Let The Mowing Begin

I got started on hand mowing the sunny utility meadow and all the under lush that constitutes the wild cultivated gardens. There was a dry hole in the pea soup diagnosis of the next several days. No sense in letting it go to waste. Winter is bound to arrive at some point.

Can you believe there are actual baby shrubberies in the garden to be that become more noticeable when the under lush gets cut down.



I left the grasses for now. It will be a while before things start to turn green and some textural interest will be welcome.



I started yesterday actually and in two days I have made my way all the way over to the chimney on the far side of the sunny utility meadow. I am cutting all the dried dead stalks of the perennial wildflowers with a pair of manual hedge clippers. This particular pair has extendable handles making my reach longer and eliminating the need to stoop the whole time. That makes the task a bit less tiring.

The weed whacker is too noisy and the dried dead stalks too woody for it to be the tool of choice. Besides I enjoy the silence.



Even the old homestead becomes more visible once the five foot tall tangle of dried dead stalks is laid on the ground.



A few logs and rocks were moved in today's proceedings. Two long logs and many log sections that had been left in the meadow from the utility company's major chop four and a half years ago were moved to the perimeter of the meadow with the other rubbish piles that still remain from that long ago butchering.

I put a bunch of rocks in the hole right beside the path that Helen Yoest stepped in up to her knee when she came to visit. That freaked me out just a bit. The thing is the stream is under there. It is really a loose collection of huge boulders covered by copious amounts of the former lush. The stream itself is not stable below. It moves from side to side depending on the flow, filling things in and digging things out. This part of the path is always changing.



Why you might ask would I hand mow several acres of the dead dried stalks of perennials that are the lush of summer. Well I like a nice clean slate for spring. It makes the thousands and thousands of bulbs that will emerge from the ground more visible and more enjoyable. The returning lush won't need to grow so long before all the brown disappears and contact with the wet ground will speed up the decomposition of all the debris. At least I am not crazy enough to rake it all up and haul it away. Chop and drop will suffice.



This is supposed to be a garden after all, even if it is a wild one.

Attempting The Impossible

At The Wrong Time Of Year

They say pine trees will not transplant. They say the best tree planting time is in the spring or in the fall. So they say.

But a volunteer pine tree, most likely Pinus strobus or White Pine, is too close to the path and in the utility easement's danger zone. It might be the middle of winter, but the conditions of cool temperatures and days of rain to come are just right for transplanting, very fall or spring like. I have been eyeing it for years thinking I either need to move it or kill it. Today I decided to move it. I can be a gardening rebel at times.



If I was going to make the effort to move it, it did make sense to follow the rest of protocol for transplanting to increase the chances of survival. The lower limbs were removed to reduce the leaf/needle surface by a bit over 50% to slow water loss. A generous hole was dug around the tree to get a good portion of the roots.



That little green speck in the top center is the White Pine in its new home. It will hopefully add to my winter evergreen screening from the scenic byway. It was planted just slightly over the property line for a borrowed landscape effect and just out of reach of the utility company. Good luck little pine tree.



It is in a spot where it should get some decent morning to midday sun during the time of vegetation. Plenty more sun in the winter of course. I have seen white pines in significantly less than full sun conditions that are doing quite well. They are not quite as dense in shadier sites, but full enough.



The baby pine is taller than it appears in these pictures. Late last fall a ravenous hoard of caterpillars ate all the needles off the upper branches. The trees fate was undecided and I was too fascinated by the ravenous hoard to disturb them. I think they were just getting it ready to transplant.



If all goes well in another decade or so only invited guests will get the full scenic view of the cozy cabin. The rubberneckers on the highway above will have to settle for tiny glimpses through an undulating screen of evergreens.



It has been gently and intermittently raining all day. The snow in the diagnosis is iffy and many days away. Snow isn't really a problem for the baby pine. It is bone chilling arctic temperatures that could freeze the ground deeply and cut off its water supply that could be hazardous. That just hasn't been happening in this winter that isn't.

Good luck little pine tree. Show us that anything is possible.

I Got Nothin'

I keep imagining that winter is bound to arrive and hang around at some point. Until then I might as well keep moving. A sunny sixty degree day had to be put to use. I wandered down to town and cut down a whole bunch of Miscanthus grasses in a client's garden. It is perhaps a bit early, but they are down south for the duration and won't care. Now that I am much more client rich, come spring time when real gardening kicks back in and I get busy it will be good to have some chores already done.

My grasses can stay until the bitter end. My grasses also look significantly more skeletal and battered then those lower down in the safe warm valleys and we haven't even had winter yet.



I might as well get started on cutting down the two and a half acres of the dead dried stalks of all the perennials that comprise the under lush in the wild cultivated gardens. Winter is not being any help at all.

It's a shame I can't train these cats to do chores.



They are only interested in chasing varmints, eating and napping.



That's all I got today.

A Cleansing Fire

The new rubbish pile generated from the removal of the dead hemlocks was not allowed to linger. Before it got cold, wet and moldy, up in flames it went. Fast too. The stuff had been dead for a while.



Today was a day for a good cleansing. Four and half years after it all began the look and feel of a construction site is finally disappearing.



The collectibles are all in one pile now off in the corner in the back behind the dung heap. When and if I ever get around to building a little garden shed the remaining collectibles will all be inside a pretty box. Half that pile is the shed.



All that will be left to capture the visitor's attention will be the finely considered details of a cozy little cabin in a garden of exuberant chaos high on the low spot of a North Carolina mountain top.



There is even enough room for a big garden party now.



If you don't mind partying next to dung.

A Good Day To Remove Things

The dishwasher hoses were detached and drained at the house next door this morning. The furnace was shut off. The house has been officially winterized and removed from service for the winter now that it is headed back to 60 degrees by the weekend.

I was most pleased to see that my cabin building and renting neighbor who harvested the dead hemlocks took me up on the offer for a free stack of 1x5 composite trim board. They were all gone when I got back from town. I am sure he will find the trim boards a very good home.

I went to town to have a second squamous cell carcinoma in three years excised from my forearm and a somewhat large and poorly placed mole ripped off. Unfortunately I have that kind of skin. It was a good day to remove things. No appointments allowed and no waiting at the dermatology clinic. It may get busier in the summer when people start shedding their clothes. Trying to find a tiny fan in the winter to blow warm air into the insulated plumbing box with the added heat tape that wasn't up to the task is proving to be another matter. Three out of four is pretty good for one day.



Tomorrow when the snow has finished melting I will attack and reorganize the piles of collectibles again. That big stack of 1x5 composite trim board was holding me up. I just couldn't see throwing it away if someone could use it.

There will be a pile for the dump. A pile for burning. A pile for the regular garbage. A pile for the nursery recycling. A pile for money making metal recycling. A pile of good wood to save. There may be a fair amount of storage shed framing in there. I even gathered a pile of new rocks generated from the dead hemlock harvest. There's bound to be some left over collectibles in there. I'm saving all the left over tile for a mosiac I might maybe possibly get around to one day somewhere in the distant future.

My main goal is to turn three piles of collectibles into one.



One day hopefully all my collectible trash will have been successfully turned into art in the garden.



I have to get rid of all this stuff. Beside the fact that most of it is truly garbage and an eyesore, more collectibles keep following me home and I need the room. Now what am I going to do with these old windows from the house my grandfather built? I just know I've seen things done to windows like these and sold for a chunk of change in galleries. I can do something to them and use them in the garden.



This winter that hasn't been has truly been a luxury. More rubbish has been removed from the garden to be in the last month than in the last few years it seems. By spring I may have close to a blank slate.



All the baby shrubberies will become more noticeable. The idea that a garden is being born will take hold without all the rubbish distracting your attention.



This winter that hasn't been should even be good for the baby camellias to get established so they will live long and prosper. I still have 17.5 degrees to loose before their labeled hardiness is breached.



I'm practically astounded at the amount of gardening related projects that have been accomplished so far this winter. So much progress has been made.



"Look mama. There's a crazy man out there gardening (cleaning up his trash) in the dead of winter." Yep. That's me.

At 7.5 Degrees

The insulated plumbing box with the added heat tape was not up to the task. Three out of five of the cold water lines froze. The hot water lines were fine thank goodness. I lost the toilet, cold half of the shower and the cold to the washing machine. I was not pleased.



After contemplating the situation I wandered next door to see what I might find to add a little heat to the insulated plumbing box with the added heat tape that was not up to the task. I saw two options, wrap the outside of the box with an electric blanket or blow hot air into the box from the inside using the extra water line hole through the sub floor that I ended up with. My preferred choice was to blow hot air in from the inside where it was a wee bit more comfy than the conditions outdoors. Would there be a blow dryer over there?

I walked slowly to see what I might see on the way over. There was no rush. I wasn't going anywhere and the blizzard was subsiding. The new big rock with snow looks nice.



The contorted spruce has been sending up a new vertical limb. It's nice to see it wanting to grow taller. It replaced a normal blue spruce someone borrowed for their Christmas tree many years ago. Let's hope no one with odd tastes ever needs an odd Christmas tree.



The snow plow has been MIA all day. That usually means it is snowing all over and not just up top. When it only snows up top the snow plow comes by round and round all night and all day. The mail didn't even get up here today. So much for sleet and snow and appointed rounds and all that rot.



I had left the furnace next door set to about 45 degrees since I have not drained the dishwasher lines over there yet and didn't want it to freeze. The furnace drain line froze though and the furnace was drowning in its own fluids that it could not get rid of. So I disconnected that drain line so the water exhaust could drip into a bucket inside and the furnace could breath again. Lord help me.

It dawned on me while I was searching through cabinets and closets for some way to add heat to the insulated plumbing box with the added heat tape that was not up to the task that I could use my shop vac as a blower by reversing the hose. What I needed was a funnel to reduce my blower out put down to the size of my extra water line hole in the sub floor. So I got one funnel out of the kitchen drawer and went back home.

I dug the fire caulking out of the extra water line hole in the sub floor, reversed the shop vac to a blower, taped on the funnel, jammed it in the hole and in just a couple minutes I had the toilet and cold water shower line unfroze and working. That was easy. I moved the funnel over to the washing machine line because it was on the other side of a floor joist and started blowing. I blew all afternoon and could not get the washing machine cold water line unfroze.

This was toying with my sanity. The insulated plumbing box isn't that big. I blew and blew and blew and it wouldn't unfreeze. It's insulated. The warm air I was adding was supposed to stay in there. Aargh!! It's a day when you feel like pulling your hair out.



Well the good news is the well head didn't freeze. The stock tank cover and heat tape wrap worked there. The main water line coming out of the ground and entering the house didn't freeze. The insulation wrap and heat tape worked there. The other good news is that once the toilet and shower were unfroze there were no leaks. Those two pipes did not crack praise be. I'll find out about the washing machine line later when it should feel warm enough to cooperate. It's 12 degrees now. That may be a while and I am tired of listening to the shop vac blow.

I guess I also now know I can add heat through the extra water line hole in the sub floor. I just need to start adding it before it reaches 7.5 degrees. A tiny little fan, a funnel and some tubing might be all I need. Add tiny quiet fan to get list.



There was a time when people did not have to worry about their pipes freezing. That was before indoor plumbing was the norm. That is worth thinking about.

Trapped Inside

In a blizzard. Maybe not an official blizzard, but I don't care how much snow is falling, if the wind is gusting to 25 mph and higher and the temperature is currently 14 degrees, it's a blizzard.

Give Me Rocks

And I will play with them.



My too big to wiggle rocks got moved by the machine this morning. I had six of them pulled out of the heap where they had been dumped and used them to mark entrances to garden paths.



There were more rocks in that heap than I knew. It was partially rearranged in a more pleasing configuration.



These two were the really big ones. After all the rocks I have schlepped around this mountain top it is almost sad how quick and easy a machine can move giant boulders. Still, ten hours of sleep had me feeling refreshed and ready to play with rocks. After the machine moved them some wiggling was still involved with the smaller rocks.



The rocks are becoming a major presence on the grounds of Ku'ulei A'ina. And there are plenty more that still need homes. The place is turning into a Rockopolis. I had to do something with all these rocks.

Now what can I do about this horrible telephone pole?



All the dead hemlock logs are gone. The last bit of cleanup can be done, whenever, after the machine leaves in the morning maybe. The dung heaps were damaged in the dead tree removal operation. Not damaged enough that I could say they have been turned. I will have to turn them by hand. One wire cage was squashed like a bug by a falling monster hemlock. It was useless anyway. There was no way the caged dung could be turned in there. I will set it free and stick with heaps of dung from now on.



There is real kind cold headed this way according to the diagnosis with a good chance of snow. The winds are already howling. I had to seize the opportunity this warm and snow free day presented in the roadside vegetable garden. Another load of woodchip mulch was fetched and spread. That ten hours of sleep did wonders.



I saved a few bags of woodchips for the newly planted Lycoris bulbs. A little extra insulation can't hurt. I see a low of 14 in the diagnosis. If it gets that low, that will be the record for this winter so far.



There just might be some long afternoon naps in the coming days. That would be nice.