March 3-4, 2012

Lyndsey was out of town, so Chris was available to give me hand at the farm. Since Sally wasn't getting back until noon Saturday, we decided to go on out Saturday morning and leave Tender at home to be her companion. Karen also came out, so it would have been tight with both dogs in the extended cab of the truck. This also gave me Friday afternoon to help Chris get the big Silver Maple cut down in his back yard. (He'd already gotten most of the limbs, except for the two highest. To reach them we stood his extension ladder in the back of the truck and I cut them by hand. After that, the rest was pretty easy with the Stihl.) Afterward I talked him into going to Home Depot with me to pick up materials for the LLH -- two posts, some hardware and 6 80lb bags of Quickrete.
The weather was great both days, clear and in the 50s with a light freeze overnight. Although, for the second Sunday in a row the wind picked up and it was really blowing.

Loveable Loo House (LLH)

We spent the entire day Saturday getting the posts up. The first thing we did is flip the rock floor around and remove the rocks from the middle. Since it is too far from the house to run an extension cord, I cut the pieces at the house first (I should not have pre-cut the posts). We decided to position the posts on site, tie the two North and two South posts together with cross pieces, and brace everything together with extra diagonal scraps. Attempting to get it all straight, square, and the right height was beyond our ability. We'd move one post and it would throw another one off. It was frustrating and getting late, so we had to finally just say that's good enough.

We brought a bucket of water over and hand mixed the concrete with a shovel in another bucket. It was messy and hard work. We kept the mixture stiff, and so pouring it was even difficult. I had about two thirds of a bag, plus the 6 I bought. I thought I would have Quickrete left over, but we quickly realized the opposite was more likely. So we began bordering the holes with rocks, lining the bottom with rocks, and stuffing rocks into the mixture. We used it all.
After all the figuring and planning I had done, I still screwed up in numerous ways. For example, its four inches wider than it was supposed to be and one post is too high and will need to be cut off by hand. In spite of my numerous mistakes, I am sure I will be able to make it work out, but it will not be neat. I could not have done it without Chris's help. And in spite of the more than 500 lbs of concrete, I'm still worried about it blowing over.

Garden

Another week with little to no rain, and with warm weather and high winds it is bone dry. Chris watered the onions Saturday and I watered them Sunday. They are surviving but no real signs of growth yet. Sally bought some spinach seeds embedded in a tape -- dig a 3/4 inch trench, lay the tape, cover, and water. I did two strips across one of our mounds. I need to do some weeding.

Move Fire Wood

Sunday morning we tackled the other goal I had for us -- get the firewood moved to the side of the barn. Its all in the open end of the barn. My stuff on the South side, and the shorter kids stuff a little to the North but not all the way over. The ground on the North/bluff side gets wet and so I've never stacked it there. Now we want to open up the view to the South, so I laid out some cedar posts and created the stacks on top of the posts. There are two rows of the shorter (16" - 20") logs, and a long stack of the 24" logs. We were done by 10:30, thanks again to Chris's help. It looks nice, and I have some un-split logs so our wedding guests can try their hand at splitting some White Oak.

Fertilize Pond

I bought some pond fertilizer from the Farmer's Co-op and was anxious to get it into the pond. It said easy application, but then said the best way was to pour into the prop of an outboard -- Ha. Then it recommended stirring it in with a paddle or using a hose end sprayer -- yea, right. It is heavier than water and I guess would just sink to the bottom if you just poured it in. I opted to use my backpack sprayer since it has and agitator that turns as you pump it. The one gallon ($26) is suppose to treat an acre, so I used half of it. I'm supposed to do it again in two weeks, then go to three week intervals, and then just to 4 weeks. Chris liked the clear water, but you could see the grass beginning to grow on the bottom. This is suppose to promote beneficial algae in the water to cloud it up and prevent sun from reaching the bottom. I'll keep my fingers crossed.

Jeff

I had called my neighbor, Jeff, during the week and left a message asking if he wanted any of my cedar posts -- since they have to exit the barn. I never heard back from him, but he was down moving some dirt and saw us at the pond and came over. We had a nice chat and he said he would take the posts and they could be stored in his barn at the bottom of the hill. He even offered to help move them. That want be necessary -- I am just delighted that I have a new home for them.

Haul Off Recliner

Sally said the fake leather recliner in the house had to go, and Chris decided he wanted it. So we loaded it up and first secured it in the back with a couple of bungie cords. After a bit of the drive I realized it needed to be better secured, so we used a strap. But we had to let it all the way out to get it to reach. It later slipped through and the recliner flipped over in the back of the truck. I got a better strap for the remainder of the trip -- and slowed down.

Cedar Posts for Chris

Chris is going to build a garden in his back yard where the Silver Maple had been, and he needs to fence it to keep Karen out. So I talked him into taking 8 of the smaller cedar posts. We cut them to 5 feet for his purposes.