Garden update

I planted a very small garden this year. I'm trying out different configurations / locations before putting in a more permanent raised bed system next year.

The small landscape timber bed has nasturtium, basil, lettuce, cherry tomato, and lemon thyme. It gets great morning sun and good early afternoon sun before the house creates a shadow in early evening. We put in pond soil to start the bed. The nasturtiums are kind of puny, but that seems to be the case of all my nasturtiums this year, so I don't think it's location related. The lettuce never really came in. The basil is great. So much so that I transplanted some plants from another location to perk them up. The cherry tomato is doing wonderfully (lots of blossom clusters and fruit has set), as is the lemon thyme (which tastes great by the way). I also have two yellow wax bean plants in this bed and they are flowering and look very healthy.

Overview - fire pit is further away than it seems.

Sad nasturtiums, great lemon thyme, happy bean plant

Another bean, itty-bitty lettuce, and the transplanted basil

Original dark green basil, cherry tomato, and BBQ rosemary

At either end of that bed I have a few small planter boxes with herbs, some from seedling, some from seed. The basil in these beds isn't doing that well and I think it's a soil issue since they get the same sun as the landscape timber bed. Garlic chives and oregano are doing well (from seedlings) and the parsley, cilantro, and basil seeds have germinated and are slowly forming plants.

This basil just isn't doing as well

Pulled out the basil, transplanted cilantro, germinated seeds (basil, parsley, cilantro)

The flower beds in back are struggling. It's sandy soil and I did very little to amend it. Need to put some time and effort into actually forming beds rather than just sticking starts in the ground.

Just sad...

The 7 x 3 raised bed has pond soil in it and is doing well. Six Big Beef tomato plants (from seedlings) are full of blossoms and some fruit has formed. The herbs (basil, garlic chive, and oregano) are also growing well. It gets morning shade and great afternoon sun. I think the plants might prefer more sun though so will move the bed further west to get it out of the shadows. I definitely need to add compost to this bed in the fall to enrich it for next year.

Both beds doing well

Lots of blossoms and some fruit on the Big Beef

The squash bed is also pond soil. Cucumbers are looking good. Zucchini plants actually have flowers already. Acorn and butternut squash plants are healthy but no blooms yet. The yellow wax beans are kind of slow. Since they were planted at the same time as the ones in the landscape timber bed, there is obviously some issue with this bed. Not sure if it's soil properties (shouldn't be - they have the same soil) or the fact that this bed gets little morning sun. Again, moving it further west will help.

My first zucchini blossom!

Many more forming

Beans are blossoming, but don't look that good

The pea bed gets little or no morning sun and great afternoon/evening sun. The bed is cooler than the others and they seem to like it. I planted the pea seeds very late so not sure if I'll get a crop before the summer heat makes them bolt. I'll try again for a fall crop.

I may end up just eating the shoots

At this point I'm thinking of putting three landscape timber beds parallel to the house's east wall in approximately the same location as the current LTB (maybe just a bit further to the south though to catch more afternoon sun). A squash bed to the south of those beds would get early and late sun and have plenty of room to run.  Field stones for the patio. A sand area for the fire pit. Flower beds around the perimeter of the stone patio to provide a visual break before the woods.

I imagine I'll change my mind multiple times before next summer, but this is the plan for now.

And now it's June!

Time really flies past you when you're working on a variety of projects. The upstairs closet is still coming along. We're almost ready to start staining and painting the sections that are done so far. I'll do that while Chris works on the remaining segments.

We've actually got both sections done now.

Most of the firewood is stacked and we're waiting on the log splitter to finish up for the year. What a relief to have that taken care of so it can finish drying over the summer.

The lumber logs are stacked (somewhat) neatly and we're now waiting on the portable sawmill to arrive so we can get them cut. All beautiful hardwoods that are destined for interior trim, a dining room table, and kitchen cabinetry.

We graded the east yard and I've set up some garden space. Nothing too crazy as I'm participating in a CSA this year. Basic stuff like tomatoes, cukes, squash, and lots of herbs. The layout isn't quite right yet but I've figured out the correct bed placement for permanent installation next year. That also means we can start laying the stone next year.

Pea trellis, tomato raised bed, squash bed

Speaking of the CSA, our first share had arugula and green garlic in it, which combined with basil, rosemary, and oregano from my herb garden to make this white pizza. Fresh mozzarella, cherry tomatoes, and wonderful olive oil finished it nicely.

Really good pizza

The pine lumber needed for finishing the siding has been stickered and stacked. I've been painting battens when time and weather allows and we're slowly getting them installed on the bottom level of the house. The upper level will have to wait until the lumber fully dries, probably early August.

And I picked a stain color for the interior window trim. Took way longer than it should have and I finally decided to just go with a light neutral color (basically, a light maple shade).

Dad is doing an addition which means he had yard that was going to be dug up. This also meant he had sod! So we took over the tractor, dug up a bunch of the yard, and planted it in front of our porch.

The fruit trees in their temporary home

By the time we were done, it reached out past the fruit trees.

Cooper thinks grass is awesome

Speaking of Cooper, she and the cat are officially getting along well. We even all go on walks in the woods together.

Ahhh

Lots getting done and still lots to do. Thankfully it's only June!

Update on the upstairs closet - it's coming along; slowly...

We're still building the upstairs closet. Some progress has been made, but we seem to have stalled simply because it's nice enough to work outside. We have a significant amount of wood to put up for next winter and we're taking advantage of cool temperatures to do it in. But we did get the basics of the closet in place and Chris is working on fleshing out the rest of it whenever it rains.

So here are a few details so far - first, we decided to frame it in rather than building it as a stand alone piece of furniture (which is how we did the downstairs closet). This is a huge space - 11 and 1/2 feet long by 8 feet tall and a wardrobe that size is impractical to say the least.

Laying out and marking the 2x4 framing

The space is divided into four segments. Each segment consists of three levels - a top shelf for seasonal storage, a middle section for hanging clothes, and the bottom section will be comprised of 4 drawers.

Framing in place

We went with a fun color - Deep Purple in Arborcoat exterior stain - on red oak.

Applying stain

Chris carefully measured for the facing and cut the pieces down in the garage. Lots of walking up and down stairs to test fit as he made progress.

Careful...

He installed the facing and I painted the interior framing the same color as the walls. It blends well and will be barely noticeable once all the clothes are hung inside.

Purple facing, cream interiors

You can see the drawer stiles that he has in place for one section so far. He wanted to do some test fitting before making the other 12 drawers.

From the other angle

It's going to be a significant amount of storage space!

Walks in the Woods

These pictures are from 3 short weeks ago. The snowmelt had begun and the streams were finally exposed. Only one of our streams is year round, the rest are from seasonal runoff. And even the year round stream dries to a trickle in the dry months of July and August. Amazing when you see what flows through this time of year.

Our main steam

The first culvert

Pond just starting to thaw

My brother's part of the main stream

The "not supposed to be there" stream

We're going to do some additional grading this summer so that we can minimize driveway damage. This is an ongoing task - we fix one section and another needs it the next year. This section of road actually has a small diameter culvert - but it was so cold this winter that it froze solid.

No idea where this stream is...

The streams have since calmed down and the woods are drying out. Some of the trails that we laid out while snowshoeing are swampy messes but we're hoping they'll be dry once all the frost leaves the ground. Turns out it was a good thing we held off on marking the full trails. The trail heads are fine but we may need to alter routes a bit if the water doesn't drain.

Bathroom sink progress

You may recall that way back in May 2013 the downstairs bathroom sink looked like this:

Black pipe for supports, missing shelf supports, and temporary pine boards as side tables.

Well, now it looks like this (this is a surprisingly difficult thing to photograph):

Walnut sideboards and pipe shelf supports

We added the pipe shelf supports to get the sideboards up higher against the sink. And the sideboards themselves are from some walnut boards that Chris bought at the local wood auction (yes, we have wood auctions up here - who knew?). 

Walnut sideboard

The walnut shows beautifully against the white porcelain sink and fits in with the overall masculine look of the bathroom. We haven't actually installed the boards as we still need to spray paint the pipes but it'll all be solidly tied into place very soon.

Overall the look is slightly industrial, very organic, and I'm really loving it.

Distractions

We're supposed to be working on the upstairs clothes closet but seem to keep getting distracted. Good weather makes us want to be outside and the snow melt has the stream banks running full (pictures coming soon). So we're doing all kinds of stuff that has absolutely nothing to do with closets. We are:

Putting on the tractor's backhoe - which means we took off the snow thrower!

Throwing mushy snowballs for the dog

Clearing trees for firewood and a future apple orchard

Taking pictures of funny snow animals

Practicing our agility training

Walking. A lot.

Removing a tree that overhung Dad's garage

We've also been clearing off the front porch and putting the table and chairs in place. Yes, it's time to sit and enjoy the sunshine before bug season to arrives. We'll take advantage of these black-fly-free days while we can; it'll be soon enough to get back on indoor projects.

Furry guest

My sister and her new puppy came to visit for the first time. Sam (the puppy) is a Great Dane mix and is roughly 4 months old. She's a rescue dog so forgive her boniness - she's slowly putting on weight. We've waited nearly a month before bringing her to meet Cooper to give her time to gain some strength. 

Looks like the time was right. The following photos are ample evidence that dogs love to play. 

Blurry action photo #1

Blurry action photo #2 (slightly slower though) 

Cooper is the blur on the right

Starting to slow down more.

Ta Da! Two dogs! 

Well into the visit. Still playing.

They played in the house. They played in the snow. They enjoyed several walks in the woods.

Cooper is now comatose on the couch. I imagine Sam, too, is snoring at home. None of us can wait for the next visit.