Fruits of our labors

Now we’re well into summer, the back yard looks a lot different. All those empty veg beds are now overflowing with green!

The small beds in the foreground are our herb garden. Several varieties of mint trying to escape the first one, then what we call the “poultry bed” - sage, rosemary, thyme, oregano amongst others. Parsley, green and red onions, and chives, and several varieties of lettuce spread out among them all.

The long bed next to them holds raspberry canes – no fruit this year but hopefully next summer – and strawberries. Then we have 8’ high archways of wire mesh across the last two beds supporting a variety of beans. Runners, French beans, and a purple variety, along with snap peas, broad beans, and several tomato plants, and a monster zucchini taking over one corner.

It’s been marvelous in the last month popping out to pull a lettuce for salad, or handfuls of herbs to liven up a meal. One thing we’ve sorely missed since moving out here is our fresh beans. French beans are available but usually not very good, and we love fresh tender runners, which I’ve not seen here at all.

 

 

A lot going on

2024 is shaping up to be the year of big projects.

For starters, once winter eased off it was time to finish off the raised vegetable beds I started making last summer. Now they’re filled with soil and irrigation drip lines attached, all we have to do is erect supports for beans and raspberries and start planting.

Of course, getting all the herbs and veggies started needed somewhere under cover, so Easter weekend was spent assembling the greenhouse we ordered from Amazon.

This was all work we’d planned to do, but a cluster of things around the house needed urgent attention all at the same time. Our water heater started playing up in January, and we already knew the ancient furnace was long overdue for replacement, so we bit the bullet and hastily arranged for a heat pump and new water heater.

The carport roof had been leaking and slowly collapsing for a couple of years. The builder friend we’d spoken to back then finally had a gap in his schedule at short notice, so a major replacement took place at the same time.

On top of all this, we’d finally resumed work on landscaping at the front of the house and realized how badly the front steps were crumbling, so these are in the process of being replaced.

Yes, it’s all go! But at least this year, after several years of various medical issues, we’ve now got the energy to put some TLC back into the property. I just hope nothing else unexpected crops up.

And alongside all this, I’ve just finished the first draft of The Videshi Dilemma and am getting stuck into edits.

 

The dog ate my shed

A phone call at work in the middle of the afternoon. “Dad, did you do some work on the shed recently? Like, taking off some of the siding?”

No, I haven’t. Why would I do that? Puzzled, and wondering exactly what had happened at home while we were all out at work and college.

This is what I found.

Planks ripped off, and some excavation either side of the door. The dogs must have been after something, probably a raccoon. Though why anyone would mistake this scene for intentional DIY handiwork beats me. Seems someone has a low opinion of my carpentry skills!

Thankfully it was a dry afternoon today and I still had some offcuts of cedar siding from building the tree fort many years ago. All patched up again ... until the next time!