Posts from the ‘Yard and Garden’ category

Busy Morning

It’s happening…Summer! Despite a cool weekend with some good soaking rain showers, just a couple of warm, dry days and things are looking like they need a drink.

In preparation for a day forecast to hit 86F, I got some water going.

I’d like to keep some green and it works best to stay a bit ahead of the drying out.

Karl and I jointly supervised the watering…

Breakfast and then a jaunt over the back of foothills, (avoiding the chip sealing operations going on to our west) for a walk by Echo Lake before the sun gets too high….busy morning.

Raking Rocks and the Spring switcharoo

Today’s raking involved rocks. It is impossible to plow the driveway and not gather a few rocks along the way, particulary at the end near the road which has some uphill bits. There is a window of opportunity for raking the flotsam back into the drive as well as filling in the wheel path with rocks from the “median” – that time when the loose stuff is not yet embedded and is easily moved. I hit it pretty well – it was fairly easy raking. We are to get a bit of rain later this week. After that between the Jeep, UPS, FedEx and the motorhome, the loose stuff will settle in.

Next was the Spring switcharoo – moving the snowblower to a back corner of the garage and bringing the mower and trimmer to the fore.

At the same time, I gave the garage a bit of a clean out via my least favorite implement, the blower. Much as I dislike the thing, it raises less dust than a push broom and also makes quick work of getting pine needles off the roof of the house and garage – that task is on the list for maybe Tuesday after a bit more heat and drying out.

Yesterday, I thought I saw a bit of new green in the larch…

I did! – It was very evident today. The larch, that look like dead trees all winter, are preparing to show their new needles…more green on the way.

Saturday

The photo above was taken just a bit ago, this evening, but the blue sky, sunshine – that was how the day started.

With just a bit of snow left and a bumper crop of pine cones, pine needles and sticks, today’s agenda included raking the yard, along with a bit of a clean up of the motorhome.

Starting to look like a real yard.

By 1:00 I was done with yard and motorhome…and also done! Took a shower and tried to stay awake waiting for friend Kris, who was due for an afternoon visit. The first Spring workday was a bit tough!

I joined Bob on the front porch after Kris left. I plan on a couple or 3 or 4 Advil and then bed shortly, but it was a perfect Saturday – beautiful day, good things accomplished outside and ending the day listening to a soft breeze in the pines…from the front porch.

Procrastination

Yesterday morning started at barely 3F. It was gusty and the 4-5 inches of snow that had fallen since I last cleared the driveway was blowing around. I didn’t have to go anywhere and no deliveries were expected so I decided to wait for the wind to die down and hopefully a bit more warmth before playing with the snowblower again.

The sun came out, the wind quit and it did warm up to about 14F – by 4 p.m. Karl and I set out on a snowshoe/walk – too nice to be snowblowing!

We had taken a short walk in the morning, but it was overcast and blustery. This afternoon walk was wonderful. The wind had blown the new snow into such smooth contours that it looked like a painting of snow. It was such a soft, pretty look to the landscape that I hated to make tracks through it.

We dawdled. Karl took a break to clean ice balls from between his toes…it’s a problem! Often, he will stop and hold one paw piteously in the air and wait for me to get to him and fix it. Today, though, he decided he would do it all by himself!

Back at the house, I took a look at the driveway and thought that I should probably fire up the snowblower and clean things up. So I fired up the grill and cooked some hamburgers for my dinner…

About the time I was thinking that the snowblowing could wait until morning, my neighbor arrived…in his tractor-backhoe! He had emailed me the night before saying he was going to work on his and his adjoining neighbor’s drives and did I want a clean up. Thinking I was going to clear my own drive in the morning, I emailed that back but asked if he could clear the end of my drive if the county plow had been by and blocked it in.

Mike works for the county road department and up until this year not only was our road on his plowing route, but the county sent him home with the plow so he plowed the road on his way out, i.e. first thing. This year his route was changed, some “stranger” is plowing our road and the county is low on funds after last summer’s gas prices. Plowing all over the valley is not what it was.

All to say, that Mike KNOWS how to run a plow – tractor – backhoe (see the great garden trade ) and as he came up the driveway, I congratulated myself on my uncharacteristic procrastination.

As I’m preparing this post, Wednesday morning … it is 2 below zero. Bundling up to go out with Karl on a short walk is one thing. Flinging powdery snow around that has a tendency to drift back on me is quite another – thanks Neighbor!!

A day in the woods

Ok, not really “IN” the woods, but on the edge of the woods – my (by the Grace of God) woods. I never “traded” before moving to Montana, but since I’ve been here trading has been part of my life and a wonderful part! My first trade was a hot tub for a snow blower and we were both very happy! The hot tub needed some work that I could not do and I really needed a snow blower.

Circa October 2008 – I’m talking to my friend Kris and lamenting the fact that I have this pile of dry logs and some dead/dying trees and have been unable to find someone to cut for a split of the wood. Kris puts forth an idea for a trade – she and her carpenter husband, Hal need some computer/photography help and Hal is waiting for a job to start…match made in heaven! Someday, I will tell the story (part anyway) of Kris and Hal and how they came into my life, but for now the important thing is that they came to my woods yesterday and Hal cut up the logs – Kris and I moved and stacked – in preparation for another day of splitting and stacking.

Current state of the firewood supply… – not enough for Winter!

Logs that were not sellable or did not fit on the last truck after Logging ’07.

More logs that didn’t fit on the truck.

It was a beautiful day! – golden larch against blue, blue sky. I didn’t get the exposure quite right – in “person” it was a much more vivid contrast. The larch are approaching their peak of vibrant gold!

That smoke??? – the smoke of an 80’s vintage chain saw starting….the BIG saw, the saw big enough to handle the logging remnants.

I learned about a new tool – a peavey. It is a handle with a sharp point and then a kind of sickle shaped extrusion. It works like a lever to move large logs. Hal used it to get the pile of logs parallel enough to cut through several at a time with the BIG saw.

Hal cut a few rows and threw the cuts out of the way. At the start, I was back and forth from the computer to the cutting area – taking the cuts to the splitting venue and out of the way. As things progressed, the moving (my part) became more fulltime. Kris arrived with Arrow, their Samoyed. Arrow is 15 1/2, loves to ride in the car and even though they have beautiful acreage to walk in, enjoys a “new” spot. We had a nice long walk and left Hal to sawing. Karl, the beardog, was in the house…he has a thing about chain saws and also gun shots (hunters are practicing???).

After lunch, things stepped up and we all worked until all was cut up and mostly grouped to allow me to put a tarp over and keep it all dry until splitting day.

We finished for the day about 2:30 – I was pooped! Hot shower feels so good after a day working hard – even if it was really only half a day more or less.

Below…the “after”:

A day in the woods – wonderful!