a roof and a place to pee...

What a busy week!!!  The roof got put on, the electricity trench was dug and the septic system was installed.  Perfect weather for it (a tad dry for the gardens though... everything is really really wilty) and on top of this, we hope to have a Real Driveway bu Monday!!!

Week 4?

Construction is progressing quickly, it seems.  The walls are up and this week (no photos yet) the roof is being added, septic systems installed, grading and driveway are all being put in.  I hope also to start work on the first new garden - a small herb garden by the back door.  Here are some pictures from last week.

Foundation - DONE!!

Smokey admiring the foundation - August 30, 2014

Week 2

A new week, a new template -- it's as much fun fooling around with templates for this blog as writing it! 

week 1

Week 1 - hole dug, base poured
Week 2 - foundation forms installed, foundation poured and forms removed, well connected (pump installed), main floor joists delivered
Week 3 - tbd...

week 2

In the garden - the end of August has been quite spectacular, both weather wise, house building wise and garden wise.  (OK, a little rain would help the garden a lot, but for building it's been perfect.)  The daylilies are ending - just a few of the double orange left to bloom; the Echinacea are past their prime; Rudbeckia is in all its glory.  Seriously.  My whole yard is awash in or

week 2

compost bin on left finally emptied and screened

ange and yellow from Rudbeckia and the beginning of Goldenrod.

Bonus - I sorted out my third compost bin - emptying about eight years of accumulation to find some nice compost down in there!

The Burn

Gilbert from Redtail Vineyards lights the fire

A hot fire for a Hot day!

This is where we get to destroy... love using that word in this context... destroy the Buckthorn that I've been cutting down for the past few years.  Common Buckthorn - (Rhamnus cathartica) - was introduced to North America in the 1880's from Europe.  According to Ontario’s Invading Species Awareness Program, it was used originally as a hedgerow (useful) and as a decorative shrub (doubtful).  It grows quickly in full sun or shade and its stems and branches have very sharp thorns.  I know... my legs and arms can prove it!  So perfect to use as a pasture border, right?  To keep sheep and cows in, and other critters out?  Problem is it sets a prodigious number of seeds every year.  By prodigious, I mean this year there are gazillions  of inch high seedlings everywhere on the property the lawnmower doesn't get.  Its roots quickly reach down and take firm hold of the soil making it difficult to pull out.  It chokes out other plants and, to top it off, even birds don't seem to have much use for the berries.

So I cut it down, treat the stump with a weed killer and last Monday burned the suckers into a tiny pile of ash.  The top photo is Smokey and our friend Mags and her dog Skeeter enjoying it as much as I!