Sunday, June 13, 2010

Bonfire

After our last pot luck, Sue, Donna and Buck had a bonfire to burn a lot of the trimmings from the cedar trees. The needles burn hot and fast and I took these pictures as night fell. I was eaten alive by the bugs, but it sure was a beautiful night.



Stay tuned!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


Pot Lucks

We usually have a monthly pot luck where we celebrate the birthdays occurring that month. At the May pot luck we honored Donna and Tom. (no picture, sorry.) In 30 minutes we went from this...

...to this.
Everyone likes to eat and our group has some supremely good cooks!!!

My corn casserole is always a hit!
A week later we celebrated the June birthdays, honoring Buck and Connie. (again, no picture, sorry.)
Here's Joey one week after her shoulder surgery, with her daughter, Heidi. Lookin' good!

This time we ate in the Alpaca enclosure at Jon T's. He and the alpacas were gone for a month but that didn't stop the group from using his facility. It was so hot that most people brought their dogs. We don't allow dogs around food, so we ate INSIDE the pen and the dogs ran around OUTSIDE the pen. (Is there a visual image here?) We sure eat well up here and the men enjoy the ladies' cooking.



I enjoy these gatherings because there is always time to talk with everyone we don't see during the week.

I didn't get a picture of the food table before eating, but this is what was left after the group passed through.
Stay tuned!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!







Moving the Garden

So, the story begins...I didn't have a garden last year as we were so busy with the house. My previous garden was back by the motorhomes, and I wanted my new garden near the house. So, Ted decided to move the old garden! First, he dig out the new location. I wish I had pictures of that, but missed it. He dug a really big hole and piled up the dirt "over there." Then, he went to the old garden and dug up the"good" dirt and put it in the new hole. The problem started when the new hole was bigger/deeper than the old hole. So, he ended up putting "bad" dirt on top of the rich soil from the old garden. (I really am going somewhere with this!) I raked stones and threw rocks as my contribution to the project. Then he filled the old hole with the dirt from the new hole!! WHEW!!

You wouldn't believe how many stones there are out here!
Anyway, we had to borrow Norman's rototiller and put in 5 70 pound bags of sand and 5 bags of dried steer manure because all the "good" dirt was now under the native soil. This is virgin land and the soil has NEVER been worked before. It is very hard and full of boulders, rocks and stones.

But the ground was too hard even for the rototiller. So, Ted and his backhoe came to the rescue again. He had to break up the dirt enough for the rototiller to be able to dig into the ground.





See the kind of rocks buried here?
Well, after a lot of hard work, including putting up the rabbit wire fencing, my garden was finished and I spread bark on the walking areas.
Then, I planted...MILK JUGS! Naw, they just serve as little green houses for the young plants until the threat of frost is over. Check out the size of these rocks. They all came from one garden or the other.
Stay tuned!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! and I'll keep you up to date on the squash (patti pan, delicata, acorn) and melons (cantaloupe, tropical) peas, rhubarb and lemon cucumbers!


Here's the ol' guy after a hard day's work, wearing my sun visor!!!!!





















The Container!

After living in the house for a year, we decided that a manufactured home just doesn't have enough storage space for BIG items and out-of-season necessities. So, we discussed building a 10x20 shed out back of the house. After researching prices, we decided that a 40x8 used shipping container made more sense, and "reduce, reuse, recycle." The U.S. has thousands of these surplus containers in storage yards usually near the ports of entry. Unfortunately, we import more than we export and we have a plethora of these in the U.S. So, here is the pictorial essay of the arrival and setting of the container.









OK, the guys are getting nervous here. They weren't very experienced, and didn't have the best equipment, and the container wouldn't come off the flatbed trailer.


Discussion time. I missed the shot when the container almost went over on its side, but was saved by the tree on the right. The tree survived, but my heart was beating FAST!

Ted to the rescue. (That darn backhoe sure comes in handy.)

See that little white pipe sticking out of the ground? It is a sewer line access point and we didn't want to break it off. Nasty repair job.



Check out the chains on the bucket as Ted maneuvers the container into place! Look how close he is to that little white pipe!
Stay tuned!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!