Blackberry Trellis

Made from cedar branches and anchored to leftover treated posts. We transplanted some blackberries my dad gave us a couple years ago. This is a mound from where one of the persimmon tress went down in the hurricane. A lot of work but probably still easier than pulling that stump.

 

Greenhouse progress

Here's what it looks like so far...

Pergola Bench

I added a bench to the Pergola. I split a couple of logs and made 1" planks. Tough with wet wood and an axe and sledgehammer. The first two small ones I ran on the belt sander after I got them split. The large ones I ran through the planer.

 

Unfortunately, before I could finish the bench, I had to cut down our last cedar tree. I spent half a day trying to get the tree to fall the right way. I had a rope tied around it, angled around a tree and then tied to my car. The unfortunate part is that it didn't work...

 

It fell right on top of the goat shelter, of course! Fortunately, the roof on the goat shelter is fine. Not having a smashed roof to fix eased the pain of the screw up. And the goats love the cedar bark!

New Pergola

I spent the weekend cutting down cedar trees and building a new pergola or arbor or whatever you want to call it. All of our cedar trees were infected with cedar apple rust and we haven't seen an apple since we moved in because of it. Saturday I cut up the trees and Sunday I built the pergola. It was good to take a break from the greenhouse and tackle something I could see finished. I'm happy with the way it turned out, now all it needs is some vines growing on it.

Spring work

Since we've had such ridiculously warm weather this month I figured it was time to turn my attention back to the greenhouse. I got the door frame up plus a couple of windows. Slow and steady...

I'm also adding a frog pond next to a new garden so we can grow squash... hopefully the frogs will take care of the squash bugs for us. I dug the hole for this last year when I needed the clay. Now it has a liner and I'm still working on the border.

Julien and Hank are very curious to know what's going on in their yard!

Greenhouse Entrance and The Shaggs

Finished the step to the greenhouse entrance today. I dug a shallow foundation and lined it with landscaping fabric. Then it's basically a border of slate built up in rows, filled in with gravel and sand and then capped with the surface you see in the picture. I just finished reading The Art & Craft of Stonework by David Reed and wanted to try something. Plus I wanted to get this done so I could see how much slate I have leftover. It's a little off-center with the entrance, which is annoying  because I actually measured when I laid it out. I think it has to do w/ how I stacked it, plus the top stone on the right juts out where the one on the left is missing that corner. Like the guy with the portable mill said when he saw how I was building the greenhouse - doesn't look too scientific.

 I think I'm going to pack it in for the winter on the greenhouse. I'm out of sand and will probably save my money (or spend it on heating the house) and get a truckload delivered in the spring.

This is a picture of the Shaggs. We got them back in August from the Amish farm but I think someone else rescued them and gave them to him. They had their beaks clipped and all the guy would tell me is that he didn't know how old they were or what kind of birds they were. They have to be Rhode Island Reds, and I'm guessing they must be somewhere between 16 - 20 weeks old but they haven't started laying eggs yet. Their pal's name is foot-foot.

Patrick Dougherty

This dude is the bomb - http://www.stickwork.net/installations.php