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What are you doing today, II

Melensdad said:
All of the tilled beds are now covered with weed barrier!!!

All, BUT ONE, have 2 layers of weed barrier. One only has fabric. The rest of them have paper + fabric.

There is also a hexagon shaped flower bed in the center of the vegetable garden, that has no weed barrier at all. But that is reserved for sunflower seeds that the lovely Mrs_Bob wants to plant there. Apparently she bought several varieties, heights, colors of sunflowers and has a plan. I can't put down weed barrier if she wants to seed it.

There are 5 remaining beds that remain untouched. No plans to plant them. But I will cut down the vegetation, till it in. Cover it with weed barrier. EVENTUALLY. Sure I will. At least that is the plan. If I get weed barrier down on those, like I have on all the others, it will make the job in any future year considerably easier should we want to go back to larger scale planting. I'm actually wondering if putting in something like blueberry bushes or other perennial crops, into those last 4 beds might be smart?

But for now, I'm just happy the other beds are ready for veggies.
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Putting in permanent fruiting plants like blueberries, blackberries, even grapes make gardening more interesting, more "fruitful" as it were and more rewarding. Should also be less work. Plant permanent stuff to the north or west to give the veggies morning sun with afternoon shade.
Don't forget straw berries. Relatively easy and worth any work needed.

One vegetable that requires almost nothing is Aspera grass. Plant raised above grade 4-6 inches, in pure manure. Wait 3 years before harvesting.
 
Yesterday I went back out and planted more.

Our raised bed garden is a bunch of long narrow beds + 2 large square beds. The large square beds are for spreading plants like melons, pumpkins, etc.

I thought we were careful when we bought our plants, making sure to NOT over-buy. Well I was wrong. And then a friend gave us more plants, so that compounds the problems. All the beds I cleared and prepared are NOT ENOUGH and I still don't have any of the pumpkins or watermelons in the ground yet.

Today I'll be heading out early to get started on cleaning the remaining rectangular beds. 5 of them. Each is approximately 4' wide by 10' long. And they do vary slightly in size, a couple might be closer to 3' wide. These are the smallest of the boxed in beds in the garden. But the plan was never to plant those this year.

Probably making a trip to Tractor Supply for some manure/compost amendments to add to those beds too. The good news is our weather is cool. Temps to be in the low/mid-60's for a few days, that will make for more comfortable work when I get out the tiller (again).

Oh, and fencing this evening.
 
One more bed to clean out.

30 bags of manure and soil have been added to amend the garden beds.

All beds have been tilled, twice, at a minimum.

5 beds still need weed barrier.

6 beds still need planting.

I did trim off a bunch of overhanging branches from the one big tree that provides afternoon shade to 1/2 the garden, but the photo is a 'before' photo.

Paths need to be raked clean, then sprayed down with weed killer.

Paths probably need to be re-topped with crushed limestone too. But I doubt I'll get that much energy this year.

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My son's schedule is off of mine. I could have used his help.
He and I went to Lowe's at 6AM. Bought lumber and 720# of sacrete and lumber.
He fell asleep. The Mrs and I did all the work. She is a machine at doing concrete.
 
I've spent the better part of the day with my right foot elevated and iced.
The damn metatarsal pain in the side of it.
At least when it hits in the ball of my foot, I can walk.
Had to call off work for tonight.
I was actually looking forward to being there 😕
 
Back from 4 nights 5 days in the woods on a fishing and camping trip. This morning I have to take my youngest son for an appointment then it's demo day. I'm deconstructing an old fifth wheel camper and turning it into a flat deck trailer. I started last week and within 20 minutes had half of the interior stripped. I have a plan, a sledgehammer and a sawzall. It's free dump day and I plan on making a couple trips.
 
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We get to pick up Kobe today and keep him until Tuesday morning. This is an unusual schedule for us but we are happy about it. There will be a brief intermission on Saturday, for about 5 hours, while he attends a birthday party for his full blood older sister. She was adopted by a nearby family and the grandma has 'grandparent' rights to her. So Kobe knows his sister well and it's good they will be celebrating together.

But we also have the lovely Mrs_Bob's older brother & S-I-L coming into town for a long weekend (they arrive tomorrow).

So we have lots of of plans in place for spending time with family until Tuesday.
 
I spent the day demolishing a rotten fifth wheel camper I'm turning into a flat deck trailer. It was free dump day today so I took advantage of it.
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I had planned on going to the races this evening however.....Screenshot_20250521_190858_Facebook.jpgScreenshot_20250521_190839_Facebook.jpg

A wildfire started next to the track canceling the races tonight. I'm keeping a close eye on it as it's only about 5km from my house and headed this way. The wind is strong and coming from the east.
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A 17# whole brisket has been trimmed. The tip was sectioned off for 'burnt ends' and the flat will be for slicing. It's in the smoker now. I'll need to run to town to get more pellets. I don't have enough to last all day. This should be ready for dinner tonight.
 
It was f$&$&)g cold yesterday at the track. Strong northern winds made it very uncomfortable. Like only +2 celcius without the wind.

I am waiting for it to warm up before getting aggressive with the camper demo. I think a chainsaw may be involved today as the reciprocating saw just wasn't cutting it (no pun intended) and my back and shoulders couldn't take more than a few swings with a sledgehammer.

I'm taking my scouts troop out to the log cabin for the day tomorrow. We're hiking 3km over a trail that hasn't been used in 2 years. Then making a camp meal and hiking back out later in the afternoon after some activities. We can't commit to an overnight trip this spring so unfortunately.
 
No clue for today, basically I'm doing whatever the lovely Mrs_Bob tells me to do.

It is supposed to get to the mid-60s(F) today so getting some more plants into the garden would be a good thing. We have 2 flats remaining to plant. I also have some annual flowers and some perennial plants that need to get into the ground.

Here brother & S-I-L arrived yesterday while I was at fencing.

The brisket I smoked was awesome, they started eating without me, which was the plan as I arrived home late.

Right now I'm hiding in the lower family room with the dogs, enjoying the quiet time before everyone else wakes up.
 
We only have this 1/3 acre subdivision lot. However, being a corner lot, I have overpopulated it with large bushes and trees for privacy and shade comfort. A few days ago, I started trimming and limbing. I have a 16 foot diameter circle in the backyard that gets so little sunlight grass won't grow there. So, I generally cover it with ground up shredded stuff using a large, and noisy, vertical woodchipper.
I am on my third day, and the piles of limbs and pieces have filled the space three times. It is backbreaking work
to lug the stuff about and cut the pieces small enough that the grinder will accept it.
I hope today is the end of it.
 
I've been working on the fifth wheel demo all day. The wiring and insulation are mostly removed along with the siding. I've been using the chainsaw to cut the walls away but somehow the roof is still up. Only thing supporting it is a 1x1 vertical piece in the corners of the ceiling and wall. I gutted the bathroom in about 20 minutes with a sledgehammer 🤣
 

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in-laws and lovely Mrs_Bob left to take Kobe to a birthday party.

I finished laying in the weed barrier and planting the last few beds in the garden. Then watered it.

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I spent the day hiking with my scout troop out to our log cabin and teaching them to prepare 3 different types of food over the fire using cast iron. We actually carried the cast iron pots in with us over a 3km trail. It started raining just as we were leaving the cabin to hike back to the trailhead. We got soaked.

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I went to camp today got the cistern pump working the hose burst 3x must not be sunlight resistant it shattered when i tried to shortened it, had dinner and went to lowes to get new hose and fittings. next trip to camp monday morning to fix it so my wife has hot water to do the dishes we ate on today.
 
NorthernRedneck said:
. . . It started raining just as we were leaving the cabin to hike back to the trailhead. We got soaked.
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2 things: you live in a really beautiful area. Sorry we didn't have the time/energy to visit you when the lovely Mrs_Bob and I rode our motorcycles around the Great Lakes and passed pretty close to you.

But also ...

I learned this while hiking east to west across England, following Hadrians wall, and I've seen this attributed to the Norwegians and the Swedish, so I don't know who it belongs to, but the saying is something like . . . There is no such thing as bad weather, only bad clothing.
 
Yes. That was too bad that we missed each other when you came through here. The thing with planning for the weather up here this time of year is that you practically have to carry 4 seasons worth of clothes for a one day hike. There was frost in the morning when we went out. Sun was shining. All the forecasts were calling for mid teens celcius with only a 30% chance of rain. We hiked in 3km over a very rocky up and down trail that hadn't been used in years so had to be mindful of what we were carrying.
 
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Neighbour was repairing his roof gutters and went to help him. Descended from balcony to the roof below, and stepped right on a rusty nail on a piece of wood. About 3/4" totally rusted nail. Pulled it out and jumped back, jumped on a bike and went to hospital emergency room. Got the tetanus shot and some medicine. Last night was alright but this morning it started to pain. Cannot put the foot down. Using crutches. Lol.
Oh, and power cut from the morning too. Fun!!!,😭🤣
 
Crumpy spent most of yesterday power washing the front and back porch's (concrete) and about 1/3of the reclaimed brick patios.
She is scrubbing moss off of the bricks and carefully blowing out the dirty sand between them.
The sand, about enough to fill a wheelbarrow several times. It goes into the compost bin.
I will put about 12 bags of play sand down and sweep it in.
We do this about every four or five years.
Should be done by Memorial Day.
 
waybomb said:
They sell a sand like substance that you sweep into the voids between the bricks and gets hard. Nothing grows in it. And the wind doesn't blow it away.
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No name?
No source? We would still have to power wash the moss.
But thanks anyway.
 
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