Ever Changing Water Garden

It began with this stone

which gave me an idea

to change the tractor tire water garden

then sweet Hubby brought me another.

I dug, planned and gathered rocks.

This is first stone at the bottom

second at top

and here comes the third and biggest

It makes a great place to sit

and will make a wonderful water fall 

if I decide to expand.

Almost there..wild fern, reeds and moss are planted.

Fish were added 

and the frogs are making themselves at home.

 Still have some tweaking and improving.

I imagine it will always be a work in progress.

Well...

Hubby helped me place this wonderful huge rock with his tractor.  No way a normal human could lift this.  I worked.  I arranged.  I dug.

Hubby arrives a few days later and says, I've found a better rock!!!  It has a hollow and a stream build into it.  So we spent a  little time dragging the other "perfect" rock out and placing the second.

It was so heavy the tractor had trouble lifting it with a chain.  Hubby has this wonderful idea.  As this rock is suspended from the tractor with a chain I am to take a rope and twirl this "perfect" rock in position.  It didn't happen.  I struggled.  Hubby did most of the work with his Kubota.

Removing the liner from the tractor tire was quite the job.  It had to be emptied.  I removed the tacks that held the liner in place.  

Hubby made short work of removing it from the ground

and delivered it to the new location.

The old tractor tire will live on in a new location. 

Water will circulate from the rock/water fall into tire.

I have much more to do but I am tired for today.

Even in our yard I found treasure!

Seventy Degrees and Fixing Roof...

I've been planning.  You know that is the most important part of any job.  You gotta have a plan. Since my tractor tire water garden and this water garden need some repairs and cleaning.  I've been planning how to combine them and add a pump.

Both water gardens have been pet friendly and have developed a couple of leaks.  Through foster dogs, my dogs and horses I need to reshape and redo.  I started picking up the crystals from Mount Ida because you have to pick up every thing to change it when I decided...now stay with me...to repair the roof...of the house!

Don't ask me how my brain works.  I have lived with it all my life and still can't fathom how it sometimes goes from A to Z in a split second.

Hey, I'm flexible so I flagged down Hubby to use his tractor bucket to get me on the roof.  I had noticed a small leak on our screened porch during the last rain. This time I wore my Timberland lace-ups instead of my Fat Baby boots These were much better for roofing, I'm raised in the bucket with roofing repair supplies.

I climb out carefully from bucket to the roof because I'm afraid of heights...then why am I up here?!

I spot the problem right away.  A roofing screw had loosened near the spot of the leak.  It's seventy degrees, I have two shirts on and the tin is hot to the touch.  Doesn't take me long to lather up like a work horse and that in turn almost blinds me.  I am scooting across the roof with caulk gun in one hand and the thing that smooths the caulk out...I forget what it called...putty knife, that's it, in the other hand.  I'm caulking, I'm smoothing, I'm eye to eye with a very unhappy red paper wasp!  I'm allergic!  I scoot backwards 'cause I'm not standing up. The wasp decides I'm not the enemy, thank goodness.

I run out of caulk and poor hubby has to bring me more.  He brings me a tube of acrylic caulk, paint able for indoor use.  I said look at the old tube, bring me one just like that please.  I have them obsessively lined up in the tool closet like kinds together.

While he's looking I'm looking.  I discover the chimney needed the flashing caulked.  The place where one roof line meets another needed caulking and I found a stash of leaves where two roof lines angle into each other. Got all those leaves out, finished another caulking tube that Hubby tossed up to me and decided not to caulk the chimney today.  There was another wasp looking at me and I would have to go up another level so that is postponed for a cooler day.

After tossing me another caulk tube I empty that and call it quits.

On the bright side of all this work the tractor did not tip over with my weight in the bucket nor did I fall through or off the roof.  Hubby did get me up and down safely in his handy dandy tractor bucket.  No one yelled at each other. Two empty caulking tubes, one pile of trash.

I opened the windows because Friday was summertime.  I had an ice drink and Hubby told me how his back was hurting because he had to "lift" me so high!

And some say women don't do hard labor!!!  I was through for the day.

How was your Friday?

The Things I Did

after work Saturday should have sweated the rest of the sick outta me.  I made piles.  Oh, the pleasure I had watching those piles grow.  Do you have a place around your house, where you just lay something til later and later never comes?   This is a collection of some of those piles: a broken flower pot, sun worn ice cream buckets used to hold small bits, an old box I was going to use and a chair broken during the ice storm that I was going to fix...

The yard crew (Hubby and Beverly) was mowing yesterday.  East of the house, near the old tractor tire water garden, a copperhead snake was spotted but escaped.  This guy is poison and we do not really like having one this close to the house.  Heck, we don't like having them at all!

Today after work, I tackled the jungle.  My goal to clear the way for easy snake spotting, open it up for easier mowing and pick up some damaged things I had not disposed of yet.  I wish I had taken before pictures but you can measure the piles and imagine the befores because I only have afters.

The elderberries had taken over around the water garden.  Something is eating the limbs so off they came.  A super thinning of plant life took place or a butchering, depends on how you look at it.

This USED to be a great sweeping, beautiful Texas or Blackberry Rose.  I believe I shared some pictures of its blooms.  Well, there ain't no blooms now!  In the heart of this bush is where the copperhead chose to rest when he was spotted yesterday.

Now I have two, no, three big piles full of plantain, violets, blackberry rose and elderberries topped with sticks, dead pecans and limbs and debris from the old tractor tire.  It is over ninty degrees and the humidity is 76%.  I am not sweating like a horse, I am lathered.

You can see around the tire!!!!  The refilling water is clear!  No snakes in site but I did find a marvelously, huge bull frog in my hostas and welcomed him.  Hope I did not scare him off.

Hostas visible, lillies visible, rocks visible...just a  mere few hours later.  This was my resting spot on the log, I would sit and drink a tall cool drink as I pondered my next move.

I have seen the elephant and he is bare!  He was covered with Virginia Creeper.  It is not perfect by any means but much closer.  The plow share is visible and all/most snake hidey holes are gone.

This is on the east side of the lodge and welcomes the morning sun.  Now I can greet the morning sun in relative safety...in this hard won spot.  Man, I am pooped!

 You can read about The Old Tractor Tire by typing the words into my search at the upper left hand side of page.