wordless wednesday

be happy in your work

There is no project too small that it can’t be made bigger. That mantra was imprinted on me by my late father-in-law, while I was young and impressionable, when a small kitchen project turned into a house remodeling job that only ended the day we sold the house (or at least that’s the myth). Well, back to the present. Pat wanted me to replace a path since removing it turned out to have a less than optimal outcome. And while we were at it, maybe we could create a new seating area on the east side of the deck, since we didn’t have one there. I estimated that it would take somewhere between 2 and 3 tons of number 57 river rock (3/4 inch pea gravel). Refreshing the rest of the paths would take another 2 or 3 tons so why not get 5 tons of gravel and be done with it. Let’s add 2 yards of sweet peet, because you can never have too much sweet peet. A half an hour after I placed the order, Jimmy told us that he was going to Detroit for a week. I was happy that he had work, but Oh Boy, that meant that Pat and I were going to shovel 10,000 pounds of gravel by ourselves. Now I have not lived a pure and healthy life like Pat has so all I could think of was the words of Sessue Hayakawa “Be happy in your work.” Yippee!

If you ever start a project like this do not try to figure out how many pounds per shovel full of gravel, or how much can a wheel barrow carry. It will bring tears to your eyes. You will get done when there is no more gravel in the driveway. Oh, and do not forget to pull the cars out of the garage before the gravel arrives.

The delivery was Wednesday morning and off we went, shovel, haul, dump, rake, rest. We broke the task down into what we hoped would be manageable jobs. We rebuilt the hydrangea path on day one and built the new seating area on day 2. Day 3, we widened one cross path and completed all those little jobs that never seem to get tackled. I was hoping that Jimmy would be home to help on day 4, which was Saturday. Man, was I overjoyed when Jimmy showed up late Friday night and volunteered to help finish up. Now Jimmy has not lived any cleaner and healthier life than his old man, but he is 30 years younger. He moved close to 3 tons of gravel in a little over 2 hours. The way Pat and I were wearing out, we would still be shoveling for weeks.

Big Blue's moving day

Big Blue had to move. Its corner of the yard is getting more sun due to tree loss. We found a new home and a replacement plant so all we had to do was dig. How hard could it be? Big Blue is seven and has never been split. It is the biggest hosta in the yard with a root ball to match. So off we went, Pat and I and two shovels. That was the full extent of the plan, dig around the hosta, somehow pick it up and replant it, and then do it all over again. This little project turned out to be not for the faint of heart. I do not recommend moving fully grown big hosta. Boy, was Big Blue heavy. All those years of sweet peet gave Blue a huge root ball. For some reason I thought that I could just pick Blue up and move it to its new home. Then I thought that I could push Blue up a plywood ramp. What finally succeeded was the blue tarp.

You might ask why we didn't wait till fall, after the leaves drop. Well, we had 5 tons of gravel and 2 yards of sweet peet coming, so we wanted to get this "small" project out of the way.

Blue's replacement plant is our largest sum and substance. It also is 7 years old.

 Right about now, I decided that this was going to be harder then I thought.

 Next time, I'm getting a back hoe.

A happy hosta. We gave it a load of sweet peet.

 Big Blue in its new home. It also got a load of sweet peet.

wordless wednesday

amber waves of grain

Happy Birthday America!

bambi

Or some distant cousin, paid a visit today. What a treat! I was upstairs when I heard the boys going nuts. Something was afoot, or is it afeet since Bambi here has four of them. By the time I made it to the Aztec to chase Bambi down, he was gone. Pat got these pictures. Deer are in our yard every night, but seldom do we see any during the day. This little guy got his sleep patterns out of wack, or maybe he was just hungry.

I put the wind chimes next to the bird feeders thinking that if the deer bumped into them, they would run off.

So much for that idea. I always thought that the squirrels emptied the bird feeders. I guess I owe them an apology.

Pat took this vid using our brand new camera. It was the first time she used it.



wordless wednesday

Cleveland Garden Walk

This past Saturday was the first annual Cleveland Garden Walk. There were more gardens to see than there was time to see them. Pat and I walked through 2 of the 4 neighborhoods on the tour, Tremont and Detroit-Shoreway. It was a great way to learn about some great neighborhoods in Cleveland. We saw beautiful gardens and met some wonderful gardeners. Along the way, we also found some nice places to eat.

Every garden we visited had rain barrels. It looks like the gardeners all went to the same Consevation District workshops Pat and I attended.

When I gazed upon the giant train set in the back yard I started laughing and couldn't stop. You could sense the fun its creator had in showing it off. It was magical.

 

This roof top garden was the WOW! of the garden walk. It is two years old and the owners did everything themselves. Is that cool or what? The plants are all native Ohio grasses and flowers.