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