February 16-17, 2013

We stopped at The Thai House on the way out, which will probably be happening frequently since Sally loves Thai food. (Its growing on me.) It was another pleasant winter weekend, warmer Friday than Saturday. In fact, Saturday morning it creeped up to 40 and then dropped back to 36 in the afternoon.

Garden

We worked in the garden first, knowing Friday would be nicer than Saturday. I weeded, Sally pruned her rose, and later planted some beets, chard, and the rest of the kale.

Prune

I pruned the hollies, cleaned up the maple out front that the deer tore up, and pruned the nectarine, two pears, and two apples. This picture is of the trunk of the Goldrush apple, which I am certain will dye this year -- along with the peach which I didn't even bother pruning. The only fruit I will have left will be two pears, the tiny Pixie Delight apple, the nectarine, and a few black berries. I don't know how our forefathers survived off the land.

Cows

With the fence down, Jeff's cows have found there way onto our place where there is high grass. Now there are cow pies everywhere. It was funny because Friday we could see about 10 cows on our place while another six were starring across the lower section of fence -- where it was not down. They were trying to figure out how the others got over there. By Saturday most all of them had come across, though Jeff called them home somehow.

Walnuts

I cracked a bowl full of walnuts with plans to take them to my folks for picking, though Papa commented that the last ones were very dirty (due to my foot hulling).

Burn

Saturday morning Sally was going to town for Reflexology, so I walked down and burned the cedar limbs by the cedar grove near the fence, southeast of the pond. Most of the limbs I had hauled down in December after pruning around the bluffs. The others were from the tornado damage in that grove including one entire tree.

It went very well and I was done by the time Sally returned about 12:30. I was a bit surprised, rather expecting it take me the entire day.

Remove Scrub Trees

I had a little time and my hand saw in hand, so cut off some of the scrub trees growing along the edge of the bluff out back. I cut them years ago, but they keep coming back. Mostly elm and some other undesirable. There are a few oaks which I left. I then drug them up to our fire ring. Unfortunately I was not looking on my last trip and fell backward over some of the stone benches. Ouch! I then took the loppers and cut them into shorter pieces for burning.

Tour Tornado Damage

Sally had not seen the tornado damage, so I talked her into letting me take her for a tour last thing Saturday. We started in the corner, and Jeff came down at that same time. We had a nice chat and this was a great opportunity for Sally to get to know him.

We then walked over to where most of the cedars are down, the other side of the draw leading to the pond. Then we went down to just above the creek leading into the pond, where I found more downed trees (like the one pictured here to Sally's left). Such a mess.