Garden Therapy: A New Vegetable Garden

     Another project that we accomplished this summer was building a new vegetable garden. By we I mean; I supervised and my husband did the work. We've had raised garden beds for twenty years. But time had taken its toll and they were starting to show the strain. The wood was bowing and starting to rot. Being a Pinterest aficionado I found an idea there for raised beds. My husband is of the opinion that Pinterest should be outlawed. 

  

       The above picture is of the old beds. They were 20 inches high. One thing we learned from building these beds was that the 4 by 4 posts should have been closer together. The new beds are 36 inches high.

     We used 3 - 8 foot long pieces of corrugated steel per side and a half sheet on each end. As this picture shows my husband not only put the posts closer together but also used pieces of rebar in between. Al shoveled the dirt to the opposite side then removed the old wood and posts. He dug holes, set the new posts with concrete and screwed the metal to the posts. He then shoveled the dirt back to the other side, repeat.

     Here's a shot of getting ready to set posts. With so much shoveling and digging Al did hire a college student to help him with some of the work. We did make the new beds shorter then the old ones. The extra dirt was used to fill up the new higher beds. A friend with a tractor helped us with that part.

     As you can see in this photo Al painted the bottom of the posts with a protective coating. This will help the wood last longer in the ground. When he finished all the sides he cut the 4 by 4 posts the same height as the metal.

     Because the edge of the metal would be sharp he used 2 by 4's along the top. This also made a good place to set up sprinklers. We can hook up the hose from our well and water the garden and surrounding grass all at one time.

     Here's two more views of the finished beds. Because the beds did take awhile being built I wasn't able to plant as much as I usually do. But I have to say I think Al did a fabulous job. I love my new beds. We are twenty years older then when we built the first ones, so the higher beds are definitely easier on the ole back.  

A thought to ponder: "Your mind is the garden, your thoughts are the seeds, the harvest can either be flowers or weeds."        William Wordsworth

Participating in: You're Gonna Love it

"Raisin" Hell

     It's time for another dog story. I will warn you up front that this one is not for the squeamish or faint of heart.
     We had a lovely male English springer spaniel. Being English we thought he should have a distinguished English name, so he was christened Sir Ashley Chadwick, aka Ashley.

      Unfortunately he didn't act very distinguished. Ashley was large for a springer but thought he was a lap dog. He always had to greet you with something in his mouth. When we came home he would run around until he found  something on the floor; a dog toy, shoe, kid's toy, sock, underwear (oops). He had a nice bed on the floor in our bedroom to sleep, but didn't hesitate to take advantage of our bed if it was empty.

     He also was very afraid of thunder, fireworks, etc.  We had to make sure he was in the house when a storm was coming and on the 4th of July. Of course you can't always anticipate loud popping sounds or thunder storms. The three screens we had to replace in our back screen door can attest to that.

     Ashley liked to sneak food. He ate part of a sheet cake that was cooling on the counter. He would have eaten it all but couldn't reach the rest. The kids Easter baskets weren't safe. We thought we'd pushed them far enough back on the counter but he managed to get one. Chocolate and jelly beans didn't sit well and his stomach started to swell. Just as I was set to run him to the vet he started to vomit and managed to get rid of his ill gotten gains.

     But those weren't the worst of his misadventures. I came home one day to find he had managed to open a kitchen cupboard and ate two pounds of raisins. Later that evening the raisins came back to haunt us. My son and I were in the family room watching TV. Ashley was standing near by when suddenly, without warning, those raisins came shooting out his butt. POW, POW, POW, like a machine gun, two pounds of raisins and some other not so nice stuff are spewing out onto my carpet. POW,POW,POW, I start screaming, "Oh my god, Oh my god, get out, get out." POW,POW,POW, Ashley's looking back in bewilderment wondering where that sound is coming from and my son is rolling on the couch convulsed in laughter. 

     Among the chaos I managed to get the dog outside. I came back and gazed at my carpet in dismay. Then I started to laugh, it was either that or cry. Needless to say that carpet took some major cleaning. This story has become a part of our family lore. We will sometimes ask people, "Have you heard the raisin story?" It is particularly good when told with hand gestures and sound effects. I hope you liked the story and I haven't ruined your taste for raisins.

A thought to ponder: A well developed sense of humor is the pole that adds balance to your steps as you walk the tightrope of life.      William A. Ward

Shared with:Sincerely, Paula

Garden Therapy: A Dance with Fairies

     This Garden Therapy Thursday post is about something I did recently with the help of my grandson. We built a fairy village. I've had fairies roaming around my yard for several years.

You can see one lurking behind this hollyhock

     These were made from plywood. I found pictures of fairies and drew larger outlines of them. My husband transferred the drawings to the wood and cut them out with a jigsaw. I spray painted them black and voilà, silhouettes.

     The silhouettes were done a number of years ago. So it was time to make the fairies some homes. I bought two wooden bird houses from a craft store. My husband cut out the doorways. Rex picked the colors and painted them.

On this one I used popsicle sticks on the roof but then found I'd glued myself into a corner, so to speak. I didn't know how I was going to finish the roof, then I came up with the idea of the funnel. I'm rather pleased with the outcome. Around the windows we used pine cone seed scales. The door is also popscicle sticks and some findings from my jewelry making. We found small hinges at Home Depot so the doors really open and close.

On this one we used dried moss (from the artificial flower section) for the roof. Rex glued it on in small clumps. After we were all done I sprayed the houses with clear acrylic paint.

Here's the bridge we made. Soak the popscicle sticks in water then place inside a cup or glass to get the bend you want, let dry. The railings are made from coffee stir sticks.

     The rest of the items were bought from different places, local and on line. Once we had all our pieces Rex laid things out to his liking. I thought we would have a little stream under the bridge (colored floral flat marbles) but Rex decided we needed a lake. Here is his vision.

A thought to ponder: The world is full of magic things, patiently waiting for our senses to grow sharper.     W.B. Yeats

     

Participating in: Tuesday Garden Party

A Goose without a Mother

     Once upon a time, well actually just this past Memorial Day. Vince, Kristin and Rex went for a hike. While on their hike a little gosling started following them. They looked around trying to find her Mom and a nest, without luck. The creek was running high and fast, so they think she might have gotten washed away from her family. We don't really know if it's a boy or girl just using she to make things easier. The gosling followed them back to their car. Afraid she might get hit by another car they brought her to our house, we have a very small pond. Rex christened her "Puffee".

Rex and Puffee

Wait for me!

     Kristin called friends who have some acreage and a couple of large ponds. They agreed to take Puffee. Rex wasn't ready to give her up yet so they took the little girl home for awhile. So she became part of the family for a few weeks. They used a 10 gallon glass aquarium for her to stay in at night or when they were gone. But if they were home then she wanted to be held all the time. She would squawk her head off if they left the room.

This is more like it.

Nap time

Watching the Kings Hockey game with Vince

Resting on the counter

This is how Vince and Puffee roll

     Finally Puffee reached a point where she was getting too big for the aquarium and it was time to move on to bigger things.

Here she is with Rex checking out her new digs.

She would stay in the coop at night and be let out to roam around during the day.

Paying a visit a few weeks later, look how she's grown

     The above pictures were taken the end of June. Puffee has made a friend, another orphan, a duck, named "Duck Food", aka "DF".

Here's Puffee and DF having breakfast with a photo bombing drake in the background.

Paying another visit in August

Puffee is now a beautiful full grown goose. Hanging with DF.

     The last report about Puffee is, she thinks she's a duck. When the wild ducks fly I guess she flies with them, but she always comes back. It will be interesting to see what happens when winter gets closer. Will she stay, will she hook up with her own kind and fly south, will she fly south with the ducks. We shall see.

A thought to ponder: The kindness one does for a animal may not change the world....But it will change the world for that one animal.

Shared with:Sincerely, Paula

Celebrate Whenever You Can

     I was going to save this until closer to the holidays. Then I got to thinking about the whole celebrating thing and our need to save things for special occasions. How many of you have "good" dishes that you only bring out when company comes?  Shouldn't you and your family be just as important or even more so then "company"? No matter what constitutes your family; you and a furry friend, you and a significant other, or with kids, or just you. You shouldn't hesitate to celebrate whenever you can, and in whatever way makes you happy.
    Children have the knack of enjoying each day, making it special because there are always new things to see and learn. Our granddaughter Miranda has always enjoyed music. Even as a baby she would bounce and sway to music. When she could walk, she would dance. It made her happy and still does.

"Children dance before they learn there is anything that isn't music"

     We tend to celebrate major milestones, as well we should, but what about the minor ones. Did you just have your best golf game ever; did your child learn to ride his two wheeler; did you buy your first new car; or how about you just had the nicest Tuesday in a long time. We shouldn't save our nice things for special occasions. What's the point of having them if you don't enjoy them. The same goes for our days. Yes, some days are not so good, maybe down right horrible, all the more reason to celebrate when a really good day comes along.

     I buy Miranda a holiday dress each year before Thanksgiving. One year I was visiting and had given her the holiday dress, so her mother bought her some nice shoes to go with it. When Casie came home with the shoes Miranda exclaimed, "Oh, now I have my celebrating shoes."

Miranda in her celebrating shoes

     Everyone should have a pair of celebrating shoes. It doesn't matter what they look like. Maybe they're tennis shoes and you go for a hike or a run. Maybe they're flip flops and you go to the beach, lake or a picnic. They can be any kind of shoe in which you do something you enjoy, because enjoying life in big or small ways is celebrating life. So go put on your celebrating shoes and dance like no one is watching.

Miranda still enjoying dance

A thought to ponder: Happiness is not about getting there; it's about being here.    Robert Holden