Catching Up

Canna replanted.

Edge of smoke house cleared. 

Lilies like their new home.

Timber!  The light pole goes down,

repurposed for a fence anchor post.

Dirt cellar cleared of leaves and debris.

Work continues at the shop.

A solar lamp catches me out after dark.

The First Day Of Retirement...

I got up at six AM, woke Andrew for football practice, picked up Marcy at the truck shop, came home and worked outside.

Decided the water garden desperately needed my attention today.  I began removing the money plants, pulling weeds while topping off the water.  Also let the water soak a few weeds for me.

Here's my pile of removed undesirables.  Dead money plants, a few weeds and the grass I pulled was replanted elsewhere.  Grass is very valuable right now.

Looking a little better but hours to go before I'm finished.  It has taken all summer to get this grown up so will take me more than  a couple of hours to bring it back to its proper state but progress was made.  Yes, there is a water garden there, full of water plants.

Honey Suckle and Golden Rod are not my friends any more.  I am kicking them out of the garden.

One happy flower.

One unfinished job.

This soft little office girl has blisters

but I still know how to work.

So begins retirement.

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.