Happenings and more progress on the Honey Do list(s)

Its been a while since I updated, but lots have been happening slowly but surely...
Life is too short, so no point rushing it... :-)

So far we have transplanted 32 trees and bushes around my property. These includes all the existing trees that we moved and the new ones we bought.
End of July we stopped transplanting, and we only worked in the morning after breakfast or in the evening after supper to avoid the heat stress, both on the plants and ourselves :-)

Part of these was to establish a fruit orchard:

Some we bought

Some we moved... from my land...

Some from her land.

Cleared some of the vegetation...

and established a small fruit orchard.

3 kinds of Apples, 2 kind of Plums and 2 kind of Pears.

To come next year Peach trees...

Some tree saplings growing on my land were moved 

to establish more privacy down the road.

These are Silver Birch.

Talking of Silver Birch, we have one growing in the back of the house, near the deck giving us shade, privacy and a place to hang bird feeders to watch them.

Heather was very attached to this tree, no matter its sad shape. She was always the defender of the underdogs. As much as we both wanted a newer bigger deck, I was not allow to cut it down, build around it she said!

The tree in question, has a severe lean to the left...

I was never too sold on the idea and would prefer getting it out of the way. It may have straightened up at the tip, seeking the sun, but it is only a matter of time before it will fall over. Some winter it really bow down from the icy loads.

So what now? Well, a good friend of us, David, told me to transplant a part of the tree somewhere else on my property, in Heather's memory, then cut down the tree. Problem solved and I get to sleep not feeling guilty :-)

Her little Silver Birch sapling is doing fine.

The angel statue holding a small dog is...

Heather holding Rudy

 Our gardens in the back are well established by now and we have a bounty of vegetables for us and flowers for the various beds up front.

This garden protected by Rudy :-)

The Canna in the back are almost 10 feet high. 

The potatoes plants up front have flowered and are taking over, 

time to harvest...

Some of the flowers from our gardens are used to 

decorate Heather's resting place...

Green Bell peppers

Two kinds of red Radishes

Typical daily pick:

Cucumber, potatoes, radish

The tomatoes and cucumbers are about to invade us, they are seemingly everywhere...  (Note to myself, put in less plants and seeds next year :-)

The potatoes have all been harvested, we have about 10 pounds of potatoes.
The Zucchini are starting to be harvested, some leaf salads remains, but the red, the Romaine and the Swiss chards have all been harvested and eaten :-)
The poor carrots were found under the big leafy salads. Oups, way too close, the poor things are starved for sun. With the salads mostly gone, they now have full sun, but I don't expect to see much carrots in my near future... :-)

The fruit gardens meanwhile have been producing red Raspberries, Strawberries and a still unknown grape vine varieties. The three kinds of cultivated variety of Blueberries are coming along nicely (if Rudy would just stop eating them :-) and we already harvested wild blueberries from the fields around us. There are some patches of wild blueberries, black berries and a few other here and there to discover on my land.

Here is a recent woodworking project. Got a small load of Brown Pressure Treated lumber, two 2X6X8 and some 5 inch wide decking boards. Stopped at the Woodshop on base to rip the 2X6s and decking boards in half. Bought some hardware on our way from the woodshop to home. Coated the cut surfaces with Brown preservative, let dry overnight. Next time I could get to it, after a few hours, I had a proper treillis installed.

Had to stand up inside my trailer to be able

 to drive down my 8 footer post

That red berry mysteriously disappeared

 after this photo was taken...:-)

I did not forgot my rocking chair rebuilt project in the month of June...

And so it was, on the 56th of June, I started to glued back the undercarriage to the split top...

Today, I am hoping to glue the split top back as one.

Notice how worn out the runners are...

 We have been also busy setting up various places around my property for sitting down and resting.  We used to have only the two Muskoka chairs facing the fire pit. Muskoka chairs are the Canadian equivalent to the American Adirondack chairs. Both named from famous cottage country sites. One big difference are that the Canadian version always had the back curved, while the classic Adirondack have a straight back. 

Heather painted these Muskoka chairs on 22 Jul 2012.

They have weathered very well, and yes 

they spent their winter in the garden shed.

They used to face our fire pit in the backyard

Now they faced the garden, so we can enjoy it.

The plants surrounding the chairs contains some which repels mosquitoes by their smell, you just have to rub them with your hands to activate their protection when you sit down :-)

A few more sitting area have been set up so we can enjoy the various views and find refuge from the sun. Depending on the time of the day, we will be sitting at various ones... chasing the sun as it goes over my property

The first one to be set up was the hamac area.

Complete with bottle and drink holders :-)

We often finished the nite curled up in the hamac...

 The next one was setting up a small bistro table set in front of the house behind the front flower bed. As the plants goes in bloom and grow, we have good privacy and still can enjoy the view...

There is often a nice breeze in the afternoon, 

perfect spot to relax after supper.

We are currently setting up a new spot for the infamous "June rocking chair"

This lamp will receive a LED candle

We put down heavy duty weed suppression fabric

under the features.

View from the sofa.

June chair in progress temporarily in place...

... to get a feel for the effect we are after.

After emptying the rain barrel, took it down to put some weed suppression fabric under, it was difficult to keep clean otherwise.

Found out that hose to empty the barrel is cracked, 

I need to replace it before I refill the barrel

Woodworking wise, I have a few more projects on the go, juggling between others priorities...

Got two old treillis to fix, scrape and paint, 

then set them up somewhere. Probably for the rose bushes

Then there is the Tool post station which need a new door. The slab of pine door has curved too much. Oh surprise... Would need a laminated door with battens.

And talking of tool station, she likes it so much, I need to build two more for up front gardens and fruit production area.

Came across this lounging chair in my travel to local nurseries, I like it, its also very comfortable. To add to my ever growing to do list :-)

Doubled up 3/4 in plywood construction for the frame and

 solid wood slats on top. Interesting...

I have two pyramid treillis to build above the two tree stumps on front. These would be a mixture of wood and copper pipes, should be a fun project.

These two garden gnomes would be replaced by Pyramid treillis

The Boring till project, which have been stalled for a while, still need completion. And since starting it, I have accumulated a few more braces and hand drills, so... new holders are required :-)

My pile of tool downstairs is growing fast, 

time to sort and store them. More has been added since this pic :-)

No shortage of projects just a shortage of time to do them all...

But they will get done, in between the grand kids visits, which incidentally always resulted in most of the ripe berries disappearing mysteriously :-),  trips and vacations here and there.

Rudy stole a golf ball from the neighbour :-) 

Does not take much to amuse him...

In between all these I am also busy with my various clubs and related projects. My small raised beds garden in my backyard also served as an experiment for one of my Rotary club projects: implementing food production gardens in Elementary schools and keeping the school cafeterias opened. Jean and I also volunteer at our local food bank, I can see tomatoes in their future ... :-)

No one should go hungry, we try to help 

Bob, stopping to smell the flowers. Rudy don't eat all the berries!...