Bogieblog

Just a Bit Early

In March I ordered tomato and pepper starts. I thought the company was supposed to deliver toward the end of May. Well, apparently I was mistaken they were delivered on May 3. They were well packaged and in good shape when I received them. After watering them, I put them out in the garage since the youngsters were trying to eat them approximately 5 seconds after I opened the encasements.

Since I can't plant them (well I could, but it would be inadvisable) until the end of the month, yesterday I potted them up on the back porch, then it was back to the garage for them.

Oh yeah, late last Sunday I bought some annuals for the porch railing and planted them in planters yesterday as well.

Flowers for Mother's Day

Virtual flowers for Cop Car on this Mother's Day.

The crabapple looks to be doing really well this year - it isn't even blooming yet, those are just the buds.
This is the only picture that wasn't taken yesterday afternoon

The phlox over by the swamp took a couple of extra days to bloom. The specs of red are English primrose and to the far right are lupine foliage from seeds a couple of years ago

English Primrose

Rosalie Figge iris. The only reason it is blooming is I bought it a couple of weeks ago with buds on it to plant in the newest garden (post of planting).

The daffs are doing well in their 2nd year

Tahiti

Un-named from a mixture

 

Blue Jacket Hyacinths. Unfortunately they don't make scratch-n-sniff monitors or I could send the beautiful scent to you. The redish foliage is one of the peonies

I'm happy that the catbird pair are back and have once again claimed the rhodie as their home.

Mother Nature sure timed all those beautiful blooms right.

Beautiful Day for Yardwork

Yesterday was a beautiful day that reached the low 70's. It was a bit breezy, but not windy, and the humidity was 15% (not a typo, we have had a lot of desert dry humidity levels this spring). I had a coupon for the local TSC that expires at the end of the month, so decided it would be a good day to get humus/manure and work on the new garden I put in last fall.

I didn't think to take pictures until part way thru the project. I started by pulling back the cedar mulch and adding humus/manure to the new area from the tree towards my position. This was where all new soil had been added last year (it is on a slope). The corner where all the leaves are in the first picture, was never filled iwth soil, so that area took a bunch - I ended up dumping in 7 or 8 of the 11 bags of humus/manure in that area.

While I was filling that corner, I decided to run down to Agway and see if they had any plants. I ended up with 3 peonies that are not the same as what I placed in the roadside garden; Alertie, Edulis Superba and Festiva Maxima. Yes, I still need to cut down those two small rocks in the corner :)

While at Agway, I saw a couple of iris I couldn't live without; Rosalie Figge (a rebloomer), Black is Black and Presby's Crown Jewel (another rebloomer). Additionally, I got some Flutter Rose Pink pincushion flowers (scabiosa) to add between the tree and the 1st Rose of Sharon (planted last fall)

One of the times I went in/out of the back door, Rita decided she wanted out (only 2nd time this year). I had to keep the youngsters at bay since they would easily get out of the fence.

Spot is always more disappointed than Rainey that I wouldn't let her out too.

However, as I was taking Spot's picture, Rita turned around and came back to the door wanting back in. Not sure why, although there was some noise from the neighbor's, there wasn't much and I didn't see any other cats around. No biggie, I let her back in and I continued with the above project.

One and Done - Almost

No, this isn't  another vaccine thread - LOL

Last Sunday was a nice day and the ground on the north side of the house had thawed enough to get the last landscape timber in

The worst part was un-spooling and re-spooling 100' of extension cord to run the drill for the 3 holes to pound in the rebar. Will need to wait for a while before the complete finish work of staining the timbers to match the tiers.

Was going to go to the big city yesterday and pick up pea gravel that should match existing stuff. But, on the way to the dump the truck threw a check engine light. I was only about a mile from the local dealership where I get all my work done, so dropped it off and told them to work it in whenever since I have the car. On Saturdays they just have a big enough crew to get the day's appointments done, and don't have a shuttle driver, but they managed to get me home anyway.

While I was Concord (not picking up gravel :), I got a call from them. They had a cancellation so had gotten the truck in. Diagnosis was an O2 sensor and they had one in stock so I told them to go ahead. Later that afternoon they came to get me and the truck is all better.

The only thing that could have gone better is if the truck had thrown the code when I took it in for state inspection, recall work and to swap out the snows for summer tires two Fridays ago - but definitely not complaining.

No More Plastic

Since I put in the driveway garden, the north side of it had plastic, pound in edging to separate the grass (weeds) and the pea stone. I knew it wasn't a long-term solution, and sure enough, over the winter part of it heaved badly. No, I had not yet touched the edging in that first picture:

A week ago Saturday, I stopped at a BBS to pick up some light duty landscape timbers. Sunday I started the project by pulling out the edging, raking back the pea gravel, and removing the sod.

The extension cord was for drilling holes in the timbers so I could drive in rebar to help stabilize and keep them in place.

I got all the timbers put into place and back filled the outside. Well, except for the last 8' piece by the propane tanks. That area of the ground was still frozen as it is in full shade.

Yesterday, after returning home from getting my shot, I was able to work the ground to put in the last timber

I have to get pea stone that matches what is already in there. So far I haven't found any, but the home and garden stores are just getting in their yard supplies. I'll let the timbers rest for a couple of weeks before staining them to match the stain on the tiers.

Just a Few Tidbits

On 3/21 I was doing some garden clean up - cutting stalks down and remoing leaf cover from over bulbs (wherever the snow wasn't anyway). The Voodoo Sedum in the roadside garden (full afternoon sun) was already starting up, along with a few bulbs in the shrub garden.

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On 3/22 and 3/23, even with snow melting our outdoor humidity was extremely low. The only reason I realized it was that they said something on the news. Sure enough, from my weather station - 8% humidity (which was in line with what the local news was saying), and a low for the day of 5% humidity :O

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Dropped the truck off first thing this past Friday to have the snow tires rotated off for summer tires. Also had some recall work done and state inspection (which it passed with no extra work).

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Yesterday I went to BBS in Concord and picked up some landscape timbers (light duty) to coral some pea gravel. Depending on how workable the ground is, may get them installed today. Will post pics of the work, assuming I remember.

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The land next door has gone up for sale. This is normally wet/swamp land, so technically should be unbuildable. However, between the drought last year, and the low snow and rain totals over this past winter, it is pretty dry. Although right now it has a small stream going straight down the middle of it that dumps into the drainage ditch at the edge of my lot, someone could get lucky and get a build permit. Someone had bought it years ago but it has never done anything but hold abandoned vehicles (1 at a time) and they finally gave it to the town in lieu of taxes (or the town took it, I don't know which). I had been half watching for the town to put it up for auction, but apparently missed it. A Texas bank got it for under $4k according to the tax records. Now they are asking for 5.5x that amount. Toying with the idea of putting in an offer. Part of me wants to, but another part says I have better things to do with my money. One consideration is if someone does get lucky and build, that could be an issue for my drainage during wet years. Just need to do some more mulling.

That is pretty much the exciting stuff that has been going on around here, hope everyone has a Happy Easter!

Iceberg Progress

We've had some warm weather for the last week so the iceberg shrunk dramatically in size

3/20/21 (original)

3/23/21
3/26/21 - this is the day I was able to remove the rest of the poles that were frozen into the ground at the backside. This allowed me to straighten that edge so I could get the accumulated water to run out. Since it was supposed to rain that night, it was good timing.

First thing yesterday morning I straightened out the tent garage cover so I could roll the rest of the iceberg off the tent garage cover - looks like it was the only thing keeping the cover from taking off in Friday night's high winds. The cover was in a ball around the ice as all the edges had come out from under the blocks that were holding them down. Once I got the cover semi straightened out, I walked around under the cover to get most of the water off so the wind could dry it up.

Doesn't look like much compared to the first photo, but it has to be 100+ pounds of ice cube. Picture taken after I had straightened out enough of the cover to be able to roll the ice toward the fence (downhill thankfully)

Texted the dude just after noon that it was all but dry and he came and picked it up. Meanwhile the iceberg will continue melting out at the edge of the yard.

Coming Down

Friday evening the doorbell rang. Yes, that is odd, I rarely have visitors . Those that I do have, I am expecting and am out in the driveway before they are even out of their vehicle. Given the above, and looking out the window to see a car in the driveway (means it wasn't a neighbor), I expected the person to be selling something.

Upon opening the front door, a guy was standing there, and he started out with, "I know this is a strange question, . . . " No, he wasn't a long lost family member or anything, but a dude that was interested in the collapsed tent garage. He was wondering if I wanted to sell the cover (which although stretched, is still in good shape). He has one of the older, stronger frames, but his cover is shot. After telling him I thought a former coworker was going to take it, I got his name and number in case she decided not to (after all, the frame is shot).

I got ahold of said friend and she said she had gotten a good frame from someone else over the winter, and it is neither the right shape or size for the cover. I texted the guy and he came over yesterday to disassemble the thing. The last couple of days I had thought about seeing if I could pull the frame forward into the yard to free the ton of pellets trapped underneath, so dude's timing couldn't have been better.

Meeting of the minds

Problem, that iceberg. Well, at least it and the tarp that was holding it will catch the afternoon sun so should be small enough to move in a few days. Dud drives by here on a regular basis so he said he'd keep an eye on it and get the tarp when the ice melts. At least I can get to the pellets and plan on moving them into the house today.

Success With Water Drainage

Friday saw a lot of meltage with the top temp being 57* and receiving around 3" of rain.

This is the stream that developed in the back yard takin about 4:30 pm. The neighbors' lights help show that is all water.

Here you can see ponding that developed just off the corner of the path to the drainage area, both beside and behind the raised bed.

This was taken earlier in the day, about 12:30 pm and shows the stream that finally developed and broke thru the snow in the swamp. The running water is the dark part to the right. The slightly lighter portions are where the snow is still soaking in the water, but it too broke open later that afternoon

Oh, and pulling back some, you can see all the snow has melted off the landscape blocks (see previous post that showed the hump of snow  that it was before.

The garage stayed pretty dry and the front yard didn't flood to back up into the garage, so my mitigation efforts on Thursday were worth it.

And here is my lunch for Christmas day - nachos with chips, cheese, refried beans, salsa, black olives and sour cream. This is the "nice" picture, before I start eating, I smear the sour cream all over the top. I do have guacamole, but didn't feel like having any that time.

And, to end off the rain event, I woke up to snow on the railings and at the end of the ramp Saturday morning (about 3:30 am). Just a dusting, but considering it was still in the high 40's just 6-7 hours before, quite impressive that it was sticking.

Winter Prep, New Furniture Build and Things that go Bump

Saturday I spent several hours at the Ford dealership getting the Explorer's tires changed over to snows (mounted and balanced since I don't have spare rims), plus it needed an oil changed. While they were giving it a once over, they noticed there was no coolant in the reservoir. Did a leak test and found that a hose clamp had rotted and busted in two. At least it was an easy and cheap fix - although the compression test was more expensive than all the other work combined. However, I'm not complaining because if it was leaking into something, that would have been a whole bunch more. And, I used the rebate I got from when I put new tiers on the car last month, so that kept the out of pocket cost down a bit.

Beautiful day yesterday. Started out in long sleeve and sweatshirt, then down to short sleeves when I took the truck in, then down to a tank top as I did some yard work. I raked and used the leaf blower to get the leaves out from under the deck and mowed them into tiny pieces. Then raked out the drainage ditches and spread the leaves under the tree line in back. Took the planters off the back porch and consigned plant material to the compost bin and the dirt/roots went to fill in a couple of areas that needed soil. The yard is not quite ready for winter, I need to take the windmill down from the driveway garden - but it has been so nice the last couple of days, and it is supposed to continue into next week so I can leave it up for a while longer.

About 3 I went to do some reading in the sitting area out back and not 30 seconds after I sat down a chickadee literally flew into my arm. I saw the flash of feathers out of the corner of my eye just before I felt a soft bump and the little feet scrambling as he pushed back off. Tells you how long it has been since I've used that area - he was probably going to land on the chair and scope out the new water I put in the bird bath. Got to watch the feeding frenzy at the bird feeder that hangs off the back porch for a while before I started reading too.

In the evening, I started on putting together a bunch of parts that came in a 2'W x 4'L x 6" D box to make this.

Almost got the second one complete except it was missing 2 screws for the door hinges, so after a run to the hardware store today, I will get it finished. Then I gotta figure out how to get the huge entertainment center out of here so I can put the A/V cabinets in its place.