Spring Vacation Summary!
We went to the McConnellsberg Fulton county conservation districts tree pickup location of Friday April 17th and got this years batch of trees and plants. I will have to add a copy of the tree order to the blog later. From memory I got: 2 english walnut, 6 dwarf apple, 2 Dolgo crab-apple, 25 earlyglow strawberries and 25 surecrop strawberries, 50 elderberries and 100 locust seedlings. I got them all planted as well as 12 ornamental trees that I got from the Arbor Day foundation. Below are some pictures and descriptions of what I did.
Some of the things I did besides plant: Mow the lawn with my new mower! I do have some pictures below of the new mower. I also got some milky sport (2 bags) at Zimmerman's in Everett and applied them to the grape vineyard and the apple and cherry groves. Note for next time: Get 3 bags of milky spore! While I was at Zimmerman's I also picked up an electric box for the shop as weel as 250 ft of 14/4 and 250 feet of 12/2 wiring for the shop. I picked up 2 20 Amp breakers and 2 15 amp breakers. This should get me started with the wiring. The lighting wire can go in, but the plug-source wiring will need conduit. Before I left for Zimmerman's I thought I had a couple of electric boxes already so I went on a whirlwind search of the farm and couldn't find them (then I began to suspect that maybe I didn't buy them after-all!). Anyway, I went downstairs in the house and found that sewage had come out onto the basement floor!! ACK! So I called Chestnut's Septic service and he came out Sunday morning and pumped the tank. He suggested getting 4 bottles of root remover and dumping it down the drain to clear the field. He said that it may clear the field since there are now no more trees putting roots in there (although the sweet cherry trees should probably be moved). He said that it may take a year or two though and that I will need pumping again before then. It cost $150 for a pump-out. Oh, and I finally finished assembling the oak canning shelves and put up the 2nd attic vent. Also, Katherine and I searched the woods near the paw-paw trees for Morel mushrooms, but could find none. Katherine went on line to check and thinks that it may be too early yet.
Sunday April 26, 2015
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| Some of mom's flowers |
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| Mom's forsythia (yellow) and peach trees (pink) |
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| The hill behind mom's place |
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| A view of the canning shelves with some food on them! They seem pretty sturdy, but now I am concerned that maybe I should put on some side-to-side bracing (a diagonal across the back maybe?) |
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| I finally got the other attic vent in! UGH. What a mess, but it looks OK and is already keeping the wasps out (or in) |
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| Found a nice spot to hang up the auger! |
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| Whew! I will have plenty of firewood for quite sometime to come! |
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| And plenty of wood chips! |
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| Blueberries are looking good! |
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| The new blueberries planted right at the end of last years berry plants. I need to extend the electric fence. |
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| The view from the entrance to the driveway. So nice! Starting to look like a farm! |
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| You can kind of see the locust grove to-be where the old fence line was. |
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| Strawberries are sprouting out nicely! |
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| I got black plastic down on the strawberry mounds (left) and the garlic (right). |
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| It dried enough to till the new patch. It took awhile to remove the roots! I might smooth out the dirt a bit and re-till before planting - its pretty uneven right now. |
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| Front lawn area with the old trees all gone and the new ornamental planted! |
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| there are 3 each of dogwood and red-bud on the left side of the yard. 2 ornamental crab-apple in front of the new garden, and 2 each of hawthorn and crepe-myrtle on the right (12 total) |
Saturday April 25, 2015
Dried off enough to work on the soil some more. After cleaning out the rose bushes, wild pear, and russian olive trees debris I decided that I should till where I was going to put the locust trees. I planted about 30 of the locust trees today.
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| I tapered the elderberry rows for a couple of reasons: 1) I wanted to put them in an area with the most water, and 2) it is easier to place the electric fence around them if they are in a tapered config. |
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| I planted the elderberries in 3 rows instead of the more spacious way i did in the past. These are planted about 3 feet apart in rows that are 16 feet apart. I am hoping that this will make it easier to mow and take care of them. The elderberries in the "swamp" are a pain in the ass to mow around and mulch. |
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| I left about 6-9 feet between the end of the garden and the elderberry rows so that I could maneuver the tractor for plowing and tilling without risking the berries. |
Thursday April 23, 2015
Opps! I decided to take that last remaining tree down to make room for the new "Arbor Day" ornamental trees that I got (I got 12 trees for joining Arbor Day foundation for $10 a year). Anyway, I thought this tree was smaller than it was and I thought it wasn't leaning as much as it was... I tried to cut the weight off of the tree so the lines wouldn't take more damage, but after two cuts I was getting too close to the "action". The power was still flowing through those lines and it was frying the tree while I was using the saw there! The power company came and cut the tree; the lines were undamaged so they reset the fuse and left. I eventually planted my ornamental trees.
Wednesday April 22, 2015
Rained again today. I moved and put the oak canning shelves together. Got a nice shot of a rainbow. It was the second rainbow this week in almost the exact same location.
Tuesday April 21, 2015
I got my new zero-turn radius mower! I also got a cart for hauling stuff behind lawn-mowers. The cart is a lot lower to the ground so for hauling stones and dirt its way better then using the dump-bed of the UTV (besides, the UTV bed is usually being used).
I used this mower to mow essentially the entire mowed area of my property and some of the field areas near where I was planting trees. Its a joy to mow now and SO FAST. It can, however, still get stuck. I got it stuck in the mud a couple of times and slid on the hillsides a bit. The ground is still very wet from earlier rains.
Monday April 20, 2015
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| Pretty rainbow! |
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| Lots of water run-off |
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| plenty of wet in the far garden. |
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| plenty of wet in the front garden |
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| Closeup of the new plowed garden area. |
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| I need to till this yet but need to wait for it to dry a bit. |
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| Maple tree stump. |
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| more stumps. I am thinking of renting a stump grinder to get rid of these. They are an eyesore and are hard to mow around. |
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| Hickory stump. |
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| See the huge hickory bole there next to the light post? I had to drag it - its way too heavy for the tractor to lift in forks. Not sure what I will do with it yet. Hickory makes nice tool handles |
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| Plowed the new garden patch. Was kind of rough going with all of the tree roots in that section. |
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| The tree trimmings pile continues to grow. I need to service the wood chipper and get chipping! I used one of my old piles of chips already using them as mulch around the trees. I will need more! |
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| Looks a lot different now without those front yard trees. |
