May 2006 arrives
Thought I would add a bit here on local events.
A nice big bull dozer arrived last week and spent the next 5 days moving dirt around, burning a stump pile bigger than the house, it raged for at least 5 days and now sits there with only one stump left, that one was dug up as an after the fact find so it arrived too late to burn as the fire was only a pile of coals. But not to worry there is an acre or two of bare dirt now chock full of roots and branches all bone dry as the trees were logged back in 92. So for the whole of this summer and maybe next summer small bon fires are the name of the game, which also means lots of hotdogs and marshmallows on sticks.
It is great to finally look out on that bare dirt because after almost 30 years I can finally start planting fruit trees, flowers, vegetables, grapes, berries and whatever else I can find to create a visual treat to the eyes.
For now I'm going to seed most of it in either red clover or alf-alpha, both are in the green manure category, meaning they enrich the soil as they grow. It will depend on which seeds I can find and of course the cost per acre because after the dozer bill comes in there won't be a lot left this month. I was lucky in that Leon the dozer owner takes payments, plus he only charges $60 and hour with an operator. For those of you that don't know that is far cheaper than I could rent a smaller one for and I would need to run it myself.
The other good news is I finally got the rhododendron bushes off eh truck. They were sitting there for 4 weeks exactly. I picked them up off of freecycle. Each was some 5' tall and about as wide. Took 4 of us just to slide them up the ramp onto the truck, took my back a week plus to recover from it, but well worth the effort. One bloomed on the truck, a brilliant red, the other is just now blooming a bright pink. They certainly add something to all the green of the forest around me.
And while doing all of this we happened to notice one dead tree, there are several dozen of them from an ice storm a few years back, this one stands about 20 feet high or more and about 15" thick, there is a nice round hole in the side about 5 feet from the broken top, inside that hole is a woodpecker, working up a frenzy pecking away clearing out space for a nest.
I've only seen the hen so far but I did notice last year a huge red headed woodpecker working the trees in that area, so I'm having hopes that this will be their nest. I need to look them up and see if they keep a nest for years, I hope they do as it will be fun to watch the young ones grow.
So now I finally have cleared space enough to build my woodshop which is a life long dream since childhood, and plenty of good dirt to plant things in, things to eat that is, and a few flowers for color here and there, stripes and patches of them, what ever I feel like doing, I could even create pictures if I wanted. I've seen that done in magazines and books, you just plant different colors according to a graph plan and when they bloom you see the picture. I've spent the last 20 years drawing plans for this property, all sorts of designs so it will be interesting to see what finally emerges.
A nice big bull dozer arrived last week and spent the next 5 days moving dirt around, burning a stump pile bigger than the house, it raged for at least 5 days and now sits there with only one stump left, that one was dug up as an after the fact find so it arrived too late to burn as the fire was only a pile of coals. But not to worry there is an acre or two of bare dirt now chock full of roots and branches all bone dry as the trees were logged back in 92. So for the whole of this summer and maybe next summer small bon fires are the name of the game, which also means lots of hotdogs and marshmallows on sticks.
It is great to finally look out on that bare dirt because after almost 30 years I can finally start planting fruit trees, flowers, vegetables, grapes, berries and whatever else I can find to create a visual treat to the eyes.
For now I'm going to seed most of it in either red clover or alf-alpha, both are in the green manure category, meaning they enrich the soil as they grow. It will depend on which seeds I can find and of course the cost per acre because after the dozer bill comes in there won't be a lot left this month. I was lucky in that Leon the dozer owner takes payments, plus he only charges $60 and hour with an operator. For those of you that don't know that is far cheaper than I could rent a smaller one for and I would need to run it myself.
The other good news is I finally got the rhododendron bushes off eh truck. They were sitting there for 4 weeks exactly. I picked them up off of freecycle. Each was some 5' tall and about as wide. Took 4 of us just to slide them up the ramp onto the truck, took my back a week plus to recover from it, but well worth the effort. One bloomed on the truck, a brilliant red, the other is just now blooming a bright pink. They certainly add something to all the green of the forest around me.
And while doing all of this we happened to notice one dead tree, there are several dozen of them from an ice storm a few years back, this one stands about 20 feet high or more and about 15" thick, there is a nice round hole in the side about 5 feet from the broken top, inside that hole is a woodpecker, working up a frenzy pecking away clearing out space for a nest.
I've only seen the hen so far but I did notice last year a huge red headed woodpecker working the trees in that area, so I'm having hopes that this will be their nest. I need to look them up and see if they keep a nest for years, I hope they do as it will be fun to watch the young ones grow.
So now I finally have cleared space enough to build my woodshop which is a life long dream since childhood, and plenty of good dirt to plant things in, things to eat that is, and a few flowers for color here and there, stripes and patches of them, what ever I feel like doing, I could even create pictures if I wanted. I've seen that done in magazines and books, you just plant different colors according to a graph plan and when they bloom you see the picture. I've spent the last 20 years drawing plans for this property, all sorts of designs so it will be interesting to see what finally emerges.
posted by The Emperor at 11:40 AM
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