of snow left on the ground,but not now-

Friday it had started cooling down a bit,so we decided it would be a good day to start on the compost area. Right now,we just dump our compost in a pile,which has some old cut down saplings and various branches mixed in with leaves,pine needles,etc,etc. We had a small pile of clean compost that we used some of last year for the  garden,but we didn't have enough to fill all the boxes,so we had to buy some. It also gave Rick a chance to play on his tractor. She's a sturdy old thing,and she started right up after sitting outside all winter.Not too shabby for a second buy on Craig's List:

.

 Our goal is to clean up the area by separating the "breaking down" pile and the "broken down" pile,as well as taking out all the big pieces of branches. The area will get raked out,then bins made out of pallets and old wood for each stage of the compost process. Then,the piles will be put into their respective bins.

I would rake the top layer of leaves,etc off the pile,put the leaves in one area,the branches in another,and pull down the good compost. Rick would put the leaves in one pile,and the compost in another.He would also use the tractor to pull down the bigger branches so they were easier to get to. We did this over a course of a couple of days-Zach helped me with the raking and sorting of branches on Saturday-he was a big help.

This end of the pile was mostly branches!

I was very pleased to see once the top layer had been removed that we had lovely compost underneath-more than I thought we would have. We also encountered some frozen compost,so we were scratching at it with rakes,loosening up the branches and compost ( I try not to refer to it as "dirt"!). We have not made back out there since Saturday,though. The weather got real cold and windy,and we had some rain. This is where we are at:

On the far right you can barely see the compost pile,to the immediate left you can see our leaf pile. On the left side of the photo,you can see the pile we are still working on-and all that lovely compost! The bins are going to go behind this big pile,set further back.

Do you compost? How do you store it?

Trimming The Tree

Sounds like something one does at Christmas! No,silly,not that kind of tree...we are talking about an apple tee!

We planted our Jonathan apple tree before Rick left for Iraq in 2005. We have discussing trimming this tree for a couple of years now,and just never got around to it....

Can you tell?

A "wee" bit too tall,the branches are growing straight up,there were branches that crossed each other,and branches way too low...all apple tree no- nos.

So,how does one trim an apple tree? Good question,as we had no clue,either. Happily,the University of New Hampshire has a Cooperative Extensive Service,and their website gave us the how tos.

1)Remove any dead,diseased or broken branches (we didn't have any)

2) Cut the height of the tree by cutting the main upright growing branches moderately ( I think we went beyond moderate,but our tree was really way too tall). The branches should be on a horizontal lateral after you cut them.

3) Remove "water spouts"-fast growing,upright branches-and branches that cross and rub.

4)Prune to leave branches going horizontally. Get rid of the ones that hang down or grow upward.

5)Trim lowest branches so they are about 2' off the ground

That is the main jist of it.

Here is how it looks now:

It looks a bit sad,doesn't it? The poor tree was really out of control. I am curious to see if it affects the harvest. I would assume so,at least for this year. Then again,I could be wrong.

                                                              The leftovers.......

We are going to put the branches in the wood chipper and save the chips. We hope to make a smoker this year and would like to use some nice apple wood chips to use for smoke.

Another gorgeous day outside,though not quite as warm as the previous four days,but still lovely just the same!

Have a Fabulous Day on this Fabulous Planet!

Spring Has Sprung!

Our warm weather continues! Temps are running 30-40 degrees above normal.Yesterday,it was 80 degrees here,which is practically unheard of for this time of year.Friday,the temps are going to start being in the 60's.

Yesterday,Rick mucked out the chicken coop,which The Girls highly appreciated. We should be seeing some eggs soon-we never did get electricity running out to the coop last year,so The Girls stopped laying in November. This year,come hell or high water,we will have electricity running to the coop by the Fall. I enjoyed the weather by doing a bit raking-until I developed a big old blister on the inside of my right thumb,where the thumb joins the hand. I even had gloves on! Well, at least I got a start on it. I also checked out my beds,and realized that I need to plot out what I am going to plant in what bed fairly soon.

When Rick was mucking out the coop,one of The Girls got out. We call her Rogue Chicken,since she isn't even ours.She is our next door neighbors. She somehow got out of the coop up there,and was wandering around for quite a while. She found her way into our yard,and we captured her by luring her under a box and dropping it over her. Kelly told us we could keep her if we wanted. Well,yesterday she got out again,and Rick couldn't grab her. After supper,Zach said he would try,thinking he could get close enough to her to drop a sweatshirt over her and then he would grab her.  About 15 minutes,he came back,looking very serious.
"I caught the chicken," he told us.
"You did? Good job,buddy! Did you put her back in the coop?" Rick asked.
A pinprick of silence.
"No. She's dead."
Naturally,Rick,Brother B  and myself were a bit confused. How does one kill a chicken with a sweatshirt? Rick asked him what happened.
"Well,you know the space between the coop and the wood lean to where we have the  ladders? She got in there and I was able to throw the sweatshirt over her,and I tried to pull her out,but the ladder moved and landed on her and now she's dead."
"I better go outside and check this out," Rick said. Both and he and Brother B went outside with Zach to see what he meant,and if,indeed,The Rogue Chicken was no more.
A few minutes later,they all came inside, laughing.
Apparently,Rogue Chicken was fine. The ladders lay horizontally side by side in between the two buildings (it's not a big space,just maybe a few feet) and when Zach tried to pull the chicken out,one of  ladders fell over a bit on top of the chicken,and she went limp. Zach thought she was dead because she didn't make any movements. No,she was just playing possum. So Rouge Chicken lives! Zach's deadpan comment,"No.She's dead," is still a source of humor this AM.

Today we are walking down to our lumber mill to check out counter top samples (they have a small home improvement area). We are finally getting back on the kitchen remodel track. After that,we are going to trim our apple tree. This week,we are also going to build three compost bins to get the area more organized. I told Rick it would behoove us to get that done,before all the leaves are dumped in the area.

One bit of sad news-our cat,Moxie,got out about 2 weeks ago and hasn't been seen since. He was our cat that we found in the woodpile last Spring. He's my little buddy and I am very sad. However,yesterday Rick found his red collar next to the deck,and it wasn't there the day before,so Rick's thinks that perhaps he comes around in the evenings to see if any of Molly Bruce's food (our outdoor cat)is available on the steps. I miss Moxie very much. He would lay on our bed and I would pat him at night and he would purr away.

Have a lovely day!

Weekend Work

We had a few days of rain which hindered our outdoor work,but I do admit that I was quite happy to let nature water the garden and the grass seed! Saturday it was overcast but no rain,so we did get to finally continue on our yard work.

I laid mulch down around the garden boxes:

Brother B got the walkway  along the garage evened out:

Rick finally got the swale in the backyard how he wants it. When we get a good rain we will see where it needs to be adjusted,as we are trying to dictate where the rainwater drains-away from the garden and The Girls! You can see in the photo where Brother B made a pergola with a tarp for them.It gets real hot in that space,so this will give them some shade that isn't inside the coop:

Rick's youngest brother Spencer is up with us for a few days helping out. He took two piles of old wood that we weeded from our main woodpile and stacked them in between trees. The two piles will be our fire pit wood,or if we just need a bit of starter for the woodstove come winter. He did a great job:

 Sunday Rick also finally levelled off the driveway,and now we can park in it again since we no longer have a pile of fill and a pile of loam.Our neighbors have been very gracious in letting us use their driveway to park our vehicles. We have given them eggs in appreciation. While Rick was doing the driveway,Brother B and Spencer worked on levelling the area for our pool. We bought a 20 ft pool,one of those set-it-up-yourself jobs. Rick pushed back our brush and compost areas,and laid down fill,while Brother B and Spencer raking out rocks and used a level to make it even. As I type this they are back out there working on it. We hope to get the pool up and running by week's end. While they worked on that I weeded the garden.

Last night,I finally finished Zach's camo socks:

These are too thick to be worn with shoes.I made them for scuffing around the house. I will be working on Brother B's socks next.

Today I am going to plant wildflower seeds,I just hope it's not too late in the season. I am also going to scrub the green algae off the garage.Yuck.

The kitty is doing very well,he is eating and seems to be gaining weight.His little spine and ribs are not sticking out as much as the were. He is very cuddly and loves to curl up on our shoulders!

I hope you all enjoy your day where ever you are!