Another Year Older

 We put this garden in back in 2010.  This year is its 14th year.  Each year we do a little maintenance on it.  The top rails on the fence have been replaced.  The wire that runs around the top to make the deer think the fence is taller has been replaced once or twice.  We've refreshed the gravel two or three times.  Pavers have had to be lifted and reset.  The water tank cover has been replaced.  We're on our third sump pump to draw water from the tank, and the tank itself has been cleaned out three or four times.

After we replaced the railroad tie step the other day, we went on to replace two more ties that hollowed out many years ago.  Ants and bees set up house.  The skunks pull things apart.  Tree roots creep in. There were two more along the bank that needed to be replaced and we walk past them a lot.  They were still doing their work to hold the soil back, and they didn't look too bad but you had to be very careful not to step on them.  My husband figured we could get another year out of them.  Then he realized, that next year he too would be another year older.  And that would make it that much harder.

We can't get the tractor in here so we have to lift the old ties out by hand and carry them out.  Then scrape the surface level and measure to find ties that fit in.  There are some different widths and heights, but we found two to match and only one had to be cut a bit shorter to fit.

Then you have to carry them in by hand.

And mash them into place.

They went in really easily.  I left the mulch pulled back so you can see which tie had been replaced.

The last one on the end and the third one in.

Well, that's done.