Late summer garden and a very good day!

What a crazy day...maybe even a crazy week! The day started like any other, Tracy woke first and made lunches for all of us (I love that about when school is in session - She makes the lunches in the morning and they are WAY better than the crap I pack for myself) I got up and made breakfast for all and then hit the road.

At work I had some pictures of the new garden gateway I built this summer. I wanted to share, so I attached 6 pics to an E-mail to my friends at the office, some surveyor friends, Sam, Joe, JP, Leo, Lili, Mom, Dad, Dan, Sarah, Ashley etc. I should have looked at the pic size.... 5mb each This turned out to be a problem I guess. The e-mail was so large I crashed our server for a about an hour and made some real issues for people trying to open their outlook.  Sorry  :)

I thought, oh great this is going to start the day off well, but in reality, it only got better. After a somewhat sluggish summer for work, this week the calls started to really pick up. Yesterday, they really started. I got requests for quotes and just plain handed out some great jobs. Even after I went home last night, one gentleman stopped at my home and asked me to survey his place and I got another call at home for another survey. More survey requests this morning on E-mail.

Another great thing...the weather. It's perfect and looks to remain so for a few days if not a dozen. Temps in the 70's, clear, dry-ish, very sunny, slight breeze and 40's at night, perfect sleeping and fire pit weather. Labor day weekend is coming and it looks to be a fantastic long weekend.

Also, had a nice chat with a friend on Windows Live. I almost never use it, but hit the button yesterday by mistake to start it, so I logged in just to see if anyone was there. Had a fun little conversation in Spanish. It's cool because you have to think on the fly, no dictionary, no spell-check. It's still not speaking, but it's better than just reading. Plus it was just cool to chat with a buddy that I've been getting to know over the last year or so. Thanks, fun talking to ya, JP!

Plus...(there's more? you say), I finally finished mowing the lawn last night and cleaning up the yard, so now it's time for the next project...the shed roof.  AND...Tracy got that badly abscessed tooth finally pulled (for free, yet!) and although it hurts like hell now, we both think things will be on the mend from here out.

So anyway...here are a few pics from the garden gate and the yard...and a link to see more if you are so inclined.  http://picasaweb.google.com/home

 

BRAD fire PIT

Everything at our house gets a name...the car, the truck, favorite utensils, every animal...even dozens of names for each of us (the human  residents), ...whatever.

Last night at Gracie's party, my brother in law Bruno decided our fire pit should have a name. We pondered for a few minutes, then my sister Sarah hit it dead on...Brad.

Brad fire Pit

The Fire pit...

I had an idea a few of years ago (I know, surprise - Russ had an idea!?!) that I wanted to have a fire pit in the yard; something to sit around on summer nights and relax under the stars. The first fire pit was one of those pre-fabbed steel bowls with legs....very mobile and it was great. (no picture for this first pit)

We had lawn chairs around at night and everybody loved it. It did make me a little nervous with the idea of the dam thing tipping over and setting something or somebody on fire, and there always was the occasional oops of touching the hot metal grate/cover, and the circles of dead grass where it had been set up. It also wasn't the most aesthetically pleasing aspect of the yard.

I thought...why not have a real stone pit, like a campfire pit when we were kids at camp or up at Black Lake as adults. I decided on a good spot in the yard and dug a hole and lined it with stones.

We had that the first year and it was great. Some nights, as the dew settled or in the fall when it was colder, the wet grass wasn't high on the list of comforts, so I thought, wouldn't it be cool to have flag stones around the fire pit. They have a fire pit at Gracie's old school, where we had a festival every year...good food, singing, and people sitting around on dry stones.

I decided to do just that, build a flagstone patio around the pit. Last fall, I managed to get one huge flat stone and put it in front of Tracy's spot. Not quite the patio I envisioned  :)

 

 

For the past few weekends, I have been dragging big flat stones from out of the woods up back, and setting them around the fire. It's been hard work and I have to go farther and farther into the woods each time for the good flat ones.

I have all my stone now, and only 3-4 more to set, and maybe a couple to reset, now that it's all together and my surveyor’s eyes finds fault with things not level or evenly spaced. Still...Its good!

 

 

I think this might also deter my little fire starters from carrying fire far afield, and keep the sparks on the hearth. 

I would love to build an outdoor bee hive oven next; something close to the fire pit, where I could cook pizzas and tostadas outside with a wood fire.

 

Maybe next summer....I still have to build a roof for my shed. We also need some more Adirondack chairs and that swing set to disappear :)

     

  I'm looking forward to sharing food, fun conversation and whatever else with family, friends old and new, around the fire pit.

4th of July Weekend

I took a day off on Thursday and made a long weekend out of our Independence Day holiday. What a great weekend!  It was pretty packed actually! It was hard to come back to work on Monday. (Updated with pics 7-7-09)

Thursday

Actually, not so packed on this day. It was rainy (of course) so I didn't really do the stuff that I wanted (mow the lawn, work in the garden, etc) but I still had a nice day off. Grace, Jem & I read a few chapters of her book, Warriors: into the Wild, which is actually pretty interesting. I actually stay awake (which says a lot for me and reading). I did run to Keene and buy some bamboo for staking the tomatoes and made kind of a wattle staked wall for them. I like the looks of it.

Friday

Fort Ticonderoga!  What a nice day! the kids loved it. We took my friend, Robin's suggestion and took the Ferry over Lake Champlain. I think that was as big a hit as the Fort.  

The history of this Fort, owned and struggled over by France, England & the US in the 17th and 18th century and it's later resuscitation into a historic park is very cool.  

There is also a BEAUTIFUL garden on site, from the days when the fort was in ruins and a private residence/hotel offered a stay to visit the "old French fort ruins." Tracy took so many beautiful pictures.

   

On the way home, we stopped in Ludlow, VT and had super-delicious Chicken & bean Burritos at Tacos Tacos and then even more super delicious ice cream at Scoops. We rolled home, fat & happy.

Saturday

4th of July ~ and finally a sunny day (and dry) We went to Ken & Judy's for the afternoon. Ashley made up a tasty desert for us with peanut brittle and banana and god knows what....so gooood!  She is going to be working (and running a part of) a place called Joe-Joes, I think it is called....very high end in Boston ...more to follow - maybe a future "good eats."

Jessica and Jessie and Natalie (Beans) came over for the afternoon. My niece Natalie is just so cute! The Jessies are such good, loving parent's already, too! I think poor Natalie gets overwhelmed with so many BIG faces and people all up in her stuff, trying to hold her, making all kinds of baby noises at her and what-not. It's really hard not to, though....She's such a Cutie!

At 6:30, we went to a ball game  in Manchester, The Manchester Fisher Cats against the Portland Sea Dogs. The Fisher Cats are the NH home team but it was also cool because the Sea Dogs are the Red Sox's farm team.  After the ball game, there were 4th of July fireworks. The venue in Manchester is Awesome, and they really include the fans, there is a lot going on during a game. Easy to get to, good parking, a big new motel overlooking the field and a couple restaurants. We'll go again!

Sunday

Day of the Garden! I spent the entire beautiful sunny day working in the garden and mowing the lawn. Mulched the whole garden with a thick layer of grass clippings from mowing the once lawn, converted to hayfield by a month of rain and no mowing. By the end, I was very sore, very tired, deep red sunburned and completely happy! The yard looks so nice nice and the garden is boomin'!

For dinner, we had Tinga de Puerco sandwiches that I got from Spanishpod. I think we eat about 50% of our dinners now from Spanishpod recipes. We ate out on the patio, which also looked nice because the kids had pulled out all the weeds and swept the bricks.

The kids had been playing something that included pirate/native American costumes with their Kentucky Rifles from Ft. Ti and had covered themselves with soot from the fire pit. (for camouflage) They decided to camp out. Tracy & I retires to the TV room for Bear-claw Ice cream cones and watched "Quantum of Solace"  Very tense movie. I feel like there must be something we should have known...like we were watching a low plot - high action sequel to something. Obviously we don't watch a lot of Bond movies, I guess.

I'm looking forward to enjoying the rest of the summer in such a fashion!

Found it...

The lost blog template

Pues...I had to rebuild the blog...it seems everything got screwed up, but here it is, back to how I want it...maybe a little different.

The new workout

Met with Acea yesterday and went through my new workout with him at the gym. He's a cool guy and the workout is awesome! I was beat after just a try out run through, yesterday, but I was zooped up, tambien. The good - Luuuucy, I'm Home, je je; sore muscles; sheepish grin; nada más de estresado; I'm starving; kind of workout and zoop.

Can't wait to run through it again on Thursday.

El jardin & The next Project

Almost everything has sprouted except beans and onions. Now that the garden is going, probably the next biggie on the list is finishing the post & beam shed and putting a roof on it. I'm still debating on splitting out my own pine shakes from the big tree that fell, buying cedar shakes at Home depot for $60, or trying to find some slate shingles that nobody wants. My choice is slate shingles, but they are hard to come by.

They tore down an old college buildings next door to the office at SVE, in order to build the new student center...( I surveyed the site and we laid out out the student center building piles...I have been doing all the surveys for the College for the past 10 years...it's awesome, since I'm an Alumni....I feel I am part of the college...but anyway) and I even asked if I could have the shingles, but before I got an answer, the demo crew smashed them. What a waste.

There's really not much left to do for the shed...just the roof, once I get the materials, the floor on the southern end and maybe siding (haven't decided on siding it or leaving it open.) Then I'm going to move all my old woodworking tools, draw-horse, etc out there for a small wood shop.

Summer's the time for physical exercise for the body and a break from all the mental exercises.

Last weeks projects

The garden

I finished putting in the garden this last weekend, except for black beans and potatoes. I hope to get them in this week. I tilled the garden with my new/old rototiller that I got last year. A great story goes with all the goodies that came with the rototiller - another time maybe)

I tore down the old fence and gateway, which were just little black birch poles and totally rotten.

I cut up a couple 8" maples and birches that fell during the ice storm into 6' lengths and then split them with maul and wedges for fence posts. I cut down a couple young beech and made my garden gate/arbor. This year the arbor is going to have annual flowers, but next year I'm going to put in grapes. The chickens were still getting under the fence, so I cut up an 8' section of a 15" pine that fell, and using maul and wedges again, I split out planks and put them along the downhill side at ground level, where the chickens were causing the problems.

I tried out a new idea for planting this year...centered around a teepee structure in the middle. I planted pole beans and cucumbers to grow up it and a bed inside of lettuce, which after 5 days, has already come up. The beds around the teepee have tomatoes, basil; kale, jalapeno's and lettuce; carrots; onions; parsley, lettuce (again) and Swiss chard. I have a zucchini and yellow squash plant at each front corner. The rear of the garden is traditional rows, first sunflowers, then a row of hills of Big pumpkins, butternut squash and pie pumpkins; then potatoes; then 2 rows of black beans for soup and refritos. I'm hoping for something cool looking as well as a summer food source.

The trellis

I also built a trellis in our Buddha garden at the patio. The clematis and hydrangea vines weren't really climbing too well on the ugly cinder block chimney. The trellis kind of hides the chimney and now the vines are climbing. The picture is dated two weeks ago, the clematis is already almost to the top and there are tons of flower buds.  It's going to be pretty.  

April Vacation Projects

I completed a number of my projects on my list during April Vacation. Much of the list was yard maintenance. I had a few large trees that fell in the front yard over the winter to cut up and the vast amounts of leaves that I never raked during the fall, and there were a few gardening chores; turn the compost, spread charcoal on the garden, etc.

I also had a number of landscaping projects on my list. I have been building a split rail fence around the front yard to the left of the driveway. I'm going to plant apple trees along the inside perimeter and have a bunch of wildflowers. I also want to landscape the front house area and make it more of a perennial garden and gateway to the backyard, where our patio, fire pit and pool are.

"The corner" project This is the front corner of the house, where I focused my attentions. I dug up 4 big lilac bushes and planted them along the front and constructed a gate and fence to close off the backyard. I built the retaining wall 3 years ago, and the stone stairway last year. The bottom stone is over 1400lbs. I also built the first sections of the split rail fence last fall and the arbor gateway.

I'm going to plant wisteria or honeysuckle and climbing roses at the arbor and some shrubs and perennial flowers along the fence. I want to plant various types of thyme along the top of the retaining wall and flowers along the bottom. There's also going to be a flagstone walkway to the upper gate.

Here is the backside of the gate. Everything is hand-hewn. I used my broadax and wedges and maul to split out planks from a cottonwood and cross beams from some red oak. I know cottonwood isn't a good wood and the planks came out pretty rough, but I was looking for something already rustic looking, the planks had cool grains and I had a 20" diameter tree that fell this winter. I split fence rails with a maul and wedges and cut the post holes with a maul chisel, brace & bit and carpenters axe.

 

This project is kind of like my giant model airplane. Sure, I could use a chainsaw, or buy wood, but I'm doing everything the old fashioned - circa 1830's way.