Garden & Gate - Memorial Weekend Part 1

We had a very busy couple of days at the Country House last weekend. We don't get many long summer holidays due to Greg's business being at it's busiest during the warmer months, unless 4th of July falls on a Friday or a Monday. But, Memorial Day is always on a Monday so we take advantage. We worked 10 full hours Saturday & Sunday with another 4 or 5 hours thrown in for good measure on Monday before coming home.

I finally got to drive on the driveway, many times over the course of 3 days! It feels kind of slippery but will pack down over time.

Saturday morning, we decided to go ahead & 'set' the gate post, the one that the gate will hang from. Greg cut the 6x6 post to length, dug the hole, placed the post in, poured in quick set concrete w/water added, squished that around, leveled the post, more concrete & water, check level & then let it set until late afternoon. These are the tools of the trade.

10" Auger

The gate

Posts & Misc

Small quiet generator

After that was done, Greg mowed while I piddled around the house. When he was done mowing he decided to string trim.

I had checked on my weedy garden during the course of the day & saw that the beds were not settling as much as I had thought they would. I want to get the asparagus planted this year (2 beds) so I decided to take up my most gracious neighbor's offer of compost, good compost, horse poo & straw compost.

Now that is a load of compost! This is located about 1/2 mile or less, from the house. I had loaded 2 55gallon drums on a small trailer that I had connected to our golf cart. Here's an older picture of that setup from when we first started working on the garden.

It was about 3:00p by then & I was kind of tired. I knew I couldn't put those drums on the ground & then put them back on the trailer so I just shoveled it into them while on the trailer. They got higher & higher w/each shovel full. I would shovel about 30 loads & then rest. The sun was shining almost directly on the pile & it had gotten hot! Plus, our other neighbor (BPC - bi-polar cousin) had started under brush burning of a small row of trees across the street & I was just waiting for the wind to shift to blow smoke my way (which it never did, thank goodness!). I met a new friend while resting.

Bell

My friend has a lot of hobbies & horse & buggy riding is one of them. This horse (Bell) is used for that purpose, and of course helps with the compost pile. He has another horse & a donkey name Ringo, but they weren't around. Natural gardening is another of his hobbies. Here's a picture of his open pollinated corn patch.

His greenhouse is to the right, he almost starts everything from seed too. That raised bed to the left is asparagus which has been in for 3 years so he was able to harvest this year. There is another huge garden behind the shed/chicken coop to the left but I didn't get any pics of it.

I finally got the barrels full & headed back to house. I got 1 asparagus bed completely full & another one almost full, lacking by about 2".

About that time the in-laws arrived & they had brought a whole truck bed FULL of leaf compost from their house in the city. They had brought the mulch up to supplement 26 Crepe Myrtle trees that will be planted (& posted on) soon. But they had brought enough to plant 100 trees! I asked if I could have some to top off the other asparagus bed. The timing couldn't have been more perfect. We told them that we would unload the rest in the morning.

Before compost.

After compost.

We then hung the gate on the now dried post.

By then, it was about 6:00p so we decided to call it quits. We went in, took showers, made an adult beverage & sat down on the back porch to finally relax.

About that time we see Mom & Dad driving over to the fence line in their truck with the intention of unloading the rest of the mulch. Let me mention that they are both stubborn as heck & my FIL is 82 & MIL is 78. FIL has some shoulder issues (having surgery next week) not to mention he's had 2 hip replacements as well. He gets around like he thinks he's 50 but it's getting harder on him. They had loaded the mulch the night before & MIL mentioned earlier that his shoulder was aching.

Anyway, we weren't up to unloading it for them that late but knowing they wouldn't listen to us, I asked Greg to let them know I would like to use some of it on the other garden beds the following morning. They agreed to wait to unload after I had gotten what I needed, whew!

To be continued ....

You load 16 tons & what do you get

Another day older & deeper in debt ...

Well ok, it wasn't 16 tons but it sure felt like it.

2 tons aggregate rock

Even though we live in the city, the directions to our house are "turn left off the hard road".  Yes, we live on a dirt road, one of only a handful left in this county. It is also a private road which means that the city doesn't maintain it. And it sometimes gets rough turning off that hard road. We had gotten tired of rattling our teeth upon entering the dirt road. Greg bought 2 tons of aggregate rock from a local rock yard in order to fill in some ruts. Here are a couple of pics of the bone jarring divets. They don't look that big but believe me they are rough.

We got up early this morning & shoveled it into the edge & most of those holes. We need bigger equipment than shovels to do a proper job but at least it evens it out a bit. No after shots, just not exciting enough.

We finally used our salt block last night. I had gone to a local farmer's market where there are a couple of guys selling flash frozen fish. I purchased a couple of red snapper filets & we decided to give the block a whirl.

First placed on a cold grill

Grill heated to 575 degrees.

Brush Canola Oil on once hot. It turned that dark color automatically.

Filets added.

Cooked snapper, sauteed dandelion greens & yellow rice.

Looks good right? It was terrible! Greg thinks I got snaffooed on the fish as it was very tendony. Lots of veins running in it. Sure hope it wasn't that expensive piece of salt! Gonna try a couple of ribeyes this week. Will let you know if they turn out better.

After we got back from shoveling, we put a pork roast in the crock pot for dinner. I have just now put on fresh snap beans & red potatoes. I'm starving!

On the gardening front I planted 8 basil plants today. Even though I have given away around 40 at work I still have more. Stephen, Duke or JUGM let me know if you need some, I'll be glad to share!

Last, but not least I scored at an estate sale this week. Look what I got for $2. It's a small collander, but what is so special you ask? It has holes all OVER. Almost all my newer heavy duty ones have 'dead' space in them & don't drain well. I am very happy with this purchase but that isn't all ...

The biggest bargain I got was this lovely Haverty's loveseat!

You see, we are going to eventually build a barn at the Country House & part of that will be a kitchen, dining area, sitting room & bedroom/office. We'll need furniture & I ran across this on Thursday. This sale had many over priced antiques but their furniture seemed priced low. This set was priced at $225. I didn't buy it but when I got back to my office I checked out Haverty's website & this loveseat/ottoman was priced at over $700! You bet I went back the next day & with the discount they were having I got them for $150! It is in great shape & I bet hasn't been sat in more than 20 times. It's a bit crowed in our living room for now but I just couldn't pass it up. Just wish I had room in my vehicle (& house) for that Alexander armoire for $200 (originally $800)!

Greg is getting ready to smash the taters. Did I mention, I'm starving!

The Driveway - Part 2 (picture heavy)

Here's a very bad picture (I can't figure out how to save a pic for download from Google Maps) of the whole plot (the rectangle in the middle of the picture). Our property & house is in the lower left. The red line shows the route down the dirt road & across BPC's field. The yellow line shows coming in from my Dad's gate & across the pond dam. And the green line shows the new driveway, pretty much a straight shot in. Note: This will be a good reference to determine how often Google snaps pictures from space. This shot has the deck & dock we put in just last year (2012).

After we agreed w/the family friend, we walked the property & they decided on what equipment would be needed & an approximate timeline (2-3 weeks at the most).

Tractor w/grappling hook

Backhoe for small stuff along the fence line

Excavator for the serious stuff

Here are the before pictures from each end:

Before - from the road

Before - from the house

They started clearing. And, as stated before, it then rained for 40 day & 40 nights (well, it was actually about 10 days & nights, but it felt like 40). It got real muddy & they had to stop for awhile. It rained over 9.5 inches in just a few days. The pond, even though it has a drain & a pretty high damn, overflowed. Normally the drain carries water to the branch but the overflow went through there as well.

Slowly, but surely they cleared away the trees & brush.

They made great progress the first couple of days, before it was time to grade. It started raining the week after the initial clearing & work pretty much stopped until March & then it was off & on through April. 

Here it is, finally graded, leveled & dirt added, lots & lots of dirt.

Through the branch looking from house side.

From road, those ruts are just from a golf cart.

They finally finished clearing & grading & adding dirt but it was very soft & squishy in places. In that last picture above, it had not rained for several days & it was still too soft. So, we kept spending money like we actually had it & decided to put rock on top.. 

Through the branch looking towards the house.

Through the branch looking back towards road.

From near the road looking down towards the branch/house.

From the road. That stick is there to tie caution tape across until we can get a gate put in.

I guess we were kind of lucky in that we were able to see it at it's worst & the guys building the drive knew just how high & how much dirt to haul in. We wound up with one culvert at the road to get over the ditch but they put in 2 in the branch area just to be safe.

In the end, we love it! Even though we didn't want to spend the money, the peace of mind in knowing that we aren't dependent on some control freak to allow or block access, is priceless! Plus:

- We get to turn into the driveway off the hard (paved) road. No more getting vehicles covered in clay!

- We have more of a defined area to landscape & fence off.

- We get to drive through a wooded area! It's beautiful & cool in that section. I hope to be able to cultivate some mushrooms in that cool dark area in the future.

- It's a lot smoother than either way we were coming in.

- We don't have to be uber nice to someone we didn't really care for in the first place. We'll wave when going down the road but there will be no invites for dinner or otherwise.

- MIL & FIL don't have to put up with weird people. Well not that one, at least.

Next, we have to put up a gate & eventually a new, matching fence across the front of the property to my Dad's gate to coordinate it all. You know, I have to have it neat.

Note: We started on February 8 & it was finished May 10th. A 2-3 week job that took 3 months!

The Driveway - Part 1

Or, as Greg keeps calling it .... the million dollar 1/2 mile. It feels like we've spent that much, but not quite.

For those that don't know the story, our Country House is located on about 9 acres of a 50 acre plot. The back 1/2 of the plot is where the 4 acre spring fed pond is and it's where my Dad has his house & we have ours, on each side of the pond. So,we are at the back left of the plot if you come in from the front side where my Dad's driveway is. If we were to drive that way each time it meant coming up the meandering drive then driving over the pond dam & then up the hill (relatively speaking) to our house. It's a long bumpy 2/3 mile drive. There are many low spots along the way to get stuck if it has been raining any length of time. Which is exactly what it has been doing the past 2 months & we've gotten stuck a couple of times due to having heavy loads on our trailer. We would have to call someone, usually one of my many cousins in the area, they would have to come & get my Dad's tractor & pull us out. It . is . a  . pain for us & them.

When we originally built the house my Dad's cousin, who has property adjacent to ours told us we could use his driveway to access our house. This meant that we could drive a clay road & go through his gate (rusty & not in very good shape & then through ours). That was fine as long as he had his gate open.

You see, this particular cousin is bi-polar & if his wife ever goes out of town he goes off his meds & does some really strange stuff. Much of the time it includes him closing that rusty gate & locking it so we couldn't get in that way. Plus, he never told us ahead of time that he was going to lock it. Probably because he was is la la land & couldn't find our phone # if his life depended on it. (Note: He's a rich old country boy that doesn't believe in technology & therefore doesn't have a cell phone or an answering machine). Early on, he agreed to letting us lock onto his lock so we could get in even if he wasn't available. Until, one day he decided he didn't want to do that because he didn't know what other folk WE might give our key to. And, he didn't want any old Tom, Dick or Mary to be able to drive across his field. Note: it's about 50 feet across this particular small field to get to our gate. It does open up to a 600 acre field but the gate to that field is locked so no one we invited to go to our house, without us couldn't get into that field.

We never knew what to expect when we drove up there, unless someone else happened to drive down that road & see that he had the gate locked & called to let us know to come in via my Dad's gate. We've been going up there for about 7 years now & he has locked us out 5 or 6 times during that time. He always says, just give him a call & he'll come unlock the gate IF we absolutely needed to come in that way. You see, he's also a bit of a control freak. He likes it when one is indebted to him & likes to hold people by the short hairs. Well, we don't like to be held by those hairs or reliant on anyone but ourselves, so this always got under our skin. Plus, he was just NOT a likable kind of person.

In January of this year, we agreed to have Greg's Mom & Dad move their vacation trailer to the property & started moving buildings (a small trailer, a cookout room & a utility building). We got the trailer moved & that is when bi-polar cousin (we'll just him BPC from now on) went off his meds again. Greg's parents had just gotten the septic installed & were waiting on the electric company to come. They decided to head to town for a few supplies but since there were no clear markings by the road with our address (BPC wouldn't allow) they wrote the address on a piece of cardboard (4x10) & put it on a popsicle stick & propped it up on the fence between some wires that were holding the rusty gate to the fence. When they got back the stick with the address was thrown into our driveway. They didn't think anything of it but got the electric on & headed back to the city.

Note: We had introduced MIL & FIL to the crazy BPC earlier & he was ever so friendly at the time.

When they went back a few days later, guess what? Yep, the rusty gate was locked. They had a trailer full of stuff & there is nowhere to turn around & they didn't have a lock to my Dad's gate & had never come in to the property that way.

My in-laws are in their 80s & MIL gets upset & nervous when someone is stupid & FIL just gets mad. Regardless, we called a cousin to unlock my Dad's gate & they got in but were unsure of what they had done to piss the Ahole off. We assured them that it wasn't them, it was him. Sure enough we checked & BPC's wife had been out of town a few weeks & he was plainly OFF HIS MEDS again.

Note: A Bit of gossip here ...Turns out, his wife hadn't just gone out of town for awhile, she had finally had enough of him & had 'left' him. She's since gone "back to him", oh well.

This last time of him locking us out without warning was the final straw for us. Especially since it now involved him being stupid to 80 year old parents who did nothing to deserve it.

When my Dad deeded us the property, he did in fact deed an easement along with it. This easement runs along BPC's fence line straight up to our house. Why you ask, hadn't we already put in our own driveway? Well, the long & short of it was $$$. This driveway would need to come off a main road (paved - YEAH!) & through about 50 yards of a wooded branch area. It would take several culverts & lots of dirt plus the equipment & labor involved would be enormous, not to mention the cost. Plus, we only have weekends & if we did it ourselves, we estimated it would take about 6 months to complete & completely consume our time & probably a lot of other people's time too.

We had been saving our hard earned $$$ to build a barn/summer kitchen but decided to go ahead & have a driveway put in instead.

We got a friend of the family to do the work, with the right equipment & then it started raining ....

Digging in the Dirt

Not much going on. Stayed in the City this weekend. Made yogurt yesterday. I wanted to dry some sage & oregano as they are going crazy in my whiskey barrel planters but we had errands to run in the afternoon & I just ran out of time. I did try a new Tart recipe ... Beet, Goat Cheese & Onion from the spoonfulblog.com.

It was very tasty but extremely time consuming to make. I had made the pie crust dough earlier in the week & had it in the fridge. Otherwise that would have added even more time. I am not a beet fan. I really really want to like them but just don't. I had received some Chioggia beets in my Veggie Bin last week and decided to make the tart. The linked recipe calls for separate tartlets but I only had a large size. I just increased the amount of goat cheese & used onions instead of leeks.

Other than that, we have an area along our driveway that is bare & we decided to put in daylilies. Found some on Craigs List & we drove to the 'Northside" this morning to pick them up. We decided on a white variety for along the driveway & some red ones for the end. We wound up with 33 plants which took about an hour to get in the ground.

One of the peace  lilies in the front.

My sister had given me three large peace lily plants from Brooke's funeral. One is placed on  my back porch but I really didn't have room in the house for the other two so we planted those in a shady area in the front yard. Hopefully they will make it.

On the other garden front, none of my herbs sprouted when I originally planted them. I chalked it up to my seeds being old. But, I really need basil throughout the summer so I decided to try again. Just in case the seeds were old I put a lot of seeds in each TP roll. Well wouldn't you know it, they came up like gangbusters this time! I gave away one roll & transplanted the rest this afternoon - 60 basil plants. Yes, you read that right ... 60. I had to double up on many because I ran out of small pots. I also transplanted 12 dill, 10 parsley & 8 thyme. Someone had also given me some tomato tree seeds that is supposed to be a perennial. Yeah right. I've never heard of them but of course I have to give it a try. I had 4 seeds, 3 came up so I transplanted those as well. We'll see what they do. All are back under the grow light right now.

Garden update: Just went outside to harvest some more Chinese Cabbage & Broccoli seed & noticed something new.

I rescued this butternut squash from the compost bin a couple of months ago & just stuck in down in one of the whiskey barrels. With the warmth we've been having, it has really taken off the past few weeks. Upon looking closer, look what I spotted.

The original squash was also in one of my Veggie Bin deliveries over the winter. I'm 95% sure it isn't an Heirloom but is probably organic. can't wait to see what it will do from here. There are 2 or 3 smaller blooms on it as well.

Greg bought this Himalayan Salt block from a Groupon that he found. You are supposed to put on a cold grill or oven, heat & then cook on it. We are going to try some cod on it tonight. Will post on how it does.

That's about it. Oh, except we got a call that our Driveway at the Country House is almost finished. We can drive on it but it will need a top cover of some sort. We're thinking maybe the least expensive way to go will be concrete aggregate if we can find some.

Beavers, Over Grown Garden Plot & Worms

I wanted to grow some worms so I found a guy to buy them from (The Worm Pin - you know instead of a King Pin). Yes, that's exactly what his business card said. Anyway, I bought them from him & he was very passionate about worms. I had read up on what to do & the instructions were basically all the same but not very detailed. I had some old 18 quart bins that I used. It just wasn't working very well. I have two of these bins with proper holes drilled but the worms just didn't do very well in them (yes, I had covers on them at the time). They didn't completely die but they weren't frolicking either.

Enter in a new friend! I gave her a few plants since hers had died. She saw my pitiful setup & took pity on me. She built me a worm hotel just like hers. It's the same basic principal but much more compact. when I get ready to add another layer (I want 3 processing bins) I'll take pictures. Keep your fingers crossed these do better.

We went to the Country House this past weekend. The grass & weeds are definitely growing. These pictures show three weeks worth of sun & rain.

This bed is the one we just covered w/paper then added leaves, poo & straw/hay. I thought the paper was to prevent the weed from coming up! Once I was down on my hands & knees inspecting these weeds I realized that most of this was oats sprouting from the poo that I had put down. I didn't have time to compost it before adding it so I'll just have to tackle removing it until it's broken down into compost. There was also some bermuda (boo!), & other weeds that birds had obviously 'dropped'. I was expecting the birds leftovers but was surprised about the horse poo. What I added to my compost bins broke down quickly & beautifully. Oh well, live & learn, no harm no foal(sp?).

As I may have mentioned before, this property was last used as farmland. That patch of trees in the above picture are the only trees ON property. There are several along the fence line but none on property. We need shade in some form so we have slowly been buying trees to eventually give us shade at various points. One place we wanted some shade was down by the pond. I have always loved weeping willow tress so we decided to put 3 down there. We bought more mature tress (aka more $$) so they would have a jump start on the shade thing.

Earlier in the week I get a call from my Dad (he was up there for about a week) that one of the willow tress was 'down'.

This is what it looked like last year (it had been in the ground for 2 months & doing great).

This is what it looked like when we arrived.

I propped it back up. The stupid beaver that decided to 'chop' it down didn't realize that it was attached with wires to stakes to keep it somewhat straight in the wind & he couldn't carry it off. He picked what he could off of the left side of the tree, while on the ground.

Here's his handy work. A lost cause ($$ down the drain).

Oh well, my Dad placed blocks around the other 2 & hopefully they won't try to get them as well.

Plus, Greg & a couple of cousins went out around dusk & displaced at least one of them.

We think there is at least one more & an otter & a gator in the pond. We have to have spend more time up there! Plus, we have at least a hundred turtles that have moved in. Not to mention the 6 or 8 rabbits up by the house.

We have a wild kingdom around there!

The driveway is moving along slowly but you can almost drive the whole way. We'll need to add a top layer of gravel or something to keep it from washing away with the next storm. More on that later.