Springtime

Having good weather forces one to be out working in the yard, even when said person would rather spend the weekend lounging in the shade, drinking something cold. The past 2 weekends have been unseasonably hot here, clear and sunny with temperatures in the 70's. This would probably be great if a) we were acclimated to it and b) it didn't smack of "inconvenient truths." Climate change, anyone?

Thanks of course to all the sun, the fruit trees and shrubs are growing strong... but so is the grass. We still only have a (gas) weed-whacker, a manual push-mower (yes, the kind with no motor), and 2 kinds of what we're calling the "grass thwacker" - basically a manual weed-whacker (think of the old farm days.) We're creating heaps of grass clippings, which were at first going into the compost - until we ran out of room. Then we started adding them to the chicken coop as entertainment and/or bedding. Now we've got another big pile, which we'll try to dry (like hay) for use either as mulch, or one of our original uses.





Matt's been working on the "hop yard." We bought one rhizome each of five hop varieties, and Matt is building a massive trellis/ shade structure/ privacy screen. The posts are anchored in concrete. He dug out the beds and amended them with compost, then shaped the mounds. Today he got the rhizomes into the ground, and soon will finish the supports for the vines to grow on. Eventually, a bench will sit within the semicircle.