The Barn Site, An Update in Dirt Movement

It's really coming together, and I'm ridiculously excited.  I have a few contractors working on building quotes now, and the town's code enforcement agent was out yesterday to do a site walk.  It all looks good to him, so we should have a permit soon and be able to get started.  My mules will be home soon!  It's been weird not having them right in the backyard where I can look in on them any time.  It will definitely make this winter easier on me and hopefully them.  I'm super excited about how great the site work is looking.  It always amazes me how the right equipment run by a competent operator can bend the land to its will.  In this case, making a level area out of a lumpy, granite infested chunk of pasture.

I had planned to put a small fruit tree orchard to the right of the driveway as you come in, but that may be where a power pole has to be planted, instead.  The other day I worked on mowing and cutting the brush and weeds back on the other side of the driveway, and now I'm thinking I may just use that side for raised beds.  Eventually I plan to replace the old run-in shed with a greenhouse, so having the gardens near that makes sense.  Plus that area gets full morning sun, which is nice.

The well is hidden behind the jungle of bittersweet, weeds, excess perennials, and small trees on the bank.  I plan to clean that out and create terrace gardens here, once the water has been piped to the barn and the addition.

I definitely have my work cut out for me, and I can't wait to get going.

The Universe Must Have Been Listening

Well now.

 

 

I love a good beginning.

Mid June

Here it is mid-June and I am still waiting to break ground.  The whole construction thing is an exercise in either patience or frustration, I'm not sure which at this point.  It seems that every available contractor within a 30 mile range is out straight busy, which is great for them.  Not so great for me.  It will happen, I need to remain positive.

At least the gardens are doing well with all the rain we've been having this spring.  It's still unusually chilly for this time of year, so veggies aren't exactly exploding with growth.  Slow and steady is more like it.

My cucumbers are poking through, and I've planted bush beans in some flower boxes that my mom had on hand.

I found something new at a local greenhouse - a peanut plant!  I didn't know these could be grown here in our cooler climate with short summers, but apparently people have great luck growing them in containers.  So of course I'm going to try.

My perennials are doing well in pots and spare beds around the property.  I lost a few over the winter, but I wasn't surprised given the indelicate way I tend to transplant.  I was happy to discover the clematis I thought was a casualty was merely hiding under the Bachelor Button plant.

And while I was thrilled to find 3 small pitchers in my pot of Jack-in-the-Pulpit plants, I was a little sad that I seemingly missed my "queen" plant when I dug them up.

 Oh, happy day!  She has arrived, fashionably late.

Bonus - a moth that resembles a bird turd.

You're welcome.

A Little Bit of Garden

My mother has generously allowed me to take over a few of her existing flower beds and a section of her lawn so I may satisfy my need to grow things, then callously get bored with them halfway through the growing season.  Yay, Mom!

Ahhh, container crazy.  My peas are coming along nicely; they've enjoyed the cold, damp, rainy spring we've been having.  I've also liberated my strawberry plants from a different holding bed.  I had buried them in the dirt, pot and all, and they did great over the winter.  All I had to do this spring was wrench the pot from the ground and set it on a stump in the sun; it's already covered in blossoms. 

I have some 20-odd tomatoes that survived my indifferent care and are happily residing in pots and buckets.  Three are in the ground in a wintering bed, so it will be interesting to see if there is any difference in growth or abundance of fruit.  *whips out notebook and scribbles furiously*

I invested in a cheap plastic raised bed, which is housing two kinds of radish and four radicchio plants.  The radish are doing fantastic.

I've just planted lemon cucumber in the large stock tank, and Genovese basil in the back of it.  The smaller stock tank has more radicchio, but it's not doing well.  I'll give it time before I give up completely.

The white planter and the three tiered planter are mesclun greens, mustard greens, and spinach.

In one bed I have some of my perennial flowers, and in the other are a few tomatoes, sweet and hot pepper plants, celery, and some lamb's ear that I started from seed.

I need to figure out where I want to plant pumpkins and squash.  I had planned to make a hugelkultur garden out of a brush pile that was near the house, however I just found out that's where the leach field for the new septic will be going.  Well, balls.  I'll figure something out, I suppose.  It's not like there's a lack of space!

The Thawing

Ahhhh, spring-ish!
The snow is finally gone and yard work has commenced.  I have to admit, I'm sad that I don't have my own yard yet, and a little lost because of it, but there's enough to do for Mom that will keep me busy.  
My tomatoes are out of control and I've had to pinch them back to keep them from getting too leggy.  When I transplanted them into bigger pots, I did bury them as deep as I could.  Something I never realized before is that those little white hairs on the tomato plant stem will actually become roots, so burying the stem works well to support leggy plants.
My peppers and radicchio are not as spectacular, but they're still alive.  I need to set up my container gardens and replant some of my cool weather crops.  I did plant my peas a few weeks ago, so I'm on track with at least one crop.

The bank behind these pots is one of my future projects - I'd love to create a terrace garden here.
And check out my latest Craigslist score!

This is an 8'x3'x3' fiberglass structure that was used to cover some kind of electrical transformer.  The seller had two, but I was only able to get one of them.  It's going to make a fantastic raised bed planter!  It's open top and bottom, so drainage will not be an issue.  I won't be able to use it this year, because I'm not sure where I want it.  Once this thing is filled with dirt, there will be no moving it, so I want to be sure I've placed it in the best spot.  I'll most likely use a hugelkultur-type method of filling it, like I do with my stock tank gardens.  Start with a layer of branches/logs, add leaves or natural mulch, waste hay from the mule pen, composted manure, and then soil.  As the layers decompose yearly, I just add more soil to the top.  I cannot wait to get my gardens set up!

Seasonal lament

Spring in New England, gotta love it.  Used your heat and air conditioning in one day?  Yup.  One day you're in a t-shirt, the next morning you wake up to a dusting of snow.  Although, it's still beautiful.

And this will be the view out my living room window next year.

I need to find a good tree person to work on that mulberry tree in the center of the pasture.  Over the years the horses ate all the lower branches and now there's bittersweet vines beginning to choke it.  If you've never had mulberries, they're the most delicious berries ever, so saving this tree is a must.

I have my finished plans for the ADU in my hot little hands, so now I'm just waiting for the septic design.

This little woolly bear caterpillar crawled out from under a snowbank the other day.  Little early, dude.  You can see him just above the crack in the step.

Yesterday a big fox was out in the pasture, and Fish & Game has started to ask people to bring in bird feeders because the bears are beginning to emerge from their winter dens.  Love these signs of spring!

These signs, not so much.

Ugh.  The big barn is temporarily a large flooded mess.  Mom & I spent a few hours pumping it out to try to get it to dry up.  I had to move the snow blowers and my air compressor up onto pallets to get them out of the water.  In some spots it was about 3" deep.  Always an adventure!

Wildlife

Just some random shots from the past few months.

 

Meteorological Spring!

To be fair, the winter of 2018/2019 wasn't all that bad.  Instead of the long stretches of bitter arctic cold, we would have a few days here or there.  Unfortunately, we did have a lot of rain, and that made for a very icy winter.

In the past few months I've made a small amount of headway on the new living quarters. A septic designer has been retained and as soon as the snow is gone, they can get in here to survey and dig test pits and whatever else it is they do.  Since it will be the first phase of the entire project and will be located behind the existing cape and new addition, the septic system will need to be completed first.

A building design and floor plan are in the works, as well.  It's really starting to feel more like a real project, and less like an abstract idea.

My mom has also been gracious enough to allow me to set up my little greenhouse so I can start my seeds.  I'm sad that I won't have my gardens to explore, because seeing all the plants emerge in spring has always been my favorite part of gardening.  I can still wander through Mom's gardens and check my own plants in their temporary holding beds, but it's just not the same.  I'm kind of glad that I've been doing so much container gardening over the past six years, because that's going to be my first year garden until I get a yard situated.  I did have an idea to build terrace gardens into the hill next to the old run-in shed, but we'll see how much time I have to do that.

Since I can't remember where I put my old plant starting equipment, I splurged on some Burpee seed starting kits.  I like the mat that wicks water up to the plants, so I don't have to spend time misting the seedlings every morning.  I've started two types of beefsteak tomatoes, Roma tomatoes, grape tomatoes, sweet peppers, and for the first time ever, Radicchio.  I'm also trying to start some of the perennial seeds I collected from my old gardens...I'm not sure they'll actually grow, but it's worth a shot!

So that's where I'm at!  We have a small snow storm coming in tomorrow,  but after that we're looking at temperatures in the 40s, so things will start to break soon.  Let the great melt commence!

Surprise Visit

We were sitting in Mom's living room today and movement caught my eye out the window.  I jabbered about a wild cat, but Mom thought it was just a stray house cat. I grabbed my camera and the long lens and started shooting.  Yup, a small bobcat!  The quality isn't the greatest, shooting through two dirty windows, but I'm excited to add these to my collection of wildlife photos.

 

Phase One

Tree cutting has commenced!
I hired a local logger to come in and cut trees that might present a problem around the area where I plan to build my barn, as well as a few ugly trees that really needed to go because...well, they were ugly.

The barn area:

December 20

 

December 22

 December 24

And the ugly trees - two big, twisty pines and one bushy cherry.

December 20

December 22

December 24

I can't get over how open that section of pasture looks now; amazing what removing a couple old trees can do.

The old run-in shed has seen better days and will most likely be torn down at some point, so in preparation of that I had them take the nasty cherry trees that flanked it.  Mom wanted to save the small chestnut tree that grew beside it, so that will remain. 

 Before

 

One cherry down!

 After

In the future, I'd like to replace the run-in with a similar sized stick built greenhouse/conservatory.  Something more Victorian rather than the plastic wrapped style most often seen.  We'll see.

So that's where we are now, lots of open space and lots of ability to see that even more needs to be cut!  There are so many overgrown pines and standing dead trees and nasty cherries that it makes my head spin, but one step at a time.  The next phase is to have a proper building plan drawn up for the addition and to upgrade the existing septic system.  It's all very exciting!

Resurrection

Well, it's been a while, hasn't it?

I haven't been sitting idle.  I put the house on the market just after July 4th and quickly had two showings. The second showing was a fabulous couple who put in an offer, and after much ado the closing happened on November 6th.  I'm very pleased that the house now has owners who are over the moon about the place; they couldn't be more perfect.  As for me, it's as though a massive weight has been lifted from my shoulders, and for that I am so thankful!  It really was too much house for me, and the location was less than ideal. 

The mules have been temporarily stabled at a kind neighbor's house for the winter, which is walking distance from my mother's house.  Moving was not without hazards, of course.  In a panicked effort to get Fargo loaded onto a trailer, I made an error in judgement and wound up with a broken wrist.  Lesson learned.

For now I'm living with my mother, and in the spring I'll begin getting bids and contractors in line to build an addition onto her existing house for myself.  The structure is technically called an Accessory Dwelling Unit or ADU.  It's basically the same thing as an in-law apartment, but in our town it's required to be attached to the main structure.  Mom and I discussed options, and both agreed the best attachment space would be a four season sunroom.  I'll have to build a barn for the mules, as the old run-in shed the horses used to occupy has seen better days.  There are also future plans for a greenhouse, and possibly a small fruit orchard.  It's my new 10 year plan!

So since I'm homeless at the moment, I'm not doing much other than nursing my broken wrist back to health and dreaming of being in my own space again.  I'm hoping the addition will be built soon enough in the spring that I'll have the summer to plot out my new yard, but only time will tell.  Until then I'm lost in a sea of building plans, red tape, and dreams.  And I love it.