More Outdoor cleaning...

Above. The shot before I started my second day of clean up around the old outhouse. 

I cleaned out the little outhouse and pulled all the buried blocks that made a walkway to it. The poor thing does have a list to it now. The cost of fixing it would be too prohibitive at this point. I thought of painting up the door and fixing the lacey curtains for one last season.

Yes, the walkway is a mishmash of different sized pieces of broken concrete pavers I found behind the garage years ago. I figured to reuse those and all of the bricks I found tossed back in that area. Putting them back down is like working with a puzzle.

I dug out the plants that had been next to the outhouse. One of the peony bushes had been there since 1997. The root ball was monstrous! Pictured is a portion of the root ball. It weighed over 25 lbs. I have two more peonies on the other side of the outhouse that explode with blossoms each spring.

I do love those flowers so I may break this up and put them in other places.

I also removed a huge root ball of Blue Flag Iris. It was huge and apparently loved the spot it was in so much that it expanded. I put a small plant there in 2016. I may break up the roots and see if any neighbor is interested in it.

Below. Done. 

Charlie is watching a hole in the wood in the corner of the outhouse. Apparently there must be mice living in the walls. He stood guard there for a good part of the day while I was digging about.

It's funny how barren this spot looks right now and how it will change in the next month or so.

This fall I'll split up the daffodils I have on the east side of the house and move some to be near this garden. I do love seeing the daffies come up each spring with their yellow cheer.

Over in my Red Shed Shady garden, the Virginia Bluebells are starting to emerge! They are not too far off the mark for showing up. Usually the don't emerge until the first week of April.

I have so many other projects to get done, but I am happy to have finished up the work I've neglected for a few years.

I know it is too early to plant flowers, but I'm already planning my zinnia garden. Yippee!

Never a dull moment

Kaboom. This is the oak that fell next to the old red shed.

In the first photo, you can see the wood stacked up by Olive

and her hubby in late April.
A slippery elm fell over after
a wet heavy snowfall.

The old oak fell right on a metal fence post and drove it another foot into the ground. The thing I love about my enduro soft fencing is that I can repair it so easily. I just rerouted the fence to go around the fallen tree and it was all good until my neighbor came down.

This photo shows the base of the tree. The one part that is leaning to the right is also dead and hung up in another oak. It may come down yet this winter or years from now. There is nothing holding it in the ground.

My neighbor and I decided to just ignore that for now. I will have to hunt around and get someone with some equipment and insurance to come out and do some work for me.  A dozer could push the whole works over and be done with it.

As it is, it may one day fall and crush my little shed.

Justin did some quick and hard work. He also set aside some nice oak firewood that he'll pick up at some point.

I spent all day cutting up branches with a nipper and rolling rotten chunks of wood to the fire. At least it was 34 degrees out so it was comfortable working hard. I am pooped! 

Tomorrow the neighborhood children will come to trick or treat and show Rich and I their costumes! What nice people I have on our road! Parents making sure that the housebound veteran gets to see kids in costumes. I am really quite lucky. There are 3 homes on our ridge that have children now. What a delight. 

Charlie got a costume to greet children with.
HE is not impressed.

Then he yawned and I got this! He looks frightening. But he isn't.

My cellphone catches more than one shot when the subject is moving. I thought the yawning was hilarious.

Never a dull moment at our place.