Author: mel

Finally finished the guest cottage…

..sort of 😉

Kind of a mixed day here on Frog Rock.  A nice lazy morning having coffee on the deck looking at a great forest view. There is still a little smoke hazy in the sky from the fires in the interior and it makes for some amazing light, orange on the green forest.

Finally started to place the left over patio blocks in the afternoon.  I have 10 blocks, just enough for a two block wide small patio off the deck on the street side.  The area is bare sandy dirt, and is under the overhang so nothing seems to want to grow there. This is where I hope to eventually move the recycling and will help reduce the amount of dirt the dog tracks in.  I will have to build a short wall to hide the cans, plan to use the same colour siding as the house has to help make it blend in.

I didn’t quite finish.  Sean showed up to return the trailer which naturally turned into a small yak session.  Need to get him back over here to do a little welding on the camper, the bumper and the tongue jack need some attention. It is not as hot as is was but it is crazy humid.I had to call it a day after placing only 8 blocks.  Thats the nice part of retirement, there is always tomorrow!

Played a little Civ tonight, first time since February.  It didn’t hold my attention tho’, may have finally run its course and as the song says Painted wings and giant rings make way for other toys.  The guitars are whispering my name.

We spend another day planting today and are finally close to getting all the plants we bought this spring in the ground. Another few ferns and a huckleberry and we will be done.  We are trying to find a balance between the natural forest and the urban yard.  Up by the house it is more urban traditional, hydrangeas and rhododendrons. 

Farther out we want to add some new plants but avoid looking too manicured. So, a couple of maples, some hostas that will get to 6 feet wide, and ostrich ferns.  They are large enough to be seen but positioned somewhat randomly.

We are also trying an experiment. We are using an decomposing, ancient cedar stump as a bed for a red huckleberry.  This is a natural location for huckleberries, they often root in old stumps in nature. 

Enough for today, time to kick back with a coffee on the deck!

The local fire department raised the fire rating to extreme today.  That means not only a fire ban but also a work shutdown.  Can’t use power equipment with the exception of carpentry tools so most work is off limits.  We just finished planting nine trees and a couple perennials, and we are melting.  Time for a root beer float on the deck.

It is the summer of family visits, which is really nice.  Both Kelly and my family have been stopping by.  Hardly a week goes by without someone here.  Earlier my youngest brother and his wife came for the day.  Over the last few days my older brother and wife were here.

We took the chance to do a fast getaway to Tofino.  This was their first time there, so naturally you have to stop at Catherdral Grove.

The sun is out and so am I, in the yard that is.  I spent the weekend and Monday putting in the driveway gate.  This is a BIG checkbox.  Kelly has plants that have been waiting many week to be planted that required the front drive to be fenced off so the deer would not eat them up.  I took Monday off in order to finish hanging the gate and put up the fencing.

The gate posts were a bear.  Our soil is 6″ of forest duff then sandstone and gravel.  Soft sandstone but stone none the less.  I had to dig the last foot with an air chisel.  Bleh.  Didn’t get them as deep as I would have preferred, only has deep as my arm is long.  I hope I don’t regret not spending some cash and getting somebody with a machine to bore them out.  On the bright side my free cement mixer performed great. I do need to get a grease gun for it.  The drum squealed a bit on the last mix.

 

The garden seems to be working out so far.  We have been a little concerned that it would not get enough sun but so far so good.  Everything is up and looking good with the exception of some of the tomatoes.  We could not find our usual varieties here and are trying some new ones, new to us anyway.

Our small orchard is in the same fenced area as the garden.  Not much in there yet, a couple of pears trees, a couple of hazelnuts, some rhubarb and a few Saskatoons still waiting to be planted.  I really need to get the mower in here its getting to be a jungle.

The buckets are my cheapo tree watering system.  Construction pails and a 2 gallon per hour drip nozzle.  I’ve made 20 of these so far, and could use a few more. I use them here plus all over the upper yard where we have planted mock oranges, roses, magnolias, camellia, haskaps, lavender, cherry and apple trees.  Some of these could have been in the orchard too I suppose but it has been an evolving plan, and some were planted prior to the orchard spot being decided on.

I am loving my little shelter. I knew I would.  Check out the free cement mixer!!

Not much has happened here over the last three weeks as far as “getting things done” is concerned.  I was laid up since the beginning of June with pneumonia and spent 8 days in the hospital.  Kelly has been keeping me on a short leash since, as she should because I tend to be in denial.  I’ll be feet up chillaxing for another week, with some puttering around as rehab.  Maybe I’ll try to finally dig the post holes for the gates.  Follow up appointment with doctor tomorrow, we’ll see what he says.

I took a couple days off last week from my other duties to focus on the garden.  May is quickly passing and we need to get the plants in the dirt.

We decided to build the same style of beds as we had in our last location, raised beds built with patio blocks.  They have the advantage of never rotting and we like the working height.  Not being low to the ground is a real back saver.

Out here it seems you can’t buy the size of patio blocks I wanted, they just don’t sell them and no one would even agree to have them ordered in special.  Every thing here is a smaller size, so we had to improvise a base platform for the smaller blocks to sit on.  This turned out to be cindercrete.  These days cindercrete blocks are no longer made from ash, just concrete, so they are safe to use for this purpose.  The only other change I made were the top rails.  I used radiused deck boards instead if 2×4’s for a wider and hand-friendly rail.

Also needed to run another 300′ of deer fence to enclose the garden and the small orchard we have started.  So far only pears and hazelnuts. The apple is in the future and the cherry is planted up closer to the house.

Still some work to do to finish up.  I need to pin down the bottom of the deer fence (deer with try to crawl under if they real want to get in), and set the posts and install a proper gate. Later this summer we plan to install a cistern and collect rainwater for the garden.  Until then I have to run out 300′ of hose from the house.

Eventually I will build some type of potting bench for Kelly.  I left room up close to the gate for one.  I am also toying with the idea of moving my tin shed from up by the house to down by the garden.