And I'm Off

Off in a totally different direction.  Ah yes, YADD.  Not only is this how we New Englanders pronounce the word "yard", but it also stands for yard attention deficit disorder.  I start one project, get sidetracked, and wind up with ten different projects going at once.  It's a gift, really.

We finally had a relatively warm, dry weekend on the horizon, so I thought I'd work on the tiered garden.  What ended up happening was that my string trimmer was fixed and delivered, and I was also loaned a piece of equipment that would make brush cutting child's play, so I decided to tackle the overgrown bank near the tiered gardens while I had the machine.

I absolutely detest burning brush, and I knew if I hauled brush to the dump I would have about twenty trips ahead of me, so I decided to pile the debris in an unusable corner of the property instead.  I made myself think it was fine by convincing myself the massive piles of brush wouldn't be so much of an eyesore as an exercise in eco management; brush piles create cover for small woodland creatures like chipmunks and rabbits and heffalumps and woozles.  The only problem?  In order to create an area to pile brush, I needed to clear it first.

I can't win.

So I spent a few afternoons making a space for the brush piles.  Saturday came and I began hacking away at the brambles and bittersweet along the bank.  It was a lot more work than I'd imagined.  In a four hour period I only opened up about a 15 square foot area.  But it looked fantastic, and I was spurred on.

These are the only before pictures I could find of the area I worked on.  True to form, I wouldn't be so pedestrian as to start on the END of the area, I had to start in the MIDDLE.  Of course.

And behold, the after photos.

Insanity.

I quickly discovered that the only real way to clear out the bittersweet that had enveloped every single bush, sapling, and tree was to clip it by hand, then rip and pull until about thirty feet of vine was piled at your feet.  What a mess!  Mixed in was some kind of invasive climbing rose that attacked me at every turn, and many of the saplings were young Russian Olive trees with thorns like so many tiny hypodermic needles stab, stab, stabbing.

But it looks so good.  I'm really happy with this excellent beginning, but I was exhausted, so I decided to work on something that was a little easier for a few hours - slicing down saplings.

I spent a few hours cutting and clearing, then mulching leaves with the push mower.  The goal is to clear this section to the stone wall, removing all trees under 6" in diameter.  This was a good start.

So I didn't work on walls, but I did get a lot done.  Sunday I switched gears and installed my mail box at the road, raked the waste hay from the mule paddock, and cut a few small trees on the bank. I'm motivated to keep going with the clearing project, and have put the other gardens on hold for now.

At least until something else shiny distracts me.

Give Up and Get Going

My corrected block order arrived Monday.

It was the exact same order I had refused on Saturday.

I give up.  I just want to build.  So I accepted the order and started to set my first course.  I'm only five blocks in, and it's painstakingly slow.  The base is the most important part of the build, so I need to get it right.  I'm sure I'll pull it apart and reset it six or seven times before I'm happy with it, but at least it's finally underway.

Blah, blah, blah.

My frustration is nearly palpable.  I ordered the materials for my garden project 12 days ago.  They were supposed to be delivered 9 days ago, so I could begin building last weekend.  Thanks to Coronavirus-induced overbooking because everyone and their brother decided to do home improvement projects whilst quarantined, my delivery was pushed back.  It was supposed to be here two days ago, but was delayed again.  Today the delivery finally showed up, and it was the wrong type of block.  GRRRRR.  Hopefully I'll have a corrected order Monday.

So one more weekend reserved for building has become a "what else needs doing?" query.  Oh, so much.  I decided to start clearing the bank at the head of my driveway.  It's slightly overgrown in places and Br'er Rabbit habitat in others.  To add to the fun, there is an old electric horse fence that's buried in the undergrowth.  Well, it's a good project.  I'd like to clear it out and plant my shade loving perennials under the large oaks and maples that line the upper driveway.  The Her Side(Mom's)/My Side property is bisected by a stone wall.  Here's my side, pre-attack.

Fun, fun!  My string trimmer on wheels is currently in the shop, so I'm starting by wrangling the bigger dead limbs and pulling the old fence posts.  I moved my containers down to my side because at some point I'll be setting up all my raised vegetable gardens down here, so why not just move them now?  Peas are in the large pots as usual, and radish in the white window boxes.

I didn't get an early start today thanks to a snowy morning.  Luckily it didn't amount to much, and melted by lunchtime.  Unlike a few weeks ago.

March 23rd   5:51am

March 24th   5:50am

That was a surprise.  About three days later it had melted, thankfully.  

Oh, and we've had visitors!  We've run off three porcupines and a bear is roaming the neighborhood.  He was here a few nights ago and bent one of Mom's shepherd crooks to the ground in an effort to destroy the suet feeder that was hanging from it.  The same night he hit a few of our neighbor's feeders.  Most folks have pulled their bird feeders in, but not everyone.  *eyeballs Mother*  Some people just won't pull in all of their feeders.  (I am not a feeder of feathered creatures, and it's mostly because of the other animals it attracts.  I don't appreciate bears near my mules, thankyouverymuch.)

Anyway, the brutish beast came back again last night.  Mom went out for a smoke and heard Fargo snorting and blowing, so she had me bring out the flashlight.  I did a sweep of the pasture and spotted the bear not too far from the paddock edge.  

He crashed off into the bushes once we started yelling at him.  

(Your mother was a circus poodle and your father was a Russian dancing bear!  Goldilocks reject! Go back to Build-A-Bear and finish putting your stuffing in!)

We thought we were safe from the nocturnal horror of lesser Yogi, but no such luck.  A mere three hours later I was awoken by Mom's dog barking.  I grabbed my shoes and the flashlight, and ran out on the deck furiously swinging the spotlight across the pasture.  I'd left the exterior barn light on and could see the mules clearly.  Interestingly enough, they were looking right at me.

Cue the slow-mo "Ohhhhhhhhh noooooooooooooooo!"  

I swung the spotlight to my left and 

there

he 

was.

I went into screaming banshee mode, and given my state of half dress, my insane mane of grey-white hair flying wildly about my head, the moon glinting off my yellow teeth...wait.  You get the picture.

Anyway, I had grabbed a brick off the ground as I descended the deck stairs and threw it at him as I raced across the back yard, screeching.  Stupid move, but crazy enough to send him a-runnin'.  Hopefully after that little display, he'll think twice about coming back.

Or not.  

He's a bear.

First Project of 2020!

After much hemming, hawing, plotting, research, price comparison, and sketching I've finally started my tiered garden project.  It's not going to be the grand, picturesque garden I first had in my mind.  While I had envisioned a scaled down version of the terraces of Machu Picchu, my budget and backbone have relegated me to a simpler cement block retaining wall step garden.  Oh well, so long as the plants are happy, I guess!

I've also scaled down the size, mostly due to the backbreaking chore of digging out a trench for the base.  The ground I'm working is mostly stone with a bit of dirt in it, as opposed to dirt with a few stones.  In order to dig out a trench to fill with stone for my base, I needed a pick axe.  Shovels were absolutely useless here.  Thankfully I only needed to dig down about six inches or so, but it was still a chore.

digging the trench

Digging the trench took most of the day.  The string is only there so that when people drive by they look at it and think "Oh, she knows just what she's doing.  Look at how professional!  Level and square, that's how you do it right." .  I admit, it did help keep my trench somewhat straight, but I really have no idea what I'm doing.

 

You can see the rubble I took out of the trench to the left in the above photo.  Most of it was rotten ledge rock and granite that thankfully split apart on impact.  There were a few goober rocks that I just couldn't dig out, so they stayed.

I had 5 yards of stone delivered to use as a base for the wall, and it should provide good drainage.  I don't know yet if I'll need all of it, but I'm sure I'll find a place to lose any leftovers.

Step 1 (mostly) done!  I do still need to dig and level for the side walls, but this was all I could manage for today; I'm woefully out of shape.  I'm hoping to get the sides prepped tomorrow and order the blocks.  With any luck I'll have a garden ready in for my perennials in a few weeks!