We had lots of rain both Saturday and Sunday, but we did manage to make it out on Saturday. I planted sweet potatos, raspberries and sun flowers. We also picked up straw to put down between the beds.
The big news is that Chris passed the electrical inspection on his first try! Now we are just waiting for Dominion power to hook it up.
Chris had another big win this weekend when the riding lawnmower broke. It would start but wouldn't go. He proped it up on a muck bucket(accident waiting to happen!) and crawled underneath. Just one trip to the hardware store later and he made it work again! That sure saved us some dollars.
Monday, May 24, 2010
Monday, May 17, 2010
Ahh, Rain
Another rainy Monday! WooHoo, it is so nice not to have to haul water for the garden.
I have been going out a couple of days a week to do the weeding and watering. The Lateglow strawberries are about the size of marbles, it is so exciting to see progress. We got pumpkins and gourds and rhubarb in last week, just waiting for them to poke out of the soil.
Chris spent a good part of Saturday finishing up his temporary electrical pole. He is ready for inspection this week. Then it will take the power company about 3 weeks to get the service hooked up.
We had lots of visitors this week. Heidi dropped by for a garden tour on Thursday, she thought we should hire some of those workers who stand outside 7-11 to help clear things away. Damian, Elsie and Brent came by on Saturday and had lunch with us. Brent told us there is no way we would get this cleaned up by ourselves and we should find some cheep labor to help out(7-11 guys??). John, Mary and Michelle are the first family members to come by since we made the big purchase. We gave them a tour on Sunday and I think they left in shock and awe as well ;) Michelle went home with a lovely granite parting gift.
It has been a quiet couple of weeks lately. Now that the garden is in, I am happy to just stay in that area of the land, where it seems very civilized.
I have been going out a couple of days a week to do the weeding and watering. The Lateglow strawberries are about the size of marbles, it is so exciting to see progress. We got pumpkins and gourds and rhubarb in last week, just waiting for them to poke out of the soil.
Chris spent a good part of Saturday finishing up his temporary electrical pole. He is ready for inspection this week. Then it will take the power company about 3 weeks to get the service hooked up.
We had lots of visitors this week. Heidi dropped by for a garden tour on Thursday, she thought we should hire some of those workers who stand outside 7-11 to help clear things away. Damian, Elsie and Brent came by on Saturday and had lunch with us. Brent told us there is no way we would get this cleaned up by ourselves and we should find some cheep labor to help out(7-11 guys??). John, Mary and Michelle are the first family members to come by since we made the big purchase. We gave them a tour on Sunday and I think they left in shock and awe as well ;) Michelle went home with a lovely granite parting gift.
It has been a quiet couple of weeks lately. Now that the garden is in, I am happy to just stay in that area of the land, where it seems very civilized.
Monday, May 3, 2010
Bring on the Rain
As I write this I am so thankful it is a rainy Monday. We planted the garden yesterday. My little seedlings totaled 60 tomato plants, 30 peppers, 4 artichoke, 8 eggplant, 12 watermelon, 12 cantalope. We also planted beans, cucumbers, squash, and zuchinni.
Chris spent the entire weekend working on a pole for temporary electrical service. He got the pole up, secured, several boxes mounted on the pole(don't aske me what they are all for), and two 8 foot grounding poles pounded into the ground. Is is almost ready for the inspection.
I have my fingers crossed that with electricity, we will be able to get water from the well. I have been hauling water from home to the few plants we have in the garden. It has not been without it's problems. Jackson and I had several milk jugs full of water and were stopping by the grocery store, when rounding a corner we heard "thud" then the unmistakeable "glug, glug, glug" of milk jugs emptying. When we got to the store, we were leaving a trail as the water leaked out of the door jams. When we came out of the store, there was a puddle under my car. That was a week ago and now my car smells like fungus! Eeewwwwww
Chris spent the entire weekend working on a pole for temporary electrical service. He got the pole up, secured, several boxes mounted on the pole(don't aske me what they are all for), and two 8 foot grounding poles pounded into the ground. Is is almost ready for the inspection.
I have my fingers crossed that with electricity, we will be able to get water from the well. I have been hauling water from home to the few plants we have in the garden. It has not been without it's problems. Jackson and I had several milk jugs full of water and were stopping by the grocery store, when rounding a corner we heard "thud" then the unmistakeable "glug, glug, glug" of milk jugs emptying. When we got to the store, we were leaving a trail as the water leaked out of the door jams. When we came out of the store, there was a puddle under my car. That was a week ago and now my car smells like fungus! Eeewwwwww
Sunday, April 18, 2010
Progress
Where to start? We have had terrific weather in Northern Virginia and thus have had lots of time outdoors.
Chris fixed the hydraulics on the tractor and we used it to haul some dirt, but it tears up the yard too much, so we have been using old fashion shovels.
The garden is looking like a garden! We discovered the previous owners' compost pile and have some awesome dirt to fill the raised beds. How many people get that excited about dirt! So, the beds have dirt and the fence is up. This week we planted grapes and broccoli. We got some horse manuer from a friend and the composting has begun. (again, dirt. WooHoo!)
We made some nice discoveries as well. We have a big lilac bush that has white flowers. We have a nice looking fruit tree(type of fruit unknown). There are some things coming up which I think are several bunches of peonies and some that I think are Iris. Can't wait to see what colors come. We have a beautiful old dogwood. While walking along the driveway my friend Cheryl and I found.....asparagus!!! Dinner! It was delicious. The first photo below is our attempt at recycling. An old chair holds a dutch full of chili perfectly for cooking. The second photo is the blooming dogwood.
We have been working on dis-assembling the hoop barn for a friend to use, it is nice to have that thing cleaned out. We found a little hibachi grille, lots of canning jars, a card catalog, a box of bed springs, seats for a minivan and tons of snake skins. I hope to never see the hoop barn on our property again!
At the end of the afternoon on Sunday along with our friends Chris and Cheryl, we decided to take a few things from the house to the dumpster. Lo and behold, we made it into the house. What we found was most certainly as bad as we ever thought it could be. Floor to ceiling, wall to wall, stuff. The house is a framed only, 3Br 2 bath ranch style. There is plumbing, electrical outlets and lights, a shower, a nice fireplace and hearth. The amount of stuff is a bit overwhelming, but we have nothing but time to clean it out. Now our thoughts are shifting that we should build a small guest house or a garage to live in while we clean up and renovate the home that is already there. I am sure our ideas and plans will change daily. Two things we do know for certain is that we still love the property and we have a lot of work to do.
Chris fixed the hydraulics on the tractor and we used it to haul some dirt, but it tears up the yard too much, so we have been using old fashion shovels.
The garden is looking like a garden! We discovered the previous owners' compost pile and have some awesome dirt to fill the raised beds. How many people get that excited about dirt! So, the beds have dirt and the fence is up. This week we planted grapes and broccoli. We got some horse manuer from a friend and the composting has begun. (again, dirt. WooHoo!)
We made some nice discoveries as well. We have a big lilac bush that has white flowers. We have a nice looking fruit tree(type of fruit unknown). There are some things coming up which I think are several bunches of peonies and some that I think are Iris. Can't wait to see what colors come. We have a beautiful old dogwood. While walking along the driveway my friend Cheryl and I found.....asparagus!!! Dinner! It was delicious. The first photo below is our attempt at recycling. An old chair holds a dutch full of chili perfectly for cooking. The second photo is the blooming dogwood.
At the end of the afternoon on Sunday along with our friends Chris and Cheryl, we decided to take a few things from the house to the dumpster. Lo and behold, we made it into the house. What we found was most certainly as bad as we ever thought it could be. Floor to ceiling, wall to wall, stuff. The house is a framed only, 3Br 2 bath ranch style. There is plumbing, electrical outlets and lights, a shower, a nice fireplace and hearth. The amount of stuff is a bit overwhelming, but we have nothing but time to clean it out. Now our thoughts are shifting that we should build a small guest house or a garage to live in while we clean up and renovate the home that is already there. I am sure our ideas and plans will change daily. Two things we do know for certain is that we still love the property and we have a lot of work to do.
Sunday, April 4, 2010
Happy Easter
Monday, March 22, 2010
Welcome Spring!
This first weekend of spring brought us some terrific weather. Chris took the day off work on Friday. He worked with his friend Chris Gearhart at clearing some space for the garden. They used Chris G's Gravely and the tractor. Well, that is until the tractor got a flat tire. We were able to get the tire fixed that same day and were up and running again.
That evening we had our first cookout. We enjoyed a peaceful evening with the Gearharts and Lebors. I did forget a lighter and cooking utensils. Oops It was our first time at the property after dark so we were happy to hear that we have Virginia Peepers and a very vocal owl. SO cool!
Saturday and Sunday I was at Master Gardener classes so Chris and the boys worked all weekend without me. They worked on building the strawberry pyramid. Our strawberry plants arrived 2 weeks ago so we were hoping to get them in this weekend, but building the beds proved to be more work than we anticipated. Jackson drove the lawn mower and both boys hauled concrete to fill the bed. It is getting close to finished, but we need another weekend with good weather. Below is the progress on the strawberry pyramid.
The one project we did complete this weekend was removing some nasty vines from a holly tree. Below are the before and after photos. I cant wait to see what this tree looks like in a couple of years. Poor thing.
Monday, March 1, 2010
Stuck Again????!!!!!
With all the snow we haven't been out to the woods in a while. So we decided to leave the kids home and shovel enough so that we could open the gate. We dorve in a bit and decided the snow was too deep to drive and decided to hike in.
It was tough walking in the snow it was still up to my knee in places. Sometimes you could walk on top and sometimes you would just sink in. We saw lots of wildlife tracks. Tons of well worn deer trails and turkey tracks as well as fox and racoons. We did see a rather large unidentifiable track(bear?!). After we hike back and got in the truck to leave and we were stuck.
Uugh, The truck must have sledded on the snow and the body of the truck was held up by the snow so that the tires had very little contact with the ground. We used the tire jack to prop up the truck and put branches under the tires and after two hours of digging the snow from around and under the truck, we were able to get un-stuck.
It was the longest time the boys have ever been home alone, over 3 hours. They did great!
What a day!
It was tough walking in the snow it was still up to my knee in places. Sometimes you could walk on top and sometimes you would just sink in. We saw lots of wildlife tracks. Tons of well worn deer trails and turkey tracks as well as fox and racoons. We did see a rather large unidentifiable track(bear?!). After we hike back and got in the truck to leave and we were stuck.
Uugh, The truck must have sledded on the snow and the body of the truck was held up by the snow so that the tires had very little contact with the ground. We used the tire jack to prop up the truck and put branches under the tires and after two hours of digging the snow from around and under the truck, we were able to get un-stuck.
It was the longest time the boys have ever been home alone, over 3 hours. They did great!
What a day!
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