First snow...time to wrap it up.

 Yup, we had our first snow November 19th.  Nothing major, just a few squalls on and off throughout the day.  It didn't even stick.

Still, it was a reminder that winter will be here sooner rather than later.  It spurred me to take care of the tender bulbs I had pulled and was drying in the garage.  They're all clean and trimmed and nestled in fresh shavings for the winter now.

Thanks to daylight saving time, I don't have a couple hours after work to putter around the yard, so I'm cramming everything into my weekends.  I grabbed a load of 50/50 mix to finish up the giant planter.  I can't lie, having a truck is so handy!  

Today I scoured the edges of the woods for some greenery to give it a holiday feel.  A giant planter of dirt isn't really attractive, and I didn't want the soil splashing up against the house if it rained.  Greens (and browns...I'm going for a more natural look) will help keep the soil in place a little better until it freezes.

 

My mother is a pro at floral displays.  Unfortunately I'm not.  But I have seed heads of asters, goldenrod, and staghorn sumac in there for the birds to nibble on, so it's at least serving a purpose.  I also put some solar lamps among the branches and string lights along the stair rails...for ambiance, I guess.

Quick edit - mom stopped on a roadside and clipped a bunch of Winterberries, enough to share.  Definitely an improvement!

 

I was given a load of sawdust earlier this summer and hadn't used it all, so I scraped up what I could and laid it over the landscape fabric on the tiered garden.  I'm hoping it serves two purposes - one, to weigh down the fabric so it stops sagging and stays in place this winter, and two, provide a base for the mulch layer I'll add in the spring.  

I did some organizing in the garage again, and can now fit the truck, tractor, snowblower, and generator in there.  I have a few furniture refinishing projects to work on this winter and once those are done, it will open up some more space.  And after I go through all the boxes of crap I still have, I can purge again and downsize my hoard.  

I was going to leave Reputa in the she-shed for the winter, but when I took out my snowblower to make sure it would run, I discovered that mice had packed nesting material inside it.  I had to remove a bunch of covers and clean it out so I could start it.  I don't want to take a chance of having mice move into Reputa's engine!  I was hoping I could fit her in the garage with the plow on, but there just isn't enough room for that.  Maybe next winter.  

Now I just have to make sense of my tools, and I'll feel better about the state of things.  

What a mess!!!  At least I can't say that I have nothing to do, right?

Fall Chores

 It's the big push to get everything ready before winter sets in.  My garage is still not ready for a truck to be parked in it, but I'm trying.  I've moved most of my tools in from the she-shed, but have yet to organize them.  I've mowed the pasture one last time, pulled all the vegetables from the garden, and tried to do a reasonable cleanup outside.  

I brought in my herbs for over-wintering, and set them up in a vintage crib I purchased at a yard sale a few years ago.  I removed one side so they'd get as much light as they need, but they're protected from a certain plant-eating cat.

I had to lop off 90% of my sage plant because it was so large, so I tried my hand at making smudge sticks.  I think they're supposed to be thicker, so next time I'll keep that in mind.

I've been working on the tiered garden again.  I was desperate to get my plants out of their pots - the ones that came with me from my old house were potted up in late summer, 2018!  Some of the plants became root bound and many of them died in the pots, but I still have quite a few left.  I decided to forget about building walls of cinder block, and instead went with more wooden raised beds.  I gave up on trying to level the tiers, too.  Just get them in, once the plants are growing you'll never even notice the downhill slant of the beds!

I had 3 yards of 50/50 (compost/soil) delivered, and after I had lined each bed with yet another layer of mule compost, I filled each bed with the soil.  

We hired Corey to come back with his tractor to do some of the heavy lifting for us.  I had him dig out the bottom block tier with his backhoe, then put the remaining 50/50 in that bed.  I also had him move the pallet of blocks to the other side of the yard, and I did some clean up around the beds. 

I've left enough room between each raised bed and along the front of the tiers to lay my large patio blocks to create walkways around the garden.  I'm not sure if that will get done before snow flies; it may be a spring project.  I also plan to put bark mulch over the landscape fabric.  It's getting there!

The blocks that weren't used to build the gardens I used to build a manure station for the winter.  It's not pretty, but it's functional.  I've found that just piling the manure up leads to lots of weeds growing in it, so this way I can have it contained and easier to manage...hopefully.

Another garden chore was to move my Craigslist planter to the front of the house.  This was the fiberglass transformer cover that I picked up for a song a few years ago.  Of course I did the hugelkultur treatment...I had some large poplar branches that needed to be cleaned up in the pasture, so I started by cutting those up and tossing them in the bottom of the planter.  Areas of the pasture were overgrown and after mowing there were thick layers of cut grass that needed to be raked up, so that went in over the wood.  Top dressing was of course more mule compost.  I'm going to try to get another load of 50/50 mix to complete the recipe, then it will be ready for planting in the spring.  I'll probably give it a more complementary paint job next year, too; maybe dark grey or black.  The green just doesn't look right.  In case you're wondering, the bottom is mostly open, so plenty of drainage.

grass clippings and leaves over poplar branches

mule compost top dressing

If time and weather allow, I still have 8 posts to get into the ground for my mule track, and the fence needs to go up at some point.  I have to take down the preliminary chute, as I've moved that to the back of the paddock, and I need to run my giant weed trimmer around to tidy up the pasture.  It's going to be winter proper before we know it!

One Year Ago Today...

 It's hard to believe one year ago we broke ground for my house.  I have an awful habit of only seeing what hasn't been done, and I have to remind myself to do the opposite.

I'm still not finished unpacking.  I don't really have things exactly set up the way I'd like.  I still don't have room in the garage for my truck.  I didn't even start on my back yard.  I haven't touched up all the dings and marks from banging furniture against the new walls.  I don't have all my pictures hung.  My downstairs bathroom floor is still gross concrete.  I haven't finished my kitchen island.  I still don't have a backsplash, or a hood vent over my stove.

But.

BUT.

I have a bed to sleep in.  I have glorious sunlight pouring through my windows.  I have a work from home nook, and a tv room.  I have a place to eat, a place to shower, and a place to retreat to after a long day.  I have a home, and that's something.  

I'm pretty lucky, really.