Dig, dig dig

Seems like that’s all Jim and I do around here in the Spring and Fall. I thought we would have already started the clean up and landscaping this Fall around the new shop, but nope.  We haven’t torn the fence down yet, or finished the driveway either. There’s still ground that needs to be smoothed out, all the landscaping put in, grass started…

I guess this is going to take us a few years.  Oh well!

We picked up these pretty little flowering evergreens this morning at Lowes and planted them.  They’re Dwarf Cavatine Pieris, with pretty little white bell shaped flowers on them.  The y won’t get a whole lot bigger than they are now.  I’m going to intersperse them with something else… I haven’t decided what yet.  I’ll be putting a bed around these, edged with rock, that will extend all the way down to the driveway.  Around the trees you see, I’m going to be filling in with hostas and shade loving flowers.  The rest will be grass.

I fertilized all the fruit trees and berry bushes this afternoon as well.  No more energy today.

Oh yay!

I spent most of my day outside yesterday cleaning out the shop for Jim, because in typical man fashion, he waited until the last minute and then didn't have time to do it!  Hmph!  The forklift operator came out to the house yesterday to see about getting Jim's metal mill off the semi when it arrived today, and into our shop.  He said the shop would have to be pretty much empty because our driveway was too steep for the forklift to go up with the weight of the mill on it, so it would have to be loaded onto a flatbed first, driven in, then unloaded.

This morning the truck arrived.  The white arrow is pointing to Jim's mill:



I couldn't resist a shot of this (ahem) "art".  I had to ask the very nice driver what the heck that huge butterfly sculpture was on the back of the semi, and he laughed and said he was delivering it to a $15 million dollar home out in Arizona, it was his next stop.



Now I don't know about the rest of you, but if I could afford a $15 million dollar home, I sure as heck wouldn't put this in my yard!  The driver was nervous about it because he said a piece had already went flying off of it.... so if you're between Arkansas and Arizona and hear of an alien butterfly decapitating someone along the interstate in the next couple of days...

Jim unwrapping his new toy:



Lifting it off the bed of the semi:





Carefully moving around the garage overhead lights:



And finally, in place:



Hard to imagine that ugly sucker (well used) cost nearly as much as my longarm!  Jim has two more large pieces like that still back home in Missouri we have to go fetch soon.  Anyway, there's Jim's "new" Bridgeport Mill.  Enjoy it honey!

Spring is almost here!

And spring fever is coming upon me... I love this time of year nearly as much as fall!  Nothing looks very nice right now, but that will change soon!

The beds we put in last year are planted:



The fruit trees are mulched... sorry can't get them all in the picture and still be able to see the mulch I worked so hard shoveling!



The garlic is peeking through:



And the soil looks much improved this year!  These are my potato beds.  See the stray onion left over from last year... that didn't grow?  It's growing now!



Today we have some company coming out to give us an estimate on bringing out a 12,000lb forklift and 2 man to man it.  Jim has started bringing equipment into his shop.  And ya'll thought my QUILTING TOYS were expensive!

OMG I'm getting old...

I get tired so easily anymore!  Saturday, Jim and I mucked out a pickup load (hey, in our defense we have a 2 ton pickup with an extra long bed!) of very wet and heavy horse manure/straw, then came home and by myself, I emptied it.  I used it and had just enough to mulch around all the trees in our little orchard.  That should give them some nice "food" this Spring!

Our fifty seedling trees arrived from the conservation department on Friday, and so we planted half of the pines on Saturday, and the other half today.  The pin oaks were not not specimens at all and we decided to not even bother with them, we only needed a few, and figured at least a handful of them would be nice, but that wasn't the case.  The pines however, were lovely!

If we're still here in 10 years, this place will look awesome!

If....

LOL

Decisions decisions!

Yesterday was incredibly gorgeous, like the first day of Spring!  Sunny, bright blue skies, and about 62 degrees.  It just doesn't get any better than that!  While I was waiting for my next adventure in life to arrive, I ground wheat, baked bread, whipped up a peach cobbler, and headed outside to trim back the asparagus and weed the garden beds.

Then I had to go around and inspect all the fruit trees, which look fantastic!  This will be their second year, and I hope they really take off!  I can't tell how the blueberries are doing yet, all the little pine trees look great too.  Speaking of which, I have 25 more arriving any time now, plus 25 oaks.  In 10 years our front will be wooded!

Today is going to be nice again I think.  It's time to start thinking about planting potatoes and lettuce, this year we can get them in the ground!  Last year, our beds weren't ready in time.  I'm going to have to start making those awful decisions... play in the garden, or quilt!

I tossed a couple of chickens onto the smoker this morning, I'm running low on frozen broth and flecked chicken.  We had baby greens last night for dinner, topped with hard boiled eggs and smoked chicken, yummy!  Once the garden starts producing, I could live on fresh veggies and smoked chicken!