This is the first time I've ever been in a brand new home.
This is the first time I've ever owned a home with a finished basement.
I grew up in a house with a dirt floor basement, and it's a scary, small, musty place. My first home had a half dirt, half concrete basement that would flood annually and was a scary, small, musty place. My second home was on short piers and had a crawl space under it. It was a small, squishy, dank place. My third home also had a dirt floor basement, which was a mildly unsettling, tall, musty place. I'm not much of a cellar dweller to be honest. I do not know the ways of concrete, or humidity, or the quirks of a newly built structure. I'm practically an expert on living in a home that's over a century old, but this place? I'm out of my league.
That's a long, rambling way of saying my concrete foundation has yet to cure, and between that and the copious amounts of rain we've seen so far this spring and summer, my lower floor is an experiment in mold growth. No, not the dreaded black mold you find in ceilings and walls, thankfully! But every piece of wooden or wicker furniture in my garage or media room or mud room has a fine layer of mold on it.
Well, now that's frustrating.
I researched the best way to tackle this issue on the interwebs, then spent most of Saturday morning hauling out furniture, spraying it with a vinegar/water mix, and wiping it all down. I did what I could, then let everything bake in the sun (we actually had a sunny day!) for the rest of the afternoon. Inside, I sprayed the floor in the media room with the vinegar mix and mopped, vacuumed what I could, brought the clean furniture back in, turned the heat on, and closed the doors. It makes me shudder to think of running the heat at 78* in mid-summer, but it was necessary. I ran the heat for 2 days and also have two dehumidifiers running nonstop. Fingers crossed this will remedy the situation.
I also managed to mow the field, finally. My intention was to let the grass grow and form seed heads, and when they dropped then I would mow. That was a few weeks ago and with all the rain we've had the field was ridiculously overgrown. I had to run the mower deck at its highest height and even then it mostly just pushed the grass over instead of cutting it. I was about three quarters done and one of the belt wheels on the mower deck gave out, so I had to finish with my mom's riding mower. I'll need to get my wheeled string trimmer going and take care of the brushy patches, but it looks pretty good. That's the mulberry tree dead center, the reason for all the wildlife hanging about.
Here's what she offers:
And this year she's loaded with berries. After I mowed there were only a few scattered in the grass. The next morning I went out and everywhere I looked there were berries on the ground. It brought in not only the coyotes, porcupine, and deer, but an entire family of coonskin caps.
I also threw in the towel where my peas and lettuce are concerned. The peas gave me three good harvests, and the lettuce has turned into something from a science fiction movie. They've been pulled and relocated to the compost bin.
My tomatoes look horrible thanks to lack of sunlight, but the cucumbers are obviously loving all the wet weather. My onions don't look as nice as they did last year, either. I did manage to mow around the barn and garden this weekend, too. And get some shots of my poor three year potted plants that would love to go in the ground.
 |
| these stargazer lilies are actually only 2 years potted |
 |
| echinacea "Hot Papaya" |
 |
| pink tiger lily |
 |
| crocosmia "Lucifer", which didn't bloom last year |
 |
| my three year potted bergamont, still doing its best |
I've crossed a few things off my lengthy to-do list, but there's so much left. My wooden raised beds have arrived, which means my next efforts need to go into the tiered garden project.
Ugh, what a mess.
