Wha's Up

Now that we are done with the inside remodeling, at least for this season, our attention is now directed toward our outside activities. 
Couch potato that I am...hey, I do run the garden tractor to mow the lawn but anyone that knows us knows that "outside activities" means Teddy's outdoor activities and busy she has been. When we began moving into the farmhouse last summer Teddy set about cleaning up the yard and flower beds and as these photos show, this summer she went at in full attack mode.  (Click on photos for larger size)

One of her first projects, started last summer, and continued this May was covering the cistern mound with iris bulbs. Although now done blooming they were in full bloom in late May.

Next she cleaned up this old rock garden that had been neglected for several years as her aging parents could no longer tend it.
Teddy's dad never threw anything away, he just stored it. She found a lot of old farm relics in one of the farm outbuildings including several old tractor seats, wagon wheels, an old kitchen sink, a hand pump, hand tools, & a hand cultivator  and has themed her gardens with them.

She also planted a variety of flowers along the front of the house.
These marigolds have been blooming all summer.

On the north side-yard of the house she made another flower garden and populated it with some more of her picks.
She isn't done, by a long shot, she scours the country side with her sister, Deb for old abandoned ghost farms where vintage flower bulbs might be ripe for transplanting. I often look out the window and there she is digging up another section of lawn.  ;-)

My outdoor efforts on the other hand have been more utilitarian.
When we arrived here in May we found that our cell coverage out here in the country was not reliable enough for internet use so I subscribed to HughesNet satellite internet and it works well. I am on a 24 month contract but can put it on time out winters when we are not here. (Oh..oh that means that it'll be about five years before I complete the 24 months)

Secondly, Teddy had been wanting an outdoor clothesline for some time so I had a welder make up this post from 3" pipe.

I told him that I wanted the cross section to be 4' long but neglected to specify the vertical length and when I got it it was 10' long which meant that I had to dig a 4' deep hole to plant it.

This did not turn out to be an easy job as he had welded two 12" cross members on the bottom to stabilize it. With Teddy's help we got the hole dug but it took about three hours. I mixed up a 50 lb. bag of concrete mix to set the pipe and this baby isn't going anywhere. Teddy spray-painted it green while  I lagged a 2 x 6 between two trees for the other end and we now have a first rate solar clothes dryer.