Bogieblog

Cleaning Up

Most of the snow that we received Tuesday night is gone as we had a couple of days of strong sun. Yesterday, although it was heavily overcast and threatening rain most of the day, I worked outside most of the day cleaning up flower beds. I found 2 of the invasive roses under the Rhododendron and Burning Bush in the shade garden, which I dug up. I took 2 extra trips to the dump to drop off leaves, old stalks, and branches that fell thru the winter.

While I was out at the dump, I stopped at farm & garden stores (essential businesses) to get bird seed. I found a Nanking Cherry that I couldn't live without (only a yearling), lavender and another rosemary plant. I potted up the cherry for now and need to pot up the lavender and rosemary today. And, I picked up a trellis/obelisk which I had the perfect usage for.

I also stopped at the grocery store for some perishables. I had to tell an 80 year old woman to back off at the register, even though they had tape marking off 6' intervals. She got huffy and called me the distance police. I just said it was for her safety and mine. She finally backed off - I have a feeling she won't be my best friend for a while LOL.

I got the windmill placed back into the driveway garden (I take it down during the winter as it is close to the roof dumpage area and directly in the path of snow removal). I also installed the trellis/obelisk over the Sweet Autumn Clematis (after pruning it severely) so that it has something to climb and doesn't spread 6' in all directions on the ground.

I still have a bunch of yard work to do at a later time, but it felt good to get something done. Today it is rainy and will stay in the low 40's, and we are to get mixed rain/snow several days this coming week, so it may be a while before I can work in the yard again.

Spring Green - Before the Snow

Friday night I went out and raked leaves from the side yard shrub garden. This had two purposes, get the wet leaves onto a drier portion of the lawn so that they can dry, and remove the heavy leaf layer to allow spring growth to push up thru the bark mulch. While doing that, I noticed daffodil greens poking up. We had high winds Friday night, so the leaves dried out and yesterday, I mowed the leaves into mulch. Pictures taken yesterday (Saturday) afternoon.

Daffodil greens in the shrub garden (notice that they are on the yellowish side from being under the leaf litter)

Daffodils were also poking up in the back yard under the trees - the tops are greener since they have gotten tall enough they have seen some sun.

My region is supposed to get 6-12" of snow on Tuesday - the day my bike is supposed to be delivered from the dealership. I can't reschedule as they are encouraging people to get their bikes out of storage in case they have to close their doors for a while. I did move one snow blower into the shed yesterday to make room for the bike (when they were forecasting 4" of snow), but will probably pull it out to the tent garage so I can run them both out of gas for (hopefully) summer storage.

Bounce Back

A couple of weeks ago my poor fir shrub was flattened by a good amount of sleet and freezing rain.

After several smaller snow and sleet events, it finally got rid of the layers and bounced back and looks much better (pic taken 2/17/20).

Invasive Rose Control

Friday, an off-Friday for me it was in the mid 40's. To get outside, I decided to do some work on the wild roses that are trying to invade my yard from the swamp next door. The wild roses are of the invasive, non-native Multiflora species. Although pretty and fragrant when in bloom, they will take over and spread if left alone. They have quite long thorns and will mound, vine and intertwine to impenetrable thickets. It was quite intimidating just figuring out a method of attack.

Before picture

The work was slow and treacherous as the snow was packed down and icy. There is a stream that runs along the outside of the fence but for most of the way the fence is too close to the bank to get good footing. I was on the outside of the fence for the first 4 fence posts, then did the rest leaning over the fence from the inside. Had to be careful of footing as I did not want to end up face first in that briar patch!

This picture is after I got the section that I could do standing outside the fence. I neglected to take pictures after working from inside the fence but it took two truck loads to get all the branches/vines to the dump.

For anyone who has a project like this, a few do's and don'ts

• Do have very protective and thick gloves. Gardening gloves won't protect your hands from the long, thick thorns. Pigskin is a good choice although the gloves I used were deerskin (which have several layers plus palm protectors). These gloves did admirably at protection and I never got stuck by any thorns.

• Do where long sleeves with heavy material. My Carhardt jacket also did an admirable job of protecting me.
• Do make sure there are no gaps between the sleeve of your jacket and the wrist of your gloves.
• Do wear protective leggings. I wore thick long underwear and thick jeans. I still got stuck a couple of times, but barely. Probably would have been better to wear winter riding pants, but I was too lazy to get those on.
• Do wear grippy soled boots. You don't want to slip and slide and end up in sliding into the thickets!
• Do put your hair up in a bun (if you have long hair). When thorns latch onto hair, they will immediately twine thru and be a pain to get out. Even better if you can cover up your hair, but don't use a stocking hat - use leather or vinyl to reduce places the thorns can grab.
• Do wear safety glasses (or in my case, I wore reading glasses so I could see what the heck I was doing)
• Do NOT try to pull away if a thorn snags on your clothing or skin. The least damage will occur if you relieve the tension then gently turn away from the curve of the thorn.
• Do NOT put the waste into your nice vehicle if you can help it. Sure, I put them into my Explorer, but I didn't have much choice and I bought it knowing it was going to be used as a working truck, not as a nice SUV. Use an open bed truck or trailer if possible.
• Do cut up long branches/vines before loading into your SUV :).  Also cut off sturdy side stems. Then roll the branches together to create a compact mass that can be loaded at one time. This assumes of course, that your gloves can stand up to that type of handling - which mine did. Even better if you can use a tarp, but that may not be practical (as in my case)

I'll have some cleaning up to do later in the season to get branches/vines that fall across the stream because some of the support system has been removed, but I'm happy for now.

Trees and Birds

Last Tuesday I went out to check on the bird feeder and saw this in the back yard

That limb was 14.5' long. There hadn't been any wind, nor was there a snow load, so I assumed the dead tree is just starting to break down. When I went to remove the limb, I saw that it hadn't actually landed on the chair, but had landed but down first at some point (probably during the heavy snow the previous week), then fallen over after the snow had melted the previous evening. The hole is 9" deep and the but end of the limb had dirt and mulch on it.

Guessing this is the tree it came from

Later that same day, I heard the call of a big woodpecker as it was flying overhead. To my delight, a Pileated landed in trees just to the right of the one that had had lost its limb. The first 2 pictures are at a slight zoom, and then cropped to bring the bird "closer". The 3rd picture is at a high zoom

As if that wasn't good enough, after I quit taking pictures I saw another one coming over the trees, and it landed behind the first. That distance was a real stretch, and this is the best picture I could get

And to end things, here is Spot being cute. She had originally burrowed completely under the pillows, but by the time I grabbed my phone, she had moved out some.

Busy Black Friday 2019

Started out early Friday morning scraping the old caulk out of the tub and surround. For some reason the plumber had used a clear caulk that yellowed badly. I was finally tired of looking at the dinginess and decided since I didn't have to make it to work for a couple more days, then I could sponge bath on a couple of them to complete this project. Didn't take a shower that morning so it was dry to start with. Scraped, and scraped, then doused with alcohol (rubbing - not drinking), scraped, doused, scraped. Then finally I got out my pet dryer, which is designed to blow water off a pet's coat instead of just use heat to dry. The drier does put out some warmth, so got some more gunk softened and taken off and rubbed down with alcohol again. After 2.5 hours, I had it as good as it was going to get. Used the dryer on it some more then set an oscillating fan to blow on it while I did other things.

Moved the snow blower out of the way and moved the bike in position for the dealer to pick it up that morning. Read while I was eating a mid morning snack of chocolate cream pie (my Thanksgiving hosts had sent a piece home with me) then hand washed some dedicates and hung them on the drying rack downstairs. Then I went outside and took down the windmill in the driveway garden before the snow Sunday since it is in line with the snow dump from the roof - plus I blow the snow in that direction. Instead of ensconcing the windmill in the metal shed as I did last year, I attached the base of it on the stump of the willow tree at the other side of the house.

I had just gotten inside when I thought I heard a car door. Looked out the window and sure enough the dealership van was in the driveway. Opened up the garage door and watched him get the bike in the van. The garage always seems so much bigger when the bike is out of it (today I moved the other snow blower in there, but it still has more room than when the bike is in there).

My Black Friday shopping consisted of going to Tractor Supply (<5 miles from me) and getting cat litter which was on sale for about $5 off a pail. Wandered around looking at stuff and got a pair of Carhartt gloves to go with the Carhartt jacket I was wearing. Stopped and got AA batteries to replace those in the electronic door locks (don't want those quitting on the pet sitter) and D batteries to rejuvenate the motion activated light in the stove room. Last stop was Aubuchon's to get caulk for the tub (10 year antimicrobial - in white).

After about 4.5 hours of futzing around (including installing the batteries I had obtained), I finally decided it was time to caulk. Proof that I did something.

It is supposed to take 24 hours to dry, but this morning it was still tacky (okay, so that was about 15 hours). I put the fan in the bathroom doorway, pointing out, to get warmer air to move in better and help it set up. I'll find out if it is good tomorrow morning when I take my shower before going to my HOG meeting.

And to end this post, here are cute pictures of Rainey in the trash can beside the desk. I heard rustling and couldn't figure out where it was coming from. Usually it means one of the cats is playing with computer cords, or a toy that is entangled in said cords. Finally Rainey popped her head up.

Maples are Strutting their Stuff

In 2017 I planted 3 maples that should be colorful. All the maples in the back yard are of a type that go yellow then brown in a short time and never look really pretty, so I wanted some that would give the reddish color that New England maples are so famous for. Last year, the Burgundy Belle was a bust and I didn't even bother taking pictures of it. The Autumn blaze was more brownish, but the October Glory gave some really good color.

This year, October Glory has yet to even start turning, but the Burgundy Belle is putting on a nice show

And Autumn Blaze is too

October Glory is waiting until Late October apparently - at least I'll have something to post in a couple of weeks :)

Fall Foliage 2019

Thursday I took Rita to the vet for some issues (she is okay, or at least we can't find anything wrong and she is rebounding). The drive to Peterborough is along a nicely scenic Rt 202, despite the heavy overcast, so on the way back I stopped a couple of times to take pictures.

My first stop was just a couple miles from the vet at a Peterborough dam on the Contoocook river

This Russian Olive is at the place I parked to get the dam pictures. Yes, it is an invasive non-native species, but has very pretty berries.

These next 2 pictures were in Greenfield and you can tell I stopped in the breakdown lane.

These next 3 were in Bennington along the Contoocook River. There is a "boat launch" just large enough for canoes and kayaks, so I stopped there to take pictures of an island in the river

And the far bank was looking pretty nice too. Too bad I just had my phone and not my camera as I couldn't zoom enough to really get the impact.

This is ome autumn dressed fungus at home :)

Autumn Crocus Happenings

Yesterday morning was our first real frost and the coldest morning of the season at 32* (same temp so far this morning). This picture of the Giant Autumn Crocus was taken yesterday afternoon.

The Saffron crocus (croci?) are beginning to send up shoots. I see 2 shoots in the picture, but there were several more in the planter.

Fall Flowers

Pictures from last Monday. First up is the swamp side of the house with Sweet Autumn clematis - I really need to clean that area up and make it a real garden

Hydrangea tree blooms are blushing - those have spent a couple of weeks in the white stage

Yesterday while mowing, I noticed these hydrangea tree blooms on the back side (pretty much full shade) are greeen. These two pictures are the only ones taken yesterday.

The burning bush is starting to turn

Turtle heads are still going strong as are the wild New England asters behind. The bees and butterflies are thick amongst these flowers

Next is the shrub/perennial garden on the opposite side of the yard. This is some sort of rudbekia - I failed to get a pot that had a label when I bought these a couple of weeks ago.

Unsure what these flowers are - pretty sure they are not a rudbeckia though. Maybe some sort of coneflower (although the flowers are a bit smaller than most coneflowers (echinacea)

Winterberry berries

Roadside garden from the property line. In the front, center are some mums I potted (red, white and purple)

From the end closest to the driveway

Fall cabbage that I put in a planter (can be seen in picture above)

Volunteer pokeberry. Yes, it is poisonous, but it is native and has very pretty fall colors in the stems and berries. It is actually outside the garden itself, on the property line (if you look at the first roadside garden pic, you can see some green berries and leaves hanging over at the very left). I will yank it in a couple of weeks.

Oh, I almost forgot, one more picture taken yesterday of a Giant Autumn crocus starting to bloom in the roadside garden - just started poking up on Friday. It is located just to the left and front of the sedum - which in Monday's picture there was absolutely no sign of it.