New Projects are gonna kill me........

 

I have been fiddling with my way backyard for decades.  It started as a weedy field, an attempt a huge garden by my parents, back to weedy field, then to ornamental delight and do you know how hard it is to keep those stones clean and white.  Great for monks in a zen garden but I am no monk and this is not a zen garden so away with the stones!  

and now back to garden and fruit farm.  The deer herd is burgeoning far beyond tolerable.  Several trees were plowed over by bucks sharpening Fall antlers.  When I walked around the way back the beginning of March I knew it was time to dig in and start again.  

It began with taking out three large pines and one large serviceberry........ with my trusty Japanese pruning saw.  Amazing the damage one little saw and a crazy person can do in couple days! 

from this........

to this in three short days...... carnage! 

I now need to rent a big ass wood chipper from our local rental place.  So for 4 hours on a Spring day I will slap down $198 and turn brush piles into wood chip piles.  That is pure gold in my book and should get me through the next few months of mulching paths and beds. 

Last year we had the property surveyed and had pins with bright yellow caps sunk all along the property line.  Mostly for a crazy neighbor with aggressive lawn mower habits, constantly taking out my blackberry brushes as if the deer weren't bad enough.  Well I am happy to say he is gone but he didn't take the deer with him when he packed up. 

As I walked around the back 40 surveying the deer damage and winter damage.  I thought why not put in a fence, the markers are there and it's Spring.  NOT: let me pay someone to put in a fence.  Off to Giant Eagle and buy a gift card to Home Depot for several hundred dollars because then I get gas points and right now I am up to a dollar off a gallon!  My van could handle 10 fence posts and three bags of concrete in one trip.  It has taken three and half trips to Home Depot.  I started digging post holes on the south side and sunk ten fence posts.....  these are days 50 looks way better than 70 in this body but then I have those damn eastern european genes.  

So far three sides down and one more to go.  I saved the best to last.  The east side of the fence is all tree roots from old maple trees and yes, that last row might kill me but I have a sawzall and very long extension cord!  I can get 10-11 posts sunk in a day.  And the teenage kid behind us had pulled the marker in the northeast corner 😡.  Had to rent a metal detector to find the original 1865 iron pin!  

Planning on putting 16 foot cattle panels for fencing and thankful Tractor Supply moved in not too far from here! 

Lessons learned this week..... If you do not want to be considered elderly go to Home Depot.  There is no one there to help anyone, you are left to your own devices and I love that.  However if you go to your local bank and take out the funds to the buy gift cards for this project you get a lecture.  OMG are you being scammed, you are elderly and you are the perfect target.  No I'm putting in a fence and paying cash but I'm buying gift cards so I get free gas as I am on a limited income these days.  She dolefully counted out the bills and tucked it into a neat little envelope.  "now were are you putting this?"  (I don't carry a purse like most elderly women).  I slid it into the interior pocket of my coat and said; thanks.  "Oh ma'am please be careful."  As I walked out the door I said; "Not to worry; I'm locked and loaded!"  I patted my other pocket.  Nothing but my phone but she really didn't need to know that.  

Off to Home Depot.  Grab a lumber cart, load 10 timber fence posts and grab three 80 pound bags of cement; not a soul in sight.  Cashed out, dug my heels in and wrangled all this out to my van.  The cart boy was retrieving carts in the parking lot and while I was heaving 80 pound bags of concrete I thought he was coming over to help the elderly.  Nope.  He put his hands on the back of my lumber cart and said; Almost done?  I'll take your cart back....... I still had two more bags to load and 5 more timbers.  He stood there and watched.  WTF cart boy...... I closed the doors on my van and drove away fueled by even more WTF cart boy thoughts.  Unload and start digging post holes...... encounters like this make the day go so much faster.  

After gardening here for over 40 years you see the difference in soil too.  This made me so happy! 

and if anyone is wondering where Butch is....... Florida! 

New times ahead, old ones are hard to let go........

The hardest blog I have had to write but it must be written.....

Kirby  2/27/2025

February was so cold, so long and so hard this year.  My best buddy crossed the rainbow bridge on February 27th.  An ending to a wonderful 8 year ride.  It was probably one of the hardest things I've had to do in a very long time.  It was the final winter gut punch.   He is still wandering around the house and I am still talking to him.  The first week I got up several times in the middle of night, hearing him panting at the bottom of the stairs but no Kirby, hearing the jingle of your collar but you're not there, hearing the click of your paws on floor, I turn my head and your not there, but I know you are and probably will be for awhile. You were not ready to go either.

  We had a truly remarkable relationship.  I remember bringing him home; blind, scared, a broken jaw and so many scars I would never be able to heal.  His first three years on earth were the stuff nightmares are made of but he landed here.  I made a promise to him that we would do our best to make up for those first three years.  We more than doubled that time with beach walks, swimming in a cool lake on a hot day.  Laying next to a warm kiln in the studio on chilly mornings.  I think it was a good life.  He was the perfect dog for me.  He never ran away, we never once heard him bark.  He had the ability to bark and on warm days we would sit in the backyard and I would try to get him to bark.  Are you happy?  The tail would wag, he would bury his massive head in my lap and sing a little.  I would talk back and we could have a very sweet conversation.  He was "that dog".  If you are lucky you get to bond to that one special dog and for me it was Kirby.  We did everything together.  I left him two times in his eight years here; once to head up to Alaska to see Rachael and once to head off to a clay conference.  He went every where; delivered pots to far off galleries, off to watch Abby graduate in Gunnison, CO, play in the cool snow of Monarch Pass on a warm summer day.   He slept in front of my bedroom door every night until he could no longer climb the stairs.  He made me a more patient and better person.  Yes, he was stubborn and hard headed and probably why we were such good buddies.  

 

He taught me it's OK to stop and feel the warm sun on your face....

always stand with your face to wind ....... 

Sleep well my dear boy, until we meet again I know you will be at the rainbow bridge waiting for me. 

Until then chase the stardust bunnies around sky and run free.  It has been a joyous ride and I miss your soft fur and warm snuggles more than there are words to write..... 

  

The house has been de-dogged.  All his meds, bandages, foods and leashes have been donated to the local dog shelter.  I have not yet been able to wash the nose prints off the sliding glass doors.  I am so happy it is Spring and there are new green growing things and new projects to start.  And yet in the middle of the garden with dirty hands and doing some busy work I think; is time to go check on Kirby, do his bandages need changed, maybe he needs a snack and I go back to my busy work.  Argh, the adjustment to a new life. 

Although the sun has set ....... until we meet again my best buddy ever. 

With all that is going on in the world I can officially say 2025 just sucks....