Spring Training

 We've been sitting around for three or four months now but all of our spring yard work is ahead of us.  It's time to ease into our outdoor fitness program and get these ole bones moving.  To do that we decided to start out with two days of tree cutting.  So far so good.  No aches or pains.  But today we will be back out there for day three. 

The target was the wild strip between us and the neighbors to our west.  There were a lot of White Ash in there and of course all of our White Ash are dead thanks to the Emerald Ash Borer.  We took out five of the largest trees in June of 2020.  Back in January we started to lose more tops, and last week it continued.  Might as well cut them down and get it over with.

They look like little spindly trees until you stand next to them.

These need to be roped and guided where we want them to go.

Here comes the first one.

Yep, that's where we thought it would go.

Day 1 we cut four dead ash.  Day 2 was half a dozen top heavy Poplars.  They are dirty trees with the catkins and fluff.  They are also fast growing, soft, and prone to toppling over.  Below is the tangle of leaning trees.  In the middle of all that was a young Hawthorne.  I will miss its cheery red berries in the fall but there was no way to sort it out of there.

Last but not least, a good sized Red Oak.  Not a bad looking tree, but top heavy and crooked.  

The more angles you look at it from, the more crooked it gets.

That has to come down too.  We will now have half a million fewer oak leaves in the garden and hopefully the Chipmunks won't be attracted to this area to harvest acorns anymore.

This leaves us with a whole bunch more scraggly misshapen trees.  That's the problem with old fence line trees.  They are very one-sided.  But they are all headed for the neighbor's lawn, so that will be for drier weather and will require some additional consultation with the neighbors.

We now have a huge burn pile out back, and two stacks of wood.  The Ash to the right, along with a large pile of Oak, has already been moved back to where we can split it and stack it for campfire wood.  The big pile of Poplar to the left, while pretty, is not good firewood.  As soon as it is done curing it begins to rot.  It burns fast and not very hot.  We're not sure what to do with that junk. If we threw this on a burn pile now the green wood would take forever to burn. It may end up stacked back in the woods to rot back there and in the meantime provide a home for all sorts of critters.

The underbrush is a tangled mess.  There is a lot of Sheepberry Viburnum which we want to keep but it has taken a beating.  There is lot that was already leaning over towards the drive and I will cut that out to allow the younger growth to come in straighter.  I've already cut most of the Multiflora rose and there is some wild Blackberry that will come up fast too.  But that is for another day. I am thinking of buying a batch of bare root Lilacs from Stark Brothers to supplement the undergrowth.

Good for Another Hundred Years

 I have finished caning the dining room chairs.  I ended up doing six total.  There was the first Ugly Chair that we had at the table.  Then I repaired the ruined one that had sat up in the attic. We picked up a few extras to round out our set of eight and ended up with nine matching chairs.  All but three of them had some degree of damage to the seats.

I enjoyed spending an afternoon in the woodshop.  I would put an audio book on my can speaker and arrange my tools and spend a couple of hours pulling cane.

I did three last spring and three this winter.  There is only room for six around the table, so now we have three extra chairs tucked here and there around the house.

The sixth chair is the one that I am most proud of.  I finally got neat little Xs around all four sides.  There may be a wayward strand here or there, but for the most part this is an example of a competent caning job.

I still have this oddball round, red chair to do for fun. Since I have been putting photos up on Facebook, I have had a few local friends mention that they have chairs that need to be repaired.  It might be fun to do one now and then.

More Outside Puttering

This morning was mild and pleasant.  The kind of day when you feel you should be outside doing something.  And we have wintery weather forecast to return next week, so if we wanted to play outside, this was the day to do it.

 

Besides raking up some sticks, the driveway was rolled to firm it up.  This changed the fresh gravel from feeling as if you were walking on sifting sands to rock hard pavement.

I noticed that some of the hyacinth bulbs I planted are coming up.  It is exciting to think that the days of colorful flowers will come again.

My pile of chopped leaves was thawed out enough to dress up the tulip bed.

There is no point putting leaves on anything in the fall because the winds will scatter them everywhere.  Hopefully the upcoming snow will flatten them.  I threw some compost on top to hold them down.  This will help insulate the soil from the upcoming freeze and thaw cycles.  It is good to get outside and do just a little something.

Dressing up the Driveway

 

This is an old photo from a previous post, but its that time of year again.  The driveways need a little attention to replace gravel that has drifted away or sunk into the mud.  We just sprinkle a little on top and smooth it out with a rake.  It keeps the garage floor clean and prevents pot holes from forming.

I also watered my transplanted apple tree.  The down side to beautiful weather is that you don't get the usual amount of moisture and transplanted or container plants can get too dry.   I should probably also water the perennials in the whiskey barrels.  That will be a little chore for tomorrow.

Winter Weeding

Every winter we get a few breaks when you can go out and spend some time in the garden.  Yesterday was absolutely perfect for picking up sticks and leaves.

It got up to 49F.

There are a few spots where the weeds were flourishing.  Even flowering.

There are few weeds in the raised beds but the ones that are there were getting pretty big.  I pulled them all.

The last of the lettuce was down for the count.

The tulips are eager to get going.

This morning was very cold and clear with freezing fog and hoar frost.

The silly blue birds were in the middle of their mating ritual and checking out the bird house.  I've even seen a few robins.  They'll have to face reality though.  The ground hogs are predicting an early spring but I think we have at least a month to go.  

Out Looking For Trouble

 And hopefully not finding it.  After several weeks of wind and snow and single digit temperatures, we are experiencing a warmup.  Its a good time to go outside, get some fresh air and check on things to make sure there is no damage that needs to be taken care of and no reinforcements that need to be made.  Because now would be the time to do that too.

There is a vole or field mouse that has been tunneling under the snow.  Thankfully the wire cloches turned him and he did not feast on fresh Primrose.

The wire pinned over my newly planted bulbs is popping up.  I stomped them all down tight.

I checked on the Heuchera.

The landscape pins are not the only thing heaving in the freeze and thaw, but these will eventually level out.  There are usually a few pavers that need to be releveled come spring.  In the meantime it can be a little hazardous to walk on.

We still have a few White Ash trees along our west edge.  They are dead and shedding branches all over this one area.  I remember years when we would spend hours each spring raking the lawn.  This looks like a mess but won't be much work to clean up.

This one lost its top during the several days when we had high winds.  I took a photo when there was snow on it so you an see that sizeable top lying diagonally in there,  Some people in our area were without power for two days.  This doesn't look like a very big tree in the photo, but it is big enough to be a serious job and capable of doing quite a bit of damage.  I am happy that its top is down and I am also happy that it fell in the wooded area where we can clean it up at our leisure and not on the neighbor's driveway where we would have had to clean it up during that foul weather.

So fortunately no serious issues to report or remedy.  It is nearly 50F today and still but foggy.  We would like to see some sun but that isn't likely for awhile. Tomorrow is supposed to be quite pleasant and brighter and I'll go out and play pick up sticks.

Keeping an Eye on Things

Our night time temperatures have been dipping into the single digits.  When they start to get into the teens I keep a close eye on my dahlia tubers that I have stored in the basement bulkhead.   When the outside temps are in the teens the dahlia tub will start to dip below 40F.  I do not want them to be below 35F as the optimum storage temperature is 35-50F and freezing will turn them to mush.  So, we moved them from the basement to the woodshop in the two car garage lean to.  We keep that heated to 50F.

I have a remote sensor nestled into the top of the tub.  It is the number above which is circled in red.  The other temperatures are our house (68), the outside temp on the front porch (11) and the basement freezer in which we store all of our meat (0).  This lets me keep a close watch on all of the important temperatures.  

The humidity in the dahlia tub is a little misleading.  It says 99% and the optimum would be between 75% and 85% but the vermiculite passes the touch test and there is no condensation inside the lid.  As long as there is no mold showing anywhere, I would rather err on the side of too much humidity so they do not shrivel up.  Around the first of each month I open up the tub, dig around, and give some of the tubers a pinch to test their condition.  So far, so good.