Stacked Front Porch Planter

Most of the parts to the planter in the order from bottom to top of the picture how I stacked them together, I added one more saucer and pot not pictured. No need for all of them to be the same color, because I have confidence I am going to keep all the plants alive and they are going to thrive so much on the porch that no one will even notice the non white pots.  Plus I am cheap and there was no way I was going to go out and buy new pots for a project when we have a shed full of old ones. Wait, I'll just tell people, if they ask, that I am so green I reused pots from other years, that sounds better than cheap.

First layer, pot with saucer in it and upside down pot on the saucer.  Fill in dirt around the saucer and insert plants

Second layer is saucer, large pot then another saucer to make a planting area. By putting the saucers in the large pots it also took way less potting mix which would have added a lot of weight and money to the project. I will have to water it a lot more often because less dirts means it will dry out faster, but if I decide to move it I won't need two men and small boy to lift it.

View from the side, just keep adding saucers and pots until it is the desired height.

Top view, can hardly wait for the flowers to start growing and make all the layers full and beautiful!

It Was So Wet in June...

How wet was it?

The wettest it has ever been since 1847!

Wet enough for this little crayfish to be able to crawl out of the creek, through the swamp and up to our patio - a long way from his home.

And when the rain came, it came.  We had one storm where our electricity went out.  After the electric company came and cut down a big portion of our tree down, the lights came back on.

A couple of the branches were charred, no good!  

Five truck loads of branches and lots of logs later we had most of it cleaned up.  The sun set before we were able to finish that night.  

Despite still having water coming in the basement from intense ground saturation and the driveway muddy, the garden, which is about 20 feet behind the house, is dry and we are watering it.  

Taking Out The Garbage

Dad cleaned out the shed this weekend and found a brittle, broken lawn chair, the ducks old kiddie pool and a little, green, Pooh Bear wheelbarrow (not in the picture) that Dancer use to be small enough to sit in.  How to get it to fit in the garbage can?

Mention to Spark that you need to smash up the items small enough to get them in the garbage can.  He will be on it in about two second flat.

All that is left and there are the handles to the wheelbarrow.  Plus, he raked it all up and shoveled it in the can without being asked. :)

Sporting Clays Kids Day

The place where the kids shot sporting clays this last spring/summer had a kids day this weekend.  There was free ammo, clays and archery.  The kids got in the line for shooting which was being manned by their coach and he was giving each kid the chance to shoot about 6-8 clays.  When our kids got up to the front of the line he went to eat and one of our 4-H leaders, Ken, stepped in to man the station and he let our kids shoot a box, 25 shells, each.  Normally he would have been coaching the kids during the season but his son had other things going on and didn't participate in the program.  He also fell as he was getting into his deer stand last fall and broke his back so that slowed him down this last year.  He is still in his brace but finally not in as much pain. 

The kids were just on fire, Spark hit 20 out of 25 clays.  I liked this picture because you can see the shell flying on the right side of the picture.

Dancer, she shot 23 out of 25.  I don't know if they had a better fitting gun, or if it was the middle of the day instead of evening, or if they just feel more comfortable with Ken manning the switch because they know him so much better.  Whatever it was, they both did great.  This is set up to shoot a report pair, which the kids just started the last couple of times they shot, and they still hit the majority of them.  I was glad they did so well because it was the only the second time that Dad has been able to go and watch and so they enjoyed showing him what they could do.  When they were done Ken asked if the kids wanted to shoot the course, which without hesitation they said they did.  We are thankful that he would take his Saturday afternoon to help them shoot a round.  We got back to the club house after the 2:00 ending time so they didn't get to try archery which Spark was bummed about.

The weather was perfect so we headed home to do some yard work.  Lately, because it has been so hot and humid, we have been heading out about 8:00 or 8:30 in the evening to mow and weed.  It was finally enjoyable to be outside and we have spent the better part of the last two days getting some much needed work done.  We also opened up all the windows in the house to let some new air in.  About 9:00 a skunk came through the yard and it was so strong that when Dad went down stairs to shower he said he could smell it down there.  Phew, thankfully it dissipated quickly. 

Love is........

when your husband buys you a turning knob for the lawn mower so that you can "steer with one hand and swat deer flys with the other."

Murphy's Law - Lawn Mower Gas

Q:  Where does your lawn mower run out of gas? 

A:  As far away from the garage as possible.

That is Spark there at the end of the arrow way behind the apple trees.  I guess he could have been behind the pine trees, that would have been farther from the garage.  There were but a few drops of gas in the gas can so Dad had to run into town to get some more.  He wanted me to go with but I had Desdemona out grazing and the kids were mowing so I didn't want to leave them alone.  This was a good thing. 

While in town Dad tested out another Murphy's Law:  Your truck will break down on the holiday weekend, not conveniently on a week day morning.

Then he tested out:  Your family will be outside when your truck breaks down and won't hear the phone ring until you have called a minimum of eight times.  He was able to limp the truck to the repair place, walk to the grocery store, shop, walk back to his truck and still had time left over before we learned he was stranded and got there.  I had a great joke for him, well I found it funny anyway.  Right before we got there to pick him up he called again wondering where we were.  "What do you mean?" I asked him.  He went on, quite nicely I must admit, to explain that his truck broke down and we needed to come get him and how did I miss that in our previous conversation and where were we.  By now I couldn't hold it together any longer without laughing and had to tell him we were just rounding the corner.  Here he is getting out with all his groceries and he is actually smiling to see us. 

Okay, enough Murphy's Law today, let's not have anything else happen.   

I'm A Lumberjack And I'm Okay

Last year when we had bad storms we lost a lot of branches.  We cleaned up what seemed like a never ending supply of them but there are a few that never completely broke off of the trees.  It looks awful and makes me nervous that they are going to spontaneously fall on someone, so Dad hooked up a rope to a couple of them an pulled them down with the truck this weekend.

Spark was eager to try out the chainsaw so we let him have a go at it.

Dancer wanted to give her hand a try at it but she cut one branch and decided it wasn't for her.  Spark took over and kept on cutting.  While he was cutting the rest of us were stacking the burnable wood on the pile for bonfires and the branches behind the barn where we will have to burn them as a brush pile.

Sign of a working man is when the coat comes off.

Then to surprise us even more he took the rake in hand and started cleaning up the remaining little twigs and leaves.  He is usually more of a spectator when there is work to be done if we see him at all.  I like this new change!

Spying one more smaller branch that was hanging down, he took out the little step ladder, armed himself with the branch clipper and went at it.  I was a little nervous when he came out with the step ladder as we never know what he is going to do.  One time he came in the house and said, "I need a helmet and a cinder block, where do we keep them?"  After that I have always been a little leery of his plans.

While Spark was struggling with the branch, Dancer and I sat down on the tail gate to watch him and a refreshment. 

When I went in to shower he was still battling it, claiming that it would "not dupe and/or frustrate" him.  I think it is still hanging on the tree.

Along with the maple branch Dad pulled down these huge tops off of two pine trees.  These we will cut the branches off and probably haul to the dump when it opens.  Dried pine branches burn just like gasoline and having the fire department out is not something we are real interested in.  The trunk we will cut up for firewood and enjoy the smell of Christmas when we burn it.  It really smelled good from Dad just cutting the branches off. 

Spark Mows!!!

Spark has been waiting it seems his whole life to get to mow lawn.  Finally, today, Dad thought Spark has shown himself responsible lately and let him mow the back of the yard behind the fir trees.  He was so happy, he sang at the top of his lungs the whole time, and did a great job.

How to Overwinter Geraniums

Geraniums are one of my favorite flowers for the summer season.  I like to plant three or four of them in large pots.  I put the pots out in the full sun, water the and feed them a lot.  Geraniums are annuals and are inexpensive at nurseries in the spring.  A really cool thing about this flower is that you can keep them over the winter and have bigger more robust plants in the spring.  The easiest way is just to bring the pots indoor, my pots are way too big.  Here is another way:

Three large pots of geraniums have been in the garage for about three weeks.  the plants look a little rough as they have been ignored.  Geraniums can handle frost but not really hard freezes.  Did you know?  Geraniums will bloom continuously if you deadhead thoroughly. 

Dig out the individual plants and shake off as much dirt as possible.

Trim off the tops of the plants 3" to 4" above the base of the stem. 

You can see the 4" pieces of stem above the roots.  The roots are thick and full of water, like a succulent plant.  This stored water allows the plant to be stored.

Store the trimmed plants upside down in a bag or box, store in a cool dark place.  Check the plants every month.  Soak the roots in room temperature water for an hour or two each month if the stems are getting shriveled.  The plants need to be stored at temps above freezing, 45 to 55 degrees is best.

The plans can also be stored with out trimming, hang the entire plant upside down in a cool dark place.  A good place is from floor joist in a basement or crawl space.  I don't use this method as I don't want dirty plants hanging in my basement.

You can replant them in March, in appropriate sized pots with potting soil.  They will be ready in  the spring when it's warm enough to set them out.  Pinch off long, fast growing shoots to make the plant bushier with more blooms.

Putting the gardens to bed

We have been blessed with some great "Indian Summer" weather the past week and a half. It's really nice since they say our October was the second wettest and fifth coldest on record. Today it was in the 60's and we got to pick up, mow and till most of the garden. There is a post from back in the spring showing me, Dad, tilling in a cloud of dust and now I had to wait to till until the ground dried out. The weather has been really odd this year.

The project started and stopped after about thirty seconds when the mower ran over a bunch of this wire from an old Christmas wreath. After a break to free up the blade, the work continued. All of the gardens are ready for the winter now except for the fenced garden. Eeyore, the pet wether goat, was holed up there browsing on what was left of the garden. Well, there is always tomorrow.

"The van is in the garage"

Sounds like a secret code or a password doesn't it?! Nope, it literally means that our van in the garage where it has not resided since late March or early April. I could have had a child in that amount of time!



I had good intentions of cleaning the garage but after I pulled everything out from the back, and on shelves, and stacked along sides, and up in the rafters, and piled on tables, and sitting on the floor on the other side of garage, and anywhere else we had been storing stuff just to get it out of the way, I ran out of steam for the project. Once in a while I would go out there and do a little work or sometimes Dad would make a little head way on the mess.



But all that has changed. Dad, the last couple of weeks, has been diligently working on making room for the van to fit in the garage now that winter is knocking on the door. Dang, I love that man. Vehicles need to be in garages here in our part of the world. Without a garage, every time you desire to use the car it needs to either be dug out of a snow bank or an inch of frost or ice needs to be scraped off the windows. Never a pleasant situation.

So here it is "The van is in the garage."

No idle hands here

The weather was nice enough today that we could get out and get some outside work done. Lately the forecast has been rain and cold so we are way behind on getting things ready for fall. Spark and I cut down the huge tree branch that blew down last month, Dancer got a good portion of the yard mowed, Spark got some of the onions picked and Dad covered the strawberry plants and did the fun job of cleaning out a goat stall. Dad cleaned out the buck stall and whoa did it smell. Male goats do not smell endearing when they are in rut in the fall. We burned all the brush from the tree branch, it was whole pick up load full, in the fire pit and made some apple pies in the pie irons. Sitting around the fire eating warm apple pie made the all the work worthwhile.

The to do list is still long but this next week is suppose to bring more rain. Our gardens are in terrible disarray and the barn needs more cleaning so we need a few more nice days before the snow starts to fly.

A family project requiring a chainsaw

That was then....

This is now.

These trees have just never worked very well. A couple years ago I cut the branches off the first one and I don't know why I never did get around to doing the rest of them. They were impossible to mow around because the the branches reached to ground. The weeds under them were terrible and it always looked so unkept. Animals have hidden under them and pulled in ducks om ar chickens to eat. They blocked the view of half of the corral so from the house we couldn't see the goats if they were down at the other end. But today we trimmed them! It is hard to tell from the picture that the end one is cut up about 12 feet. It took the four of us a steady two hours of work to get it done and all the branches hauled over to the fire pit. Now we wonder why we never made it priority to finish this project sooner. And it was all done before 12:30! And I actually feel like we accomplished something tangible today!