Rocks, rocks, and more rocks...

The idea was..oh, so long ago...to cut waaay down on all the flower beds around here, and bring it all together into one.  Once I started making a list of what I really wanted to keep I realized that I was ready to let a lot of things go-but not my rocks.  Yes, I said "my rocks".  I worked hard collecting these rocks, and they've been around a long time.  Over the years I've moved them here and there and everywhere, every time I started a new gardening project, and besides the attachment I have to them, rock gardening is easier than flower gardening, I'd rather keep the rocks than all those flowers!  I never thought it would take so long to bring it all together, but now.finally..after being delayed by rain and mud, injuries, and lack of stamina..this job is finished!  Oh, I still have plants to move to...somewhere, and old flower beds to rake out and plant grass seed in, and yesterday as I was throwing a bag of garbage in the garbage can I was eyeing the old kennel, thinking about ripping it down, and I suddenly remembered that there's a flower bed in the kennel..just packed full of daffodils and daylilies!  I wanted to cry...

August. The beginning. The fence is up, the bed measured out, a few border rocks in place, and a few things planted.

September. The "rubble wall", my favorite type of rock wall to build.  I forget how long it is, 27 feet I think, that's a lotta' rocks there!

October.  Rod's pointing to the last rock, the one that I called "the door".  I had to keep a space open in the border to go in and out of to work, and for a long time talked about the day I could walk out and close the door!  The last rock was the one of two that I could not move myself, I moved and placed every other rock there, I think there are a million!  Rod is getting ready to dig the last hole for me so that I can plant the last plant.  My knee was throbbing (another story) so he insisted on helping me..what a sweetie!

Following are some pictures I took today of the finished project..next spring I'll add some little garden doo-dads here and there.  You'll see I put some of my broken Campbell's pottery here and there!  I couldn't get the whole thing in one shot so I took three.  The left side, the middle, and the right side.

 Where the rock piles were, this is what I had left so I built a little rubble wall and in the spring I'll plant weeds that attract butterflies and bees, probably some sunflowers too since the bird feeder is right there.

Catching up.

Happy Birthday Dear Haaarleeey, Happy Birthday To Yooooouuu..

September 9, 2011, Harley's 2nd birthday.

Wow, it's been a long time since I posted, I've been so busy but I feel that I haven't accomplished much!  What an awful feeling!  The landscaping is still not done, it's the never ending project, and it haunts me.  Instead of sitting here, I should be out there, even if it is raining! 

So, what have I been doing?  I've been rockscaping when I've had time to work on the landscape, which means that I've been recovering "my rocks" from all over the yard from flower beds and the pond which are being discontinued!  Silly as it may sound, these rocks are special to me, some of them I've had for a very long time, and quite a few have a story behind them!  I have moved them from various locations whenever I have done away with a flower bed and started a new one, and they originally came into my yard through lots of searching, digging, and very hard work to bring them home.  I'm not about to discard them now!

I finally have the border finished, with one side being a "rubble wall".  Any rock that weighs more than 40 lbs. was moved with the hand truck, and there were quite a few of those!  Several times I had to get Chris to help me, and he'd roll the rock onto the hand truck for me, some will never be moved, unless I hire someone with a backhoe.  The secret to rockscaping using the hand truck method is all in the placement, load the rock on the hand truck so that when I reach my destination I can just tip the hand truck and the rock rolls right into place, no adjustments needed.  I got pretty good at it!  Rockscaping is like putting a puzzle together, a really heavy puzzle that has the potential to harm you if you're not careful ( and I did! Smashed my middle finger on my right hand between two rocks, and the nail eventually fell off!).  A lot of thought goes into which rock to put beside the last one, I study the edge of the rock already in place, then walk around looking for another rock that will fit in right beside it- nice and snug.  It is a very long process, and I want to get it right the first time,occasionally I don't like what I see and start again.

Getting started. This picture was taken over a month ago.

  

The square marked out by landscaping fabric is where I want the only flower bed I'll have to be, and I'm planting it with shrubs and carefree flowers like daylilies.

This picture taken today shows the completed rubble wall and border. I've moved all shrubs and trees I plan to keep and am working on the daylilies and rock arrangements on the inside of the square.  I have a big pile of mulch to finish it off with.

I have 6 tons of flagstone waiting to be laid, they will be a patio off the deck and a walkway from the sidewalk on the other side of the fence to the patio.  That will have to wait until next spring.  Any rocks that I don't use will be made into another rubble wall along the edge of the woods.  Any daylilies I don't use will be planted along the edge of the house.  I know I won't be done transplanting this year, I don't have anywhere to move the hundreds of daffodil bulbs to, I wanted to plant them randomly through the woods just off the yard, but it turns out I can't dig a hole in the woods because of all the tree roots!  I may just plant them along the edge of the yard, then when they're done blooming they can mowed over... but for now, they can just stay where they're at.. there's always tomorrow.

And when I wasn't moving rocks, or working at church, or whatever I did all summer, I was working in the garden.  I was surprised at what grew in the horrible clay soil there!  I had about 3 bushels of sweet corn that we ate right away or I froze to eat later this winter.  I pickled cucumbers and beets, and made spaghetti sauce, pizza sauce, and salsa, and canned green beans.  The potato harvest is horrible, as is the pepper crop.  The pepper plants grew beautifully but the sweet peppers produced nothing, and the Jalapeno's are just getting started.  Same with tomato plants, very little production.  I planted one plant each of 12 heirloom varieties for the fun of it, at least half I will never grow again, my favorite for sauce was "Box Car Willie", the prettiest tomato in the garden was "Big Rainbow".  The green beans are still producing heavily (please stop!).  I also froze a little butternut squash, I'm the only one who eats it so I didn't need much. And I still have lots of onions that will grow for another month or so. As always, I look forward to canning and freezing, and a month later I'm looking forward to it being over! 



There are 5 varieties of tomatoes in this picture, not counting the sweet cherries behind the pile of beans. From these few tomatoes I made enough sauce for seven pizza's.  Those are Jalapeno peppers on top of the tomatoes.

  

"Calgon...take me away!"

Remember the old Calgon bath beads commercial?  A woman has had a difficult day, but everything is ok after she sinks into a hot bath with Calgon added to it.  That phrase became quite popular for awhile, and was used as a way of expressing when someone was approaching the limit of their tolerance... (through gritted teeth) "Calgon...take me away!"

Today was my appointment with the orthopedic surgeon, my appointment was at 8:30 in Erie at Erie Sports Medicine located in the professional building at 100 Peach St. on the 4th floor. The directions were to take the Bayfront Highway to State St. Turn right on State, then right on 2nd St.  These turns were only 1 block distances apart, I'm telling you this for a reason, which I'll get to later.

Google said it would take about 45 min. to get to my destination, and I was not running late, in fact I was ready early enough to apply a coat of fingernail polish just before I went out the door.  As I reached across the counter to turn off the light, my arm brushed against a box of Harley's Milk Bone Mini's that were on the counter.  The box fell onto it's side, and the top flipped open spewing Milk Bone Mini's all across the floor.  I couldn't believe it...and neither could Harley!  He did not jump on them, but I knew that I couldn't leave them there on the floor, so I grabbed a broom and swept them onto a dustpan.  As I was rushing out the door I heard crunching sounds, I guess I had missed a few in my hurry to sweep them up and Harley was cleaning them up for me.

The quickest route to Erie for us is to take Mackey Hill Rd. to Mill Village, then to Waterford, and then to Erie.  It should take 10 minutes to get to Mill Village, and another 10 to Waterford.  But, this morning it took me 30 minutes to get to Waterford...

First I had to take a detour on Mackey Hill.  Now, if there had been a sign up at the beginning of Mackey Hill Rd. saying that the road was closed 3 miles ahead, I would have gone a different way.  But, Pendot decided to wait to notify traffic that the road was closed, and there was a detour, until we actually reached the road closing.  By then, I wasn't going to turn around and retrace that 3 miles, so I took the detour.  The detour was a gravel road with lots of potholes, rather treacherous, and there was a motorcycle in front of me taking it nice and slow...luckily, in the last phase of the detour, he decided to pull over and let me pass him.

As I got to the end of the detour and turned back onto Mackey Hill, a Pendot truck pulled out in front of me and crawled along at 25 mph.  As soon as I could I passed it, and then I really started driving as if I was going to be late...because I was...really going to be late.

I finally got to Mill Village, rounded a curve, and there was a train going down the tracks, and a line of vehicles waiting for it to pass, with the first one in line being a tractor trailer.  In all the many years I've taken this route to Erie, I've never encountered a train on these particular tracks, but there just had to be one there this morning !  And this was a long one, at least it seemed that way to me.  Finally, it passed and we all took off as if we were all late for appointments!  With the semi truck leading the way we were blazing along at 65 mph, and I started to hope that I might only be a few minutes late...

So far in my story, the roads I traveled were back country sort of roads, with the exception of the road we were driving 65 mph on, that was a two lane road.  So, once I got through the town of Waterford, and was on a road with passing zones and no road construction, I hoped to be able to close the last 15 minutes to Erie fairly quickly.  That was not to be...instead I was 5th in a very long line of cars stuck behind a car that drove 45 mph tops all the way to Erie.

Once in Erie I had to make my way through the mall traffic, and all the traffic lights, to get to Interstate 79 which I would take to the Bayfront Highway.  I actually made it through all that fairly quickly, but once I was on the Bayfront I got into bumper to bumper traffic.  I finally made it to the turn onto State St., then onto 2nd St  There was a professional building on my right, I saw 100 across the top of the door,I turned right like my directions said to, and saw the entrance to the parking lot was blocked off due to CONSTRUCTION!!  I kept driving around to the back of the building, found a parking spot and went in the back door.  I took the elevator to the 4th floor, there were three offices on the 4th floor and none of them were Erie Sports Medicine.  I frantically scanned the listings board, and did not see Sports Medicine there!  I was so confused, and already late for my appointment, and was really feeling very stressed out!!  I decided to re-trace my steps and try to figure out what was wrong.  I got back on the elevator and went to the 1st floor, where I didn't recognize anything.  I looked over a balcony and through the window on the next floor down I could see my van in the back parking lot, apparently I shouldn't have gotten off at the 1st floor ...but I didn't see a way to get down to the floor below other than leaping over the balcony, so it was back to the elevator!  I turned around from the balcony and there was a man in a suit standing there looking at me...smiling kindly...and he said,"you look like you're lost".  I said I seemed to be, and asked him if he knew what floor Erie Sports Medicine was on.  He then told me I was in...  the wrong building .... I was at 100 State St., 100 Peach St., where I needed to be, was just across the street, but I couldn't walk there, I had to move my car to their parking lot.  He said that if security saw me walk across the street from their building they would find my car and have it towed!  Sheesh!  So, I told him I was late for an appointment, and he quickly told me how to get to the floor below (B1 selection in the elevator, not the 1st floor) so I could get to my van.  I went as fast as I could, jumped in my van and drove across the street, got a parking stub, and hurried into the correct building. I was only 10 minutes late!  I just don't know how that happened, it really doesn't add up...I should have been much later than 10 minutes! 

My appointment went well, my knee has improved so much that I was almost embarrassed to be there.  The doctor wiggled my leg this way and that, and only hurt me once.  He didn't think surgery was something we should jump into, and I was really glad to hear that!  I go back to see him in 6 weeks.  I'm quite sure I'll have no problem finding my way there this time... 

Sorry, but my crazy story hasn't ended quite yet.

As I was walking back to my car I glanced at a board that listed the hourly parking fees.  I saw that I was going to owe $2.  I instantly had a sinking sensation, I remembered that a few days before I had spent my last dollar on gas.  I didn't have any money with me!  I dug all through my purse and found $1.70 in my change purse.  The little stash drawer in the dash where I keep quarters for emergencies was empty, I searched everywhere in the car for loose change, but could not find the 30 cents I needed...  I pulled up to the parking guy who was watching tv and smoking in his little booth, I told him all I had was $1.70 and I'd have to use my debit card.  He said, "don't take debit"... I said," credit?"... he said, "nope"...  I looked at him... he looked at me...  and I said, "all I have is $1.70."  He smiled and said,"I'll take a check."  So, I had to write a check for TWO DOLLARS!!  The tv watching, smoking, parking guy was amused...I smiled back at him and I decided I would be amused too.

After all, it could have been much, much worse...
So glad it wasn't..

Calgon...take me away..... 

Owww-eeee...

I've hurt myself again! 

I tried to pretend it wasn't so, but there's no ignoring the pain...  I had so many things to finish before I could start transplanting my trees and shrubs, and certainly transplanting in July isn't the ideal time, but that's how it worked out for me.  So, the garden is planted- and growing quite well.  Grass seed is planted- and not growing so well (it's July ya know), now I have this window of time to transplant and get the landscaping finished before it's time to start canning and freezing what's growing in the garden.

I bought two Japanese Maples on Thursday, Red Dragon and Full Moon, they're waiting close by for their turn to be planted.  Friday afternoon I transplanted one huge hosta into it's new home, it looks so nice there in front of the porch!   Then Chris and I made a very quick trip to Erie and bought the materials for a 24' fence that I want in my landscaping, and the fence needs to be in place before I start planting anything.  When we got home I started to clear the area for the fence, I took a step sideways, heard a loud CRACK come from my left knee cap, and had some pretty serious pain as a result.  I "walked it off" and Chris and I started to move the grill, each step I took I was in agony.  So, I dropped everything and went inside.

Friday night was very bad with lots of pain, and actually, so was Saturday.  Saturday I had a lot of swelling, so I stopped wearing the wraps.  Today is a bit better, with some new pain located in my calf muscles.

This is not acceptable...  I have so much to do...  I finally have reached the point where I can do the landscaping that I've been mentally planning for months...  and now... THIS... 

Well...ya know... I dig with my right foot....

Wednesday the 13th:
A few days have passed since I wrote the above, and I'm no longer in denial.  I have had something serious happen to my knee, that is obvious.  I have an appointment on the 26th to see an orthopaedic surgeon, the surgeon who repaired Rod's acl tear, and his miniscus tear.

I have to fight depression... in one small moment in time, with one small step... everything changed and I am once again unable to continue on with finishing the plans for the house. First it was the weather setting us back, and now this injury.  Certainly, things could be much worse, I keep reminding myself of that.. There's a reason for everything, there's a reason for everything.....

I'm still tempted to try digging, I've found ways to do a couple things that seemed impossible with this injury (like bathing the dog), but I can't figure out how to dig up plants with only one working leg...




Preparing to install the fence, the Red Dragon Japanese Maple in the foreground,
the one plant I transplanted on the left.

 


Two sections down, one more to go!  See the Full Moon Japanese Maple on the right? 
It's so pretty, the leaves are green and edged in red!

 

Isn't it just amusing that grass is growing, all on it's own, where I don't want it to grow.  But, I have to struggle to get it to grow where I want it...

How does my garden grow, and an entertainment center.

The garden is growing, despite the rocky, clay soil it's planted in, and despite the rain that doesn't seem to end!  I can't remember if I mentioned this in an earlier post, we fertilized the garden space with guano- bat poop.  I didn't know how much to use, so I used all that I could get my hands on.  Rod swept it up from the barn floor and brought me bucket loads, but that supply is gone...if only I could work out a deal with the bats to poop when they fly over the garden.... Knowing that probably isn't going to happen, I've been searching for dried chicken manure.  I found several online stores that sell it, but finally found it in 50 lb. bags at a local farm supply store.  Now my fertilizer problem is solved, if only it wouldn't rain quite so much!  We haven't stepped into the yard or the garden in days, to do so would result in becoming stuck and having to leave your shoes behind in the mud to slog to safety!  Half the yard had been cleared of the debris that was raked up with the York rake, and I managed to get that area planted with grass seed before the rain started.  According to the weather forecast we were supposed to have steady rain for a day, warm temperatures, then on again off again rain for a few more days, perfect for starting grass!  What we got instead were cloud bursts, such heavy rain that it washed the grass seed into the puddles that formed in the yard.  I can see this from the door in Chris's room, I can't see if ALL the seed did this, but if the seed does sprout grass, it will probably grow in clumps with sparse areas in between.  Grass seed is expensive..I was really bummed out about this event.
On Wednesday evening, while Chris was at Youth Group, I planned to do some shopping.  On the way to the store I realized I had forgotten my list and all my coupons, and suddenly I was left trying to think what to do for two hours.  So, I wandered into stores I've never been in before, the first one was a furniture store that sells only Sauder furniture, which is mostly office and bedroom furniture.  It's inexpensive because it's not solid wood and you have to assemble it yourself.  I've been looking for an entertainment center but they are so expensive and I'm not willing to spend so much money on one piece of furniture.  But, there was one at the Sauder furniture store that I could live with, and it was on sale...for one more day.  So, with that series of events that changed my plans for the evening, I ended up with an entertainment center, in two heavy boxes, that got loaded into my van. Then the nightmare began....according to the instructions the first step was to unpack everything, compare it to the parts list, and make sure everything was there.  That took me until 1:30 am to do that, and in doing so realized that at least half of the parts were not labeled and the only way to know what part the unlabeled ones were was to study them closely and compare them to the pictures on the parts list, that's why I was up so late.  The next day I started to assemble, I made two horrible mistakes and had to go backwards to fix them, I was able fix the mistakes, but that took a lot of time.  By 3:30 am I had everything together except the drawers, which I finished when I got up this morning.  Now when the guys get home we can move the tv onto the center and set it in place, and hopefully it won't fall apart!  That was a really big job, but I would do it again, I don't mind that it's not high quality furniture, especially when I think of the 100's and 100's of dollars I saved!  I'm going to need that money I saved to buy more grass seed!!

The Garden:

Besides seeing Rod raking debris with the York rake, you can also see the garden behind him and compare it to the next picture.  The plants that look as if they are coming out of Rod's face are potato plants...  The next picture is just one week later....

The plants at the bottom of the picture are those potato plants I pointed out in the first picture.  Amazing amount of growth, I need to work out there, tie up tomatoes, thin onions and beets...but, I know I would sink if I try to walk there.

The Entertainment Center:

These are most of the parts to put this thing together, labeled and laid out in the order I'd use them in.
The old stand we used when we lived in the garage is in the background, Chris will get that for his room.

The finished project, Harley is very happy to have floor space to sprawl in again!  He didn't care much for this production, he'd sit and stare at me with big sad eyes.  When I had to work on the floor he'd walk between my arms and sit on whatever I was working on.  And he really didn't like me staying up so late, he had several methods of letting me know it was time to go to bed!

A Tribute to My Brother.

Mel Miller

November 4, 1953

June 24, 2006

Five years ago today my brother Mel passed away.  To think of one story to tell about him would be impossible, there are so many, he was quite a character!  I find that when I try to list his qualities here in this tribute I become to heavy- hearted to do that, I'll tell a few stories about him instead, and I'll tell you that if you were to have just met Mel for the first time you would know instantly that you were meeting someone who possessed the finest qualities found in people.  To know him was to love him, in his lifetime he touched many people, and he is greatly missed by his family and friends. 

I must say that there are many times when something occurs that we instantly think of Mel, For instance, he earned his living as a carpenter...I wonder what he would have thought of our house building project?  And, of course, we can't play a game of cards without Mel's name coming up... he was the expert on "Howle's Rules", quite often referring to them to tip the scales in his favor.  I don't want to say he cheated, but there were suspicious rules he quoted at certain moments of play, when he would then be accused of making them up!  It was just like him to take a peek at the cards in your hand, then tell you that he hadn't peeked- that you had shown your hand to him.  He had such a teddy bear quality to him that he could get away with that sort of thing, even though he would usually push us to the limit of our patience!  He certainly didn't need to cheat to win, ever since we were kids he had a knack to always win at games!  When we played Monopoly Mel would own all the property's, have all the money in the bank stacked in front of him, and the rest of the players were bankrupt!  And that streak continued as adults, no matter what the game.  The only person who gave him a run for his money in our family was mom, especially at word games.  They would play Scrabble for hours...

His winning streak was also legend when it came to deer hunting, he always got his deer, and usually filled all his tags, meaning he got more than one deer in a season. 

For many years Mel and I were the only members of the Miller clan left living in PA, we lived about 50 minutes from each other.  In hindsight, I wish that we had spent more time together...  The last time I saw Mel alive was on Father's Day of 2006, just two days before his accident on June 20, 2006.  He had several pieces of cheesecake and fresh strawberries with us, and we talked and talked, he stayed late, and as usual I worried about him driving home, afraid that he would fall asleep at the wheel.  Chris wanted to show him a game he played on the computer, since there was room for only one chair there, Chris sat on Mel's leg.  I'll always remember that scene, Chris was much to big to sit on anyones lap, and Mel could barely walk when the game was over and he finally stood up because his leg was asleep.  Mel didn't have any children of his own, but he loved kids-and they loved him! 

Uncle Mel, the kiddies pal...

A poem I read once jarred me, sort of jumped off the page and into my face, because in a few words it described my brother quite well.  I copied and saved it, and today it should be in The Meadville Tribune along with the picture above...

His life earnest, his actions kind,

A willing hand, an active mind,

Anxious to please, loath to offend,

A loving brother and faithful friend.

The 80's....

                            Dad and Mel       Mel and Seth (camping at Caskey's)

 Mel and Joe

                               Mel and Ben playing football, "Blue two,blue two!"

                             Mel dancing with Donna, brother Bill on the right.

Mel with one week old Chris                   

Mel came to our house to do some carpentry work, Chris was so excited to have him there, and in his honor wore his sweatshirt with carpenter tools on it. In this picture they are having a cookie and milk break, and Tigger is there too, of course.

I wish I could find pictures of everyone with Mel! 

Here's one last picture of Mel, it is for all of us...

 

The look on his face says that he loves us all...

What should I do, what should I do?!!

If someone would ask me to name one thing that was the biggest problem in the construction of this house, it would be the weather- hands down!  It rained almost all of the fall season, then the rain changed to snow, and there wasn't a melt off once in awhile throughout the winter like usual.  In April the snow turned back to rain, and I think it rained for 40 days and 40 nights....  Now the rain has become an issue again!  We really needed some rain, it was pretty dry around here.  When Rod raked the debris in the yard with the York Rake he had a big cloud of dust following him!  Now we need to shovel the piles of debris that's been raked up onto the wagon and get them out of here so I can plant grass.  Chris was working on that job yesterday while I was cutting roots that were sticking out of the ground, we were making good progress until...we got rained out!  It rained so hard last night that the motion sensor lights came on, and stayed on.  I finally just turned them all off at the switch, I didn't need to have what was going on outside illuminated.  Now the problem is MUD!  All that nicely raked earth has turned to mud.  Walking through it will result in slipping or sinking (or both), and getting enough stuck to your shoes that it's hard to pick up your feet.

Sooo... what should I do?  The sun is shining at the moment, although I see on the radar screen that's it raining in Cleveland and coming this way.  I want so much to get the grass seed down, and this rainy+sunny condition is perfect grass growing weather...  I'm here alone today, and will be until about 7:00.  If I sink into the mud I could be stuck there a long time!  Maybe Harley would dig me out..hmmm

Stay...In...Control...

...it's not easy to stay in control because suddenly, after many idle months, there's so much to do!  The grading is complete and now we have to get ready to plant grass..... green, sweet smelling, bare foot soft.... GRASS!!!  How wonderful it will be to have GRASS!!

I catch myself falling out of control every day... I try to pick one thing to do and not to start anything else until that one thing is done, but many times I'll suddenly realize that I'm no longer doing what I set out to do.  Instead, I was distracted by something else and am doing that instead.  For instance, this morning I decided to feed the birds, but on the way to the feeding station I noticed a plant that needed watered, then I noticed another, and another...next thing I knew all 180 feet of garden hose was stretched out and I was watering the garden, and the poor birds hadn't been fed yet!

And, my mind is almost always mulling landscape designs, no matter what my hands are doing- I'm mentally arranging plants,shrubs, trees and rocks, trying to imagine all the possibilities.  Except for several trees that I've always wanted to have, everything will be transplanted from existing flower beds or the "old" garden space where I started storing things until I was able to find a new place for them.  I still have six flower beds to do away with, and the old pond area still has plants that need moved, although the water part of the pond is gone.

For the second time in 10 years all my landscaping rocks, except for the pond rocks,have been gathered into one place, thanks to Rod and Chris.  As soon as the grass is planted I'll start on the patio, by that I mean I'll be laying 6 tons of flagstone.  This will be the second time I've done this.  The first time Rod was working out of town and I was on my own,I did ok with that but was never perfectly happy with the stones being set in crushed limestone- very messy!  The same flagstone has now been lifted out of the limestone and I'll be re-using it in a new patio, this time in a much better foundation because I'll be setting them in concrete.  I know this will be a really big job, if Rod helps me build a form I'm confident that I can take it from there...

I rented a contraption called a "York rake", which attaches to our lawn mower and gets dragged around the yard raking up the bigger rocks as well as roots sticking out of the ground.  By Monday the yard should be ready for grass seed!

That makes me think of our dog Bear... 10 years ago, when we first moved back here in the woods, we were anxious to get grass growing.  We had a very large yard then too, and I walked around spreading seed with the seeder for quite awhile in one direction before it was time to turn around.  When I did turn around, there was Bear.  He had been following along behind me, walking through the grass seed I had just spread.  As far as he was concerned we were just taking a stroll through the yard, not planting grass.  Bear had very hairy feet, and sure enough, when I lifted his paw to check, the hair was packed with grass seed!  It wasn't a problem though, the grass grew ok, no dog paw shaped bare spots anywhere...

Here are a few random pictures from around the Crouse House..

The Strawberries:
I guess I must think I don't have enough to do...on our way home yesterday Chris and I saw an Amish buggy parked on the corner of Rt. 408 and Johnstown Rd. with a sign attached to it that said "Strawberries".  We stopped, the strawberries were only $2 a qt. so I bought 10 qts.  I finally finished cleaning, crushing and freezing them at 2 a.m.  Check out the mutant strawberry, doesn't it look like a flower?

The Flower Boxes:

I had a terrible time finding brackets to hang flower boxes from our deck railing.  Our railings are made of a composite material and are rounded on the top, and are much bigger than wrought iron railings, which are the only round brackets I could find.  I searched the World Wide Web for many hours and couldn't find anything that would fit our railing.  Finally, at Stan's Garden Center I found a bracket with a round top...it wasn't perfect, Rod had to use his big manly biceps and bend the metal to fit the railing, but it seems to have worked...none of the boxes have fallen off the railing yet!  I had my flowers planted in those green plastic bags for hanging plants, and they weren't growing nicely.  I ripped those bags open and re-planted the plants in the flower boxes, and I believe they are smiling now!  Soon they'll grow over the sides and hang down the railing...I love flower boxes!

This is my water garden now, a rain barrel.  The only water plant that I kept was my miniature water lily named "Susie".

Bulldozers are noisy!

Monday; Tom the excavator arrived and starting moving the earth, he moved earth for 9 hours that day.  His job is to grade the yard, but also to dig a gentle swale from one end of the yard by the field, to the other end of the yard by the woods, for rain water to flow through.  Our property is on a downhill slope and we hope this swale will divert any water from the house foundation.  Tom has told me that this is the time to think of anything I want done that involves bulldozing, like moving some really big rocks that I'd like to work into the landscaping, so I've been giving this a lot of thought!

Tuesday; The heating and air conditioning guy was here on this day and installed the central air conditioner!  Happy Day!!

Wednesday; Tom is back today, probably to finish the job.  It's hot and humid, and bulldozers are noisy, so I've shut all the windows and doors and turned on the air conditioner!  I'm staying inside today, I have more than enough to keep me busy indoors.. I don't even make lists anymore, there's so much to do - inside and outside- no one needs a list!  I have so many idea's and plans running through my mind, and bumping into each other!  I think it will be like this all summer, although we hope to be done by the end of July and then plan an open house!  The garden is planted now, except for the 75 marigolds that I started from seed and will plant around the border of the garden.  It would be perfect if I have the landscaping done before I start harvesting the garden.  If my garden grows, I'll be doing a lot of canning this year!

note: Tom just came to talk to me, I had him step inside to get cooled off!  He said he'd be nearly done today, still has some earth moving to do, then finishing the driveway.  I'll add some pictures later.

In Memory of my Mother.

Ann Miller

August 12, 1932

June 8, 2001

My mother was a beautiful person, she had a love for God that was apparent for all to see.  She was kind and generous, wonderful, courageous, and her accomplishments were many ...  she was a true role model. Her husband, children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, in-laws, brother, sisters, niece's and nephews, and many friends, as well as the elderly patients in various facility's who experienced her loving care as their nurse, were all blessed to have had such a person as my mother in their lives.

Ten years ago today my mother lost her five year battle with ovarian cancer, and it was a battle!  She endured treatment after treatment that made her so sick that she must have wondered if the cure would kill her before the disease.  It seemed so cruel that such a person as she should die such a long and painful death.

Not one day goes by that I don't wonder what mom would think or say about occurrences in daily life if she were still here with us.  Lately, I think about how much fun it would be to have her here with me as our house was being built, and now as we try to figure out how to furnish and landscape it.  She was a whiz at such things and her advice would be priceless!

I miss you mom.....

What a mess!

May... almost the end of May... and we're finally getting started on the yard work.  The excavator has been here twice this week to work, but still hasn't done what I'm waiting to have done, so that I can do my thing... the landscaping!  That is my work, I know just what to do, I have all but two items ( a Japanese Maple and a Dogwood tree) lined up and waiting to be put in place.  I would be close to finished by now except for one thing- a very, very wet spring has kept the excavator and the contractor from coming back to finish their work.  Until the yard is graded I can't plant or build anything, and the contractor has to clean the siding, install the air conditioning unit, install the downspouts, etc., etc. So, I still can not proceed with my landscaping and grass seeding.  I had really hoped to get that work done before the insects arrived and the weather got to hot, but that didn't happen.

There were some things we could do while we waited,and that was tearing down... The pond is going- no more water gardening for me.  I am saving my mini water lily and will have it in a deck container.  The labyrinth is going- no one ever used it and it was a huge task to keep it looking manicured.  The patio and fire pit are going- why have a patio where no one will use it?  The bird feeding station is going- I'll be downsizing to one seed feeder and one suet cage, and will still feed the hummingbirds and Baltimore Orioles.

The following pictures are of these things in progress.  I'll post throughout the summer as things are happening.

Mid May, finally a sunny day!  We are setting up our patio furniture out even though the deck has not been treated yet.  I took this picture of Rod enjoying the sunshine from around the corner on the front porch.

    I am standing in a low, very wet spot in the yard.  And when I say wet, I really mean swamp like! The labyrinth is in front of me, the pond beyond that, and the patio to the right.  The bird feeding station is behind me.  When these are all torn down the excavator is going to fill it all in with dirt right up to the driveway and to the deck attached to the garage and hopefully it won't be so wet anymore.  I'm thinking of leaving the first row of pond rocks and just planting a few shrubs there.  Those are the heaviest rocks, and I think I might leave them there for a few more years at least.

 Chris and Harley get started digging up the patio stones, Chris has moved all the field stones that lined the labyrinth, and there were many... Harley's football is near by, he'd rather have Chris throw the ball for him.  Now you can see the bird feeding station that will be gone one day very soon.  It's leaning like that because of black bears who occasionally stop by for a meal.

Chris is looking for same sized stones, when he moves them he stacks them in piles of equal sizes. I'll use them to build a new patio, and having them seperated by size will make that job so much easier...such a good boy..

And this is where the patio stones will be moved to... there's so much to do, I have the blueprint in my mind, I can't wait to have it finished and not have a mud yard anymore!

Tom the excavator starting on the driveway turn around, I'm standing in the low spot again.. squish, squish, squish...

I dug the Hosta out of the labyrinth in the wet spot, they were in about 6" of water.  It's amazing that they even grew.  This is the first thing I planted at the new house.  While roto tilling the ground I put a small ding in the siding...oops!

A picture of Tom from Chris's room.

And just now I noticed that another major job is getting started!  My garden space is being plowed!  Our amish neighbor had agreed to do it, then forgot about it.  But, he's here today, so now I can get out old Bessy, our ancient rototiller, and start working in the fertilizer (bat poop).  Maybe I can have everything planted by next week! John Horst, get your taste buds ready for sweet pickles!  I had to be stealthy about taking these pictures, one is through a screened window, the others from Chris's room when Sam's back was turned!

What's been happening? Not much!

People are asking why I haven't posted in awhile...the short answer is - nothing is happening!  On Tuesday the 22nd it was one month that we've officially lived here, the photo ops are pretty much over.  Chris Fuller has been coming back now and again when I notice small things that need repaired, there's a small persistent leak in the 2nd bath shower that refuses to stay "fixed".  And amazingly, there's even been a few things that have broken and had to be replaced. 

There are a lot of things I think of now that we've lived here for awhile that I wish I had done differently, for example: I wish I would not have had the outlets in the living area installed under the windows, since the lamps are on tables in between the windows and the cords are visible stretching to the outlets. 

A week ago I sealed all the tile floors, which left them with a soft gloss that looked so lovely.  Yesterday I mopped all the floors, using good old Murphy's Oil Soap.  When the tile floors dried they had a white scummy look that seems to be the finish that I applied last week coming off!!  I was very sad.  The container says the product should be used in dry areas, I took that to mean it can't be used on the shower tiles, I did not think I wouldn't be able to clean any tiles it had been applied to.  So, back to the hardware store I go for something waterproof and I'll have to do the tiles all over again...oh my poor knees...

Our cat Daxter has finally come to the new house to find us, must of wondered where we were at these past few weeks.  We left the cats and Annabelle at the garage and just feed and water them every day, we do feel bad because they no longer have family activity around them.  Gabby and Tiny are still at the garage with Annabelle, but use the cat door to venture outside whenever they want to.  Annabelle comes to visit on nice days and lays on a blanket in the garage, she does not come in because she can no longer go up and down stairs, she is now 14 years old.  Daxter being here at the house has caused anxious moments for Harley who thinks of himself as the one and only.  But Daxter is the same size as Harley, and doesn't back down when Harley charges at him.  So, they sit and stare at one another, and the only time there's a problem is when I sit down and they both want to sit on my lap.

I was in Home Depot for something one day and stumbled into something else, a really great sale on window blinds, no interest for a year, and only $118 to have the windows measured and the blinds installed in the whole house!!  Eric, the blind guy (nooo, not the guy who is sightless...) was a nice young man, and we now have blinds on our windows.  After all my searching for the right shade of green in top down, bottom up, cellular shades, I ended up choosing a shade of white.  I was afraid of getting too much green in the living area, plus I would be stuck with the color green forever...this way I can change the wall color to whatever I want.

I'll post a few more pictures in this blog, then I will sign off for a few months.  There just won't be anything happening worth photographing until sometime in the spring when the outside work can begin.  That will be a huge job that no one except me is looking forward to, I can't wait to get my hands on the landscaping project.  Plus, I have an area picked out for a vegetable garden!  I've mentioned this to Rod and Chris, but they pretend they can't hear me... they want the end result, without all the work that's involved in growing the food...

Talk to you again in a couple of months!

2/17/11  Today the temps were well into the 50's, notice the garage windows are open?  I moved everything out of the garage and hosed the floors clean, leaving the windows open so it could dry.  Chris is uncovering the sidewalk leading to the front door, the sidewalks had been covered with straw and plastic (and dirt and snow) all winter.  With a clean garage floor, and the sidewalk cleaned off, I hope to have less dirt coming into the house.  Chris is so strong, he made short work of this job!  I had struggled with it a little, but the plastic was so heavy with the weight of the dirt and snow on top of it, so I left that job for the stronger ones in the family..

2/22/11
Eric The Installer...sounds like a super hero name.  There are six windows in this room, each one with two double hung windows, that's twelve shades..it took Eric under an hour to do the whole house, not just this room...because he's...Eric- the installerrrr....

2/24/11
This is Daxter, doing something that Harley can't do, sitting on a window sill...na,na,na,na,naaa...

Harley washing his leg, he got onto the sofa using the stool technique that Uncle Bob taught him.  I was taking pictures of the blinds but posted this one because I saw that I had captured Harley taking his morning wash...and the next picture because he's caught in mid air while getting off the sofa.

Harley had to end his bath and get down because he heard Daxter jumping down from the windowsill.  Harley will now attempt to intimidate Daxter...  I hope you're also noticing the top down bottom up cellular shades in these pictures, since that was the reason I was taking pictures.  The patio door also has a cellular shade, a vertical shade, although the sales person informed me I could have a horizontal shade on that too.  I just couldn't imagine why I would want a horizontal shade on sliding glass doors... I do not have valances on the window blinds yet, they were so expensive, and I saw a website that shows a person how to make their own valances..hmmm, I wonder if I could do it....

Attempting intimidation...

And finally, one more sunset post, this one from the 17th of this month.  I told Rod that I was going to stop taking pictures of sunsets until he gets the rest of the trees cut down...