Bye Bye Trees?

I'm going to be saying goodbye to some old friends later today.

The first shot is of two pines, one is completely dead and the other is getting there. Both have been the gateway to drive through after coming down the long driveway. They have been here forever and I'll probably miss them.

I won't miss wondering about which way they will fall in a windstorm though. They do get to Hula Dancing in harsh winter winds.

The shot from the other day is one of the pines.

Sorry for the repeat as I didn't know this tree would be cut down today. 

The trees have entertained us for a long time with all sorts of Woodpeckers visiting. The Pileated Woodpeckers were the most fun to watch! They are so huge.

This view is from the West facing bedroom window upstairs. 

The trees are so tall and have survived so many wind storms. They have root rot and cracks at their bases along with holes where Woodpeckers have drilled for insects.

Last weekend, another one of these trees had its top broken off by a storm less than a 50 yards from these two.

These trees have hung my laundry for ages. I will miss their shade and amazing blooms in the spring.

Maybe I'll think about planting a small bush in its place. I don't want to see it go, but I don't wish for it to come crashing down on the house either.

 

This shot is from 2006 when we allowed our very pregnant donkey to roam the yard and she sought shade under my laundry. I had to rewash everything, but it was pretty funny at the time.

I will miss the sweet smelling blossoms these trees put out each spring near my birthday....

However, as much as I admire them, my pals have to go. There used to be another one not far from where the Subaru is parked. One afternoon it just tipped over and landed in that parking spot.

I wasn't parked there as it was not really a parking spot until I had the driveway redone last year.

The next shot is a photo from 2013 after a 3" rain deluge and high winds. That WAS the garage. 

I'm also hoping the clean up of that crushed building will be in my list of projects in the next year or so.

Lastly, a photo from 2007 after the most devastating storm we've had in all the years we lived here. It took over 4 months of constantly sawing, piling, and burning to clean the yard up.

Shots of the day after the storm and a month later. 

It took another year to clean up most of the mess in the forest around us.

So there it is. It should be a spectacle today to watch.

Garden Garden

I do have a small veggie garden. Here is a photo of it this spring. We cut the size way down from all the past years to about half. 

What you are seeing below is the area we use for a garden. On two sides it has hot wire for the mule's pasture. The red gates are what we call a 'catch' pen. Mules are sorted there for riding or trimming. When I pick one, they all want to come.

Out in the field is a round bale feeder from the days of long ago. I still use it to put hay in during the winter to keep them from trampling on it in muddy or damp weather.

The tree line in back is my upper neighbor's pasture for her goats. Notice! NO weeds!

This photo is also just before Justin came to till the garden. 

After tilling. I planted squash, cukes, some odd flowers, and corn very late. A huge concern was the heat and dry June we were having.

July 3rd

So I'd done some watering in the evening and wrung my hands. This corn was NOT knee high by the 4th of July. To the left of the garden, I keep trimming the weeds with a scythe.

July 13th. I have free range tomatoes coming up from last year. We have had rain here and there to the tune of 3 inches at a time. 

July 22

Believe it or not, the yard was just mowed a few days ago here. Yuck, looks like I have to do this by hand today. Siera is the mule in the field. 

The corn is much taller and we have hopes for sweet corn! The cukes are just budding and so are the squash.

I had squash last year, lots of them. So many that some began to turn and I had to toss them. I rolled those mushy ones out into the pasture where about 10 plants are flowering. So, I will have more than one kind of squash.

Here is the north of our house. Nice and tidy looking. The 4 wheeler is my trash hauler, weed hauler, and fence supply hauler.

Here is the part I usually don't let anyone see. The ugly crushed garage and... piles of projects that 'were' going to get done. In the weeds rests a camper that someone was 'gonna' take apart and recycle and take the stove out and put it ... um, somewhere. It simply has sat in the weeds for many years. The garage was to be torn down and he was 'gonna' salvage 'stuff' that was in there.  

To me, it is nothing but a huge eyesore and I have looked into hiring someone to come and tear it down to the foundation and clean the area up.

There is a nice concrete pad under the garage that would make a great spot to set a tiny building on as a studio or summer guest room.

The Boss keeps telling me he will 'get to this' pretty soon. 10 years later? 

So I create my own pretty spaces where I can enjoy color and beauty and ignore the ugly as I can do nothing about it without causing a huge problem. 

My house is my castle and so are my little gardens. 
Next year, I will go back to having sunflowers a gazillion zinnias, and cosmos. I just need places to put them!

I do love gardening. I love creating pretty spaces.

Oh!

I'll catch up on the Forest Garden aka by the kids as the Secret Garden later.