…we’re going to have to move it. In the advent of the wind and rain we took the easiest course and fastened it to standing fence posts. We’re going to have to relocate it closer in, and figure how to secure it without the helpful posts.
Today we tackle a smaller area of fence, and the gates, each of which is about 8′. (driveway) We think if we can find some way to secure the tarp at the house back door, and the garage, we can use the hawthorn tree as a midway point.
The job Jane did yesterday, repairing an eroded slope, removing a tree and building a stone retaining wall to keep the steep slope from washing out under the new fence—we may only have done 18 feet, but it was a particularly difficult 18 feet, the worst area of the yard.
There’s the other half of the basalt pile to move. The big gates, a little gate, and a 8′ panel to take down. And the tarp.
And then the ivy. We’ll be clearing that back from the hawthorn: no threat to the ivy. It’s tough.
We did get some pix. Jane will be putting them up.
Wiishu and Pookie were there…they make us laugh, amid the mud and the wind. When you think of others of these dolls who are kept on shelves and sooooo carefully kept, —- well, these rowdy elves aren’t the houseplant sort.
You have to ask Jane, too, about Shu’s misdeeds. He killed a glass dragon she quite treasured. And this morning…
Little steps add to a journey…(my Nanu’s saying) It taught me that amazing things can be accomplished if we break them down into doable parts. But you already know that. Hopefully you will have calm weather and not be blown away moving large objects. Altho the the fantasy image of you and Jane with attendant elves sailing over Spokane is bound to delight. Not so the reality, I’m sure!
I love the way Wishu and Pookie participate in your lives. I’m looking forward to the pictorial evidence! As for Shu….he was just doing his job….killing dragons. Remember E. Nesbit wrote that cats are dragons that have been tamed and lost their scales.
I just wrote about KikLaSois and how she celebrates spring on my blog. http://thesmartcat.blogspot.com/
Gorgeous majolica clock face to be, SmartCat! Are you going to be selling in the MA/RI Seacoast area?
I was out pruning the roses and apple trees yesterday in the warm (70*F. woohoo!) and sun yesterday and planted some Virginia Bluebells and Prairie Mallow roots that came early (to my winter-bedridden mind) from a garden catalog. Then I sprayed the pretending to be dwarf, apple & cherry trees with dormant oil in the vain hope this will stop the winter moth caterpillars from eating through the buds. We’ve had infestations for years this area of Massachusetts.
I was pretty tired, but nothing like CJ and Jane with their defence of the yard!
Me too, on the gardening front. I dug up 3 Italian cypresses that I had planted as part of a windbreak; I had misestimated their neighbors’ enthusiasm for growth, and had to move them before they got smothered. They went in the space in front of the wall by our door which I had previously designated for cactus storage. The cactuses will just have to find another home for a while. Then I replaced a flag I had taken down, cleaned up all the fallen branches, and raked a corner which had been overrun by fallen leaves. And I broke the handle on my small shovel, by prying too hard on one of the cypress’ dirt ball. There’s something about this season that makes even people with purple (worse than brown!) thumbs look at the potted hyacinths at the store and go “Hmmmm….” Advil is still our friend.
Jane has pix!
http://www.janefancher.com/HarmoniesOfTheNet/
Noon, and we’re making good progress. I got in the way as Jane swung one of the gates around and bells rang for a while, but that was our Keystone Cops moment for the day…no damage done.
We have cut back the ivy that tries annually to take the hawthorn. And the gates and fence section are down. The other sections, exccept the 2 front gates, are loose, unscrewed, but still in situ. We’re going to put up the second tarp, and most that we do tomorrow will involve setting up tarp to last through the 3 days of post-setting.
I think it’s going to look nice.
Okay, I’ll bite, ’cause Jane tells entertaining stories.
Hi Jane, what did Shu do this morning? Did he get out while you were so busy in the garden? Or was he so disgruntled about not being allowed out to be with his humans he did something really naughty?
Do I understand correctly that you are now using the tarpaulin as a temporary sort of fence, so you don’t have to put those huge heavy panels propped up around the inner part of your garden?
That sounds like a very good idea, with hopefully much less manhandling needed to pile them up in the driveway or somewhere, instead of all over the flowerbeds with the attendant risks of them falling over and crushing your plants.
What sort of dragon was it? Would a replacement for the dragon be a good hostess gift, if some of the rest of us help pitch in, for Shejicon? Or was it of sentimental value and irreplacable? 🙁