Weekly Update

Well, things are humming right along at the homestead and for ourselves. We were invited by The Wife's employer this past Friday to a Durham Bulls game as part of their Spirit Week at work. Barring the rain delay we had a good time. We lasted about 4 innings then realized we had to get up Saturday so off we went. It took us about an hour to get home so there won't be too many games partaken by us in the near future. Very nice complex.

The minor league teams do a lot with the local kids in the area. Here's a bunch of them chasing Woll E. Bull, the mascot.

Weekly vantage point picture. Everything seems to be doing well but I did notice that I need to get out there and start weeding out the beds. Weeds are taking over!

Getting closer. Now that the plants are starting to set fruit, time to hit them with some 10-10-10. I also need to start thinking about some stakes. 

WOF of the Week. Why the mulch? And for all of the effort The Wife and I put into re- landscaping these front beds, the wire- grass weeds just keep coming up. We spray and spray but all it amounts to is watering them more. I told her Sunday that I was going to take all of the mulch out and let these weeds grow!

I don't have everything labeled in the beds but I did get smart enough to write what was what on my notepad. I have drawn up a little spreadsheet so once I get everything labeled I'll post it up. 

Summers upon us so drink lots of water and stay safe out there kids.

Quick Garden Update

Took a quick walk through the garden late this afternoon because I was interested in the beans. 

They seem to be doing good. I got these from Johnny's Select Seeds and I have to say I'm pleased with the result. Every seed sprouted. 

The $1.00 tomato is still going strong. Not as big as I'd like to see but doing good nonetheless. And I found a few more Kobe Beefsteak tomatoes. 

Rescued my pictures from The Wife's camera so I could post the morning shot I took with it. 

We are finally getting some summer heat so I turned up the time on the watering system a few minutes so the plants get more of what they need. Have a good evening.

Misc. Pictures

Looking through the computer I realized that I had quite a few pictures that haven't seen the light of day. Most are ones I have taken myself merely because I either find it useful or funny.

Cow falling zone? I wouldn't want this road to be my daily driver.

Blue Star Memorial erected and maintained by the TwoGreenThumbs Garden Club. 

Looking out my office window one afternoon and what do I see? I didn't realize Raleigh, NC was it's habitat.

I guess if your child is younger than 1, they pay full price here.

I uuuhhhhh borrowed this from a news website. I just liked it.

Actual sign on one of my trips a little while ago. Ten miles?!? Are they serious?

For those of you that are squeamish, you may want to pass on this one. Scared the shit out of me, hiding under my squash leaves. Taken about two years ago.

He/She didn't survive long and the "Snake Stick" was added to the garden tools for the remainder of that year. And for your information, it's a Copperhead. 

View from the observation deck atop Mount Mitchell, NC. Highest point east of the Mississippi. 

You know your job sucks when you have to work on the outside of the safety cage. Take a good look at how high these guys are. 

Paradise for me some day. I'd love to look at those mountains when I played.

I don't know why but I get up at 5:30am every morning at the new house. I took this with my phone. The Wife owes me some pictures off of her small camera. And there's another post due soon titled Foghorn Leghorn Must Die. 

Well there are a few more but it's getting close to bed time so we'll close with an oldie but goody. Right after we got the WOF, we realized that she needed a bed to sleep on. OK, so we underestimated the size!

That's it for tonight. Be safe out there kids.

95% Complete

Sorry about the absence. Things are only getting busier at work so that has been taking up a lot of my time lately. I also have been staying at the old house throughout the week, when I'm not on the road, getting it ready for final move out, then coming to the homestead for Fridays and Saturdays getting stuff done here before the heat of the summer hits. Needless to say there are times that I'm not sure which way I need to be going.

As far as the gardens go, we have our first 2 tomatoes, Kobe Beefsteaks. Saw them this afternoon when I was doing a tour. The beans I planted last Sunday are really coming up. I still have to get some sprinklers on them and that's tomorrows job. Everything else is humming right along.

Grow, grow, grow!

Short bed of beans.

 Long bed of beans.

I am going to take a picture weekly from this vantage point.

Went to the store this morning with the intention of getting the landscape walls finished. 110 blocks weigh a lot. Even more after a while of working with them. I got the bed I started last week finished then did the bed on the front of the house. This is the time that I am thankful for the sandy soil we have!

Finished #1.

 Number 2 on the front. I actually got all of the blocks in but after standing back I said to myself "I need more on the front corner here. 95% complete. I can not leave something that doesn't look good to me. Looks like 120 blocks. But not tomorrow.

I'm dead tired so it's off to bed. Keep safe kids.

Continuation of the Same Bullsh*t

Not really bullsh*t, but this is getting monotonous. My father-in-law was stupid enough to stick around for another day so I tasked him with the assignment of fixing a leak under the house where the PEX fitting and PVC fitting tie into one another as well as a small leak at the riser where the timer was.
I started on setting the landscaping blocks The Wife started Saturday in between moving the sprinkler around the yard as we intended or doing a last aeration, seed, and fertilizing of the yard for the year. If the shit doesn't grow now, I don't care. I re-dug some of what she did and continued around the corner where I realized we didn't get enough blocks. I wasn't going out to get anymore at that time so they made as far as I could get them to go. The remainder will have to wait until next Friday or Saturday.

As I was finishing up this chore I hear....
FiL: Where did you get that timer at?
Me: Uhhh, I bought it at the Restore a long while back. Why?
FiL: Well, I broke it.
Me: OK. We need gas for the tractor anyway and the can's at the other house so you can get both at the same time.
Which was fine with me because I wasn't always confident in the old timer to begin with. So from this

To this...

And no leaks whatsoever. This thing is a breeze to operate. And The Wife asks, "can we plant something around this to make it look pretty?" Looks pretty enough to me but I do have some morning glories at the other house I'll plant around it. Maybe.

FiL off to aerate the the front lawn as I move the sprinklers to the back lawn and plant green beans. Cleared out a bed of small tomatoes and got about 360 seeds in that one plus the new 12'-0" long bed. 

I still had some of the dirt pile left (this shit's like Grapenuts; it never seems to be an end to it) so I decided to fill in over the ruts and gravel along side of the road in front of the house so we could seed it too. 

Hopefully the effort will pay the dividends. And now........ drum roll please................. down to this---

A little for The Wife's mailbox flowers and the rest will spread up the other roadside, or I just may seed it and move on :) See the boxes? The Wife did the following, besides working on the house and cursing at the neurotic WOF.

Broke down 1,000 boxes in hopes that our new trash/recycling company would take them, and....

Redid the other front bed. See any landscape blocks? Me neither. She and her Dad got three scoops of Mulch Saturday and we still have a bunch left. I plan on using some on the garden bed walkways and in a few of the beds but man, there's a lot left!

This is The Wife's friend and coworker's trailer that he was nice enough to lend us during this time. I hope to unload this and get it back to him by this coming Sunday along with all of the other torture tools he has lent us. Great guy with a big heart and I hope to return the favor some day. Just wait and see!!!!!!

So the entire lawn got watered,

over- seeded and fertilized. Last thing I did here Sunday. Bid goodbye to everyone and headed back to the old house to mow that yard! Still a lot to do there that I hope to get done during the week. Yard sale in a couple of weeks if anyone's interested. And I honestly say I look forward to Mondays. Not really because I'm beat and I know I'll have to go on the road but it beats the hell out of working in the sun all day. 

Click here.

Hopefully within a few more weeks we'll have everything sorted out and sit on our butts all summer. That's my plan.

WOF of the Week. Ginny is really feeling out of place. She knows the neighbors at or old house well and loves to play with the kids there. At the new place she is out of sorts and can't stand to be out of our sight. I don't know whether it's because she had a rough life early on from others treating her badly or abandoning her, but she has been needy lately. So any chance she gets, she's outside with us. 

Laying in the mulch no less. 

Have a good week and be careful out there kids.

Tiredly

Got a lot done today with the help of my father-in-law. We dug out by hand from the house to the beds, then dug around all of the beds for the pipe. I made up some of the fittings last night and made up the rest on the spot. All in all a lot of work but now I can make sure the plants are watered everyday when I'm not here.

The digging wasn't that bad due to the sandy soil. I tried to get a ditch-witch from Home Depot but both of their small units were broken.

Going up to the two newest beds plus a 12'-0" long one I built last night in an effort to rid myself of the excess dirt. It got filled tonight as the last thing I did. 

View of the six lower beds. I ran one 3/4" pipe into each bed because I don't think I have the water pressure for two each. 

Close-up of the corn bed. I planted this stuff last Sunday and I swear it grew 2" throughout today. 

As you can see I got most of the 1/4" lines run with drippers or sprinklers. It was a lot of work let me tell you. You can tell it's close to quitting time when the beer comes out.

Backfilled the ditch and spread everything out. 

I set this board in concrete to hold this riser I made to hold the timer and a shutoff valve. I forgot to put in a union so that's the father-in-laws job tomorrow. And another union under the house where I tied into the PEX piping. 

Last picture of the evening. See, I did get that big bed filled! I'll be putting green beans in there and replacing a bed of tomatoes with beans. We want lots of beans and we can lose a few tomatoes. 65 plants is a lot. 

Tomorrow it is watering, aerating, seeding and fertilizing the lawn then I'm done with it. At this point I don't care if anything grows in it. Then to continue landscaping block started by The Wife today. Also got to build a flower box around the mailbox. And so on. I didn't use all of the dirt still so a little in the flower box and the remaining goes around the yard next to the road as it is full of rocks. Think I'll sit back and seriously consider that Harley now. 

Quickly

Writing this from the new house. Still haven't slowed down but things are getting done.

Bottom picture are my daylillies at the old house. Really hate leaving them but they'd die if I pull them now. Inlaws are in town for the weekend so that means more help. Started on the watering system tonight and should have it done tomorrow. Off to bed.