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Celebrating Earth Day

  • Posted on April 22, 2013 at 12:48 pm

This morning for Earth Day a lot of the people in our small town banded together and cleaned the banks of the small stream that winds through the town and into the river. It was no easy task. I could not believe the garbage that people dumped there and also the amount of debris that gathered on the banks just over the winter, due to blowing winds and the elements.

In my opinion, I believe that Earth Day should be observed every day, to keep our environment clean, and the animals natural habitats safe. I hope every one does something, no matter how small or large to help save the earth. It may be wishful thinking, but it sure would make a difference.

EarthDay11

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Shopping for seeds

  • Posted on April 10, 2013 at 6:14 pm

After deciding that I’ve got the “garden itch” going and the weather was dismal when I woke up, complete with thunderstorms on and off all day, I went seed shopping.

I hit a run on poppies, zinnias, cucumbers, green beans, and lots of other veggies and flowers, that were an embarrassingly low price when on sale, so I saved a great deal of money on these seeds.

I of course hit the herb section and there were loads of seeds on sale there too! I had to remember what I had already that would be coming up, and what I needed to reseed…should have brought a list, but didn’t think if it on my way out the door. I bought fennel, hyssop, lavender, four various mints, four different basil, thyme, rosemary, and the list goes on. Now I can’t wait to get out and play in the soil, enjoy the nature and be happy where I am most happy!

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The arrival of spring tomorrow

  • Posted on March 19, 2013 at 5:23 pm

Yesterday as I was looking at the receding water in the back yard, and in my mind mapping out where my next garden idea was going to be started, I saw some birds digging for worms in the semi mushy lawn. All of a sudden, a few robin hopped by the door. These are the first robin I’ve seen this year, and they were a welcome sight.

Now, I may be the only person I know who thinks like this, except perhaps my quirky friend Lindsay, but I swear that birds have a line of communication that tells one another where the good chubby worms are. Within about ten minutes of seeing three robin, a bunch came. It was an awesome sight to see, for sure.

I’m not going to get too excited yet though because yes, tomorrow is indeed the first day of Spring, but up here that doesn’t mean too much, considering our strange weather. We’ve had snow in the middle of April. But still, seeing the robin out back and now hopping all over the front yard, it does cheer one up, and also sort of breaks the cabin fevers in a way, with hope that the warm weather is coming soon.

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Back yard pond

  • Posted on March 17, 2013 at 4:03 pm

After all the snow we’ve gotten over the last few weeks, finally we had a semi thaw. I looked out the patio doors this morning and it actually looked like we had a pond in your back yard. We’ve really needed the water this year, since last year we had the major drought, and of course like everyone else, we have really been feeling the impact of it at the grocery store.

Despite of having the pool, while looking outside I actually imagined what a real pond out back would be like and how much it would cost to maintain it. We indeed have the room for it and I think it would be great to be able to go out and catch fresh fish ir to just lay on a floating chaise without bumping into the side of the pool, which I am know for. I float in the pool, hit the side while dozing off, and end up in the water.

Around here ponds are prevalent. My friend Teresa and her husband built a nice size one in their back yard, and stocked it with blue gill and bass. Good tasting fish, which is my favorite food to eat. I’ll have to make an appoint to ask Teresa about how much it costs to put a pond the size of theirs in and what it takes to maintain it. In the mean time, I can look at my back yard and pretend.

 

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Preparing the yard and house for winter

  • Posted on October 10, 2012 at 10:27 am

Fall isn’t even officially here and the leaves are all changing, and falling already. Usually we have a long fall season to enjoy the colors and we don’t have to rake until the end of October, but this year it’s come on fast and it is time to clean or at least start to clean, the leaves out of the house gutters. Some people call them eaves troughs, but up here, they are plain old gutters.

The neighbors maple tree started to drop leaves and they all blew into our yard. My big tree is dropping the leaves a bit, but not at a fast rate yet. It is still time to clean out the gutters though, to keep up on the job at least.

Now that the kids and grand kids are all grown, I don’t have anyone I can rake the fallen leaves into a big pile for. I miss them playing and jumping in the leaves and the fun they all used to have. Now I just rake the leave into the driveway, which is stone and I burn them. It’s sort of a joyless task now without the kids “help” and I usually can’t wait to have it done quickly.

I’ve already put my gardens to bed, and the lawn all cleaned up for the winter. I’ve coiled and hung the garden hoses away in the shed, put garden tools away in my potting shed and also cleaned up and organized inside there. The pool has been partially drained and securely covered, after I put all the equipment into the pool house. It’s all bittersweet, since it seems that summer wasn’t with us for very long.

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