A three-day weekend on the farm in Vale with lots of projects to do.
CHICKEN HOUSE PROJECT:
Here's the chicken house, framed and ready for windows, door, insulation, interior walls, nesting boxes, perches, etc. But first an anit-plug for Direct TV and the installer who flung coaxial cable across the yard and in the trees in a most unprofessional manner. Here you see it slanting from trees to ground in front of the chicken house.
And here it is at head-height draped across the lawn leading to the chicken house, waiting for the first strong wind to blow it down.
Mom had a broken ankle last year when the dish was installed. I guess he figured she'd never walk in her yard again?
So the cable was relocated across the chickenhouse roof. Just a quick trip up the ladder. Thanks TJ for being the ladder monkey!
Next the insulation (recycled from a building site) was installed on the north wall, then interior walls (recycled from the playhouse built 20 years ago on this site) were cut and installed over the insulation. No photos of that - the camera ran out of juice.
And the remaining windows were installed.
Next for the chicken house: a door, boxes & perches and 50 yards of chicken wire. The fenceposts are up and the gate is lying in the grass awaiting hinges.
Cost of today's work: about $20 for the window latch and a couple of new sawhorses. All other materials, including hinges for the windows, are recycled.
STOCK PANEL PROJECT:
Here's another recycling project. Mom needed stock panels to grow her grapes on, then conveniently discovered a tangle of stock panels that had come down the creek into her property.
The panels lay in a snarl of barbed wire, olive trees and debris. Julian here trimmed away the olive branches and his mom, Joanna, assisted with the wiresnipping, tugging, wrangling and ultimate victory over the stock panels.
Next for this project: relocating the panels to the orchard.
TOMATO PROJECT:
When we arrived Friday, Mom was finishing up the tilling shown here. In her bare feet, of course.
The tomato babies are brought out for some sunshine and hardening off both Friday and Saturday.
By sunset Saturday the towers and ladders that make the structure for pole beans and tomatoes are up.
Sunday morning, out come the tomato babies, the walls of water, stake markers and a load of compost. Holes are dug on all 4 corners of each tower, fortified with compost and 36 tomatoes go into the ground.
Next comes the really arduous part: the walls of water. These are plastic cuffs with compartments which are filled with water, which is warmed by the sun, which protects the tomatoes from cold at night and means tomatoes can go into the ground early for a long growing season, in spite of the frosts which are still occuring
(there was frost here both Friday and Saturday night). The planting & setting of walls of water takes about 5 hours and is pretty harsh on the back. Hard to believe Mom's been doing that by herself all of these years. She says some days she couldn't stand afterward and had to crawl back into the house.
That's love.
Here Grandma Carol and Emily fill the last compartment on the last wall of water.
THE REST:
The weekend wasn't all projects. There were bugs, flowers, sunrises and sunsets to appreciate. Wren houses to watch. Little details to notice, like the way the violets and grape hyacinths have naturalized in the yard, or a flicker's wing.
Piles of brush to burn, hot dogs to roast over the pile. Canoeing up and down the creek, watching the herons lift off from the Russian olive trees and paddling up on some huge carp in the beaver ponds. And an Easter egg hunt. The long weekend in the country also meant a chance to feast on roast garlic and reek for a couple of days.
Spelling "potatoes" on a garden brick reminded me of Dan Quayle, so I made a "quail" brick for the "fairy forest" where the quail hang out. Then I misspelled squash.
Hah!
We played hard, we slept deeply. We welcomed Zeke, the black lab pup who showed up Thursday out of nowhere and decided this was home.
And as always we appreciated the company of friends and family: Joanna, Julian, Adrian, TJ, Josie, Cayla, Charlie, Gwen and Bill. Thanks to all for lending a hand. And thanks, Mom, for creating and sharing your little slice of heaven.
A few years ago I worked at a restaurant that served a lot of good wines. I saved the corks, thinking that someday I'd make a cork garland to give to my sister and her husband the winemaker. Years passed and my husband politely inquired from time to time whether the giant box of corks in the garage still had a purpose.
Today's recycling project: turning the old patio tent into trellises. Two years ago a storm picked up the patio tent and left a mangled wreck. Unsure what to do with the remains, we stacked them by the trashbins and put up a new tent the following year, this time bolted more firmly to the deck. The "legs" of the old tent make nice trellises flanking the gate and against the compost bins to make an attractive screen.
Workday done. Time for the backyard circus. Ball stands, hoop jumps, bunny tricks.
