Holy Crap - Where Did November Go??

I am dismayed that November is almost gone!

I've been playing catch-up with yard work and winter home and garden prep projects (and some visiting, truth be told) and November has breezed past me in a flash!

The bathroom renovation project is very nearly done... most of the floor mouldings are installed, most of the corner trim is also in - the few pieces that aren't now in are waiting until the bathroom window has been replaced - which (aside from the door) will, for me, anyhow, signal the end of the bathroom project.  I still have a little patching, painting and staining to do, bot those things I will take on as winter progresses and I am not feeling the mad push out be outside doing outside things while the weather still holds.

We have been having an utterly GLORIOUS autumn here.  Clear and sunny days (though the chill is now officially upon us) with cold and clear nights - leaving heavy frost on trees and leaves (and car wind shields) but the dry and the cold has also kept the streets (where I am walking Jasmine in the wee early hours of the morning) relatively ice free and so our walks are being accomplished in relative ease.

The yard has undergone (most of) its autumnal leaf denuding and I have raked said leaves up and placed them into my raised garden boxes for composting down and lovely rotting into the soil over winter. I have moved the bean trellis to a new location in preparation for spring planting, planted my garlic in a new spot this year (where my spinach was last year) and have had the winter tires put onto my car.

With the exception of having all of my winter wood burning supply in hand, I have been doing fairly well.

The wood started arriving yesterday (delivery was either two or three truck loads and I am anticipating five or six in total. I spent last night splitting a fair portion of the first chunk of wood delivered into halves and then this morning I stacked the halves into space between the two posts of my "car port" to allow for smarter wood stacking when the rest arrives, gets split (when I get to it) and stacked (again, when I get to it.) I have also split all but about 14 of the rounds that arrived yesterday and have started stacking it in my "wood area" to fully dry out so it can be burned when I am out of my current dry supply.

I put in about 3 hours of stacking and then splitting and stacking this morning.  My back started to protest (loudly) and I elected to take a break and come inside.  Good thing too - it was after 12:30 and I needed to deal with some laundry and also start the fixings for some meals that I am cooking today.

I am also starting a new job tomorrow - well, not a new job exactly, but the same job in a different branch - I was asked (by the regional VP) if I would cover someones maternity leave in a different branch.  There are all sorts of things happening in this area right now (and not all of them good) so thinking that this might be "writing on the wall" if you know what I mean, I agreed - with the request of a letter "guaranteeing" (inasmuch as a guarantee can be given or had) that I will have a job in this area at the end of this year.

This means that instead of a normal weekend, I have only today off and then start back to work tomorrow - so there is LOADS to get done today!

I have been taking a lot of pictures lately and will upload and show off some of the projects under way (and those nearly complete) soon.

In the mean time, with love across the waters...

Last Full Day

Saturday, September 14:

 

Today is my last full day / overnight at the cabin.  It hasn’t been a true full day as I went home briefly this morning to take Missy home and yes, check out the progress on the renovation…

Today started at 4:28 AM for me – Missy decided at about midnight that she would rather come in and have cuddles and sleeps with me and Jasmine and that at 4:28 AM (I checked) she was awake and insisting that she needed to go outside.

 

Ahem.

 

Nope – not going to happen.  She has had a BALL down at the cabin this past week – spent most of her time outside (day and night) hunting.  She’s had a tubby little belly all week long and the snakes that normally live near the compost pile we have here have been absent.  I think she’s had a great time eating snakes, small birds and mice all week long!

 

Anyhow, not trusting that I would be able to convince her to come to me (I know some people have trained their feline companions to come when called, but I have had zero success with that concept!) if I left her here with me and Jasmine right to the last minutes on the beach, I decided to take her home this morning in advance of closing up the cabin tomorrow late in the afternoon.

 

So I found myself stumbling across at the barest of walkable low tides in the dark at about 6 this morning carrying a cat (meowing) in a crate and holding on (for dear life) to a dog’s leash and a flashlight that powers by squeezing its handle repeatedly. 

 

Yeah – not one of my finer plans.

 

I did make it all the way across without falling down (yay me!) and made good time back home to drop off the cat.

 

OK – yes, I admit it, I also wanted to see the progress on the renovations.

 

The curtains were all closed (a good sign that my contractor is paying attention to home security) when I pulled into the driveway.  There was a large pile of debris (the old bathtub, the old vanity, some drywall and some pieces of wood I have to assume were cut out of the wall when they created the “through way” from the bathroom into the laundry room spaces.

 

They were actually not as far along in the project as I had thought they might be.  OK – I admit it, I don’t know enough about these kinds of renovations to know how things will look as the days progress, but I thought that at this stage (with me expected home around 5PM tomorrow that the work would be mostly finished and that perhaps the only things left to be done at this point would be things like painting and maybe installation of floor and door mouldings.

 

What I saw made me worry that I may not have a bathroom when I get home tomorrow. The bathroom floor (which has to be fully removed and replaced) was still in place… this means that the plumbing and electrical that needs to be completed is not yet done. The old windows are still in place.

 

Granted, I didn’t expect the windows to be done since the guy who was placing the order for them let slip that those can take a couple of weeks to be made ready (and he was actually supposed to come measure them a few weeks ago, so I have a feeling that my contractor wasn’t too pleased by that oversight.

 

I’m a little concerned that I will not get the hoped for bath in my new tub tomorrow night… hell, I’m a little worried that I may not have a toilet to use when I get home!

 

I know that they will have been working flat out all day today – possibly long through the night, and will be doing more of the same tomorrow… but I’m still a little worried at what stage things will be at when I get home.

 

Wish me luck!

 

With love across the waters…

The Real Deal

Monday, September 9:

I’m down at the cabin – the weather this week is projected to be absolutely GORGEOUS and I am looking forward to a quiet week with Jasmine and Missy at the cabin. I’m here now and once the cabin was open, I checked in with the neighbours (who are down for a couple more days and then they head home) and had a big lunch, I promptly lay down and had a 2 hour nap.  God it was wonderful!

My plans for the week do include some family time - lunch with my folks on Wednesday and maybe a visit with my brother and nephew on Thursday – but for the most part I will spend my time puttering around down here – walking with Jasmine around the islands (the tide it high most of the week I’m down) and sitting around reading. 

And yes, napping.

And while I am here, my house is fully occupied by my contractor and his team – they are going to be working away at gutting the bathroom and laundry room and building a dream space for me.  I’ll still have work to do on it in the form of building some additional shelves, installing some bi-fold doors, constructing a really cool cleat and pulley system drying rack that will hang from the ceiling and a counter space - but in reality, those projects will be small ones that will be easy enough to accomplish on winter weekends.

I head home on Sunday whenever I can catch the cat, and will spend some of my Monday doing laundry in my new space. 

Sunday night, though, I will be having a long hot bath in my new tub!  Woo hoo!

With love across the waters,

An Early Morning Walk

I think that, on work days, my second favourite time of day (the first being the moment I get home from work and Jasmine greets me with love when I get to the door) is our early morning walks up in the trails around Cumberland.

Here’s why:

Early morning sunlight through
the trees

"Hey Mum - hurry up!!!"

That's my gorgeous girl!

With love across the waters,

A Raised Bed and a Surprise!

In July of this year, after the bulk of the back fence project was done, I decided it was finally time to start putting in raised garden beds. I have a fair amount of yard space that can be given over to planting vegetables and fruits, but in the interests of keeping Jasmine (not to mention Missy) out of my food supply, I determined that putting in raised beds would be a Very Good Idea.

I picked up four 12’ rough cut cedar planks (I went with 1”x8” but in retrospect I should have gone with 2”x8” instead) and once home set up my portable saw horses and got to work.

The spot where the new bed would go

Portable saw-horse reporting for duty - and behind it
is the pile of dirt left over from digging post holes

Boards cut and ready to assemble

I decided that the bed I was putting in should be two foot deep by 10 foot long and so measured and cut my boards to suit this.  A number of years ago now Mum & Dad started replacing their raised beds (that were made with wood) with concrete poured raised beds – where they are they have to combat the roots of cedar trees and so concrete is a better fit for them. To that end, they gave me the corner connectors that they had bought from Lee Valley Tools (the BEST store on earth ha ha ha) and I took out 8 of them (and the screws) because this particular bed was going to end up being 2 feet wide by 10 feet long by 16 inches deep. Boards cut I got things into place and connected all of the pieces and then stacked the two “boxes” to make one very deep one. This should end up being PLENTY of space to grow whatever I end up planting in there (on purpose) in.

MORE than deep enough!

Bed in place, I next took on the compost bin move project. Before re-claiming all of the compost material, I lined the very bottom of the new garden bed with newspaper.  This will eventually help keep down any serious weeds that may be already in the ground… Next up I took apart the two-bin compost I built at the beginning of last summer and moved all of the material in that over into the bottom of the new raised bed.  On top of that I put another thick layer of newspaper and then on the very top I put the soil that had been initially displaced when Dad and Rob (my brother) dug out the fence post holes.

New bed in, filled with compost material
and left-over post hole dirt

I will need to top dress the bed with sea soil and more potting soil, and I’ll need to over seed that through the winter with something like fall rye (which can be dug under in the spring and rots down into a lovely green manure) but for now… It’ll do just fine!

About a week after I got the new bed in place and all the dirt moved in I noticed a plant… kind of a large leaf plant – that had self-started in the new bed.  I know it is a member of the squash family – I have checked the leaves and now that it is flowering, looked at the flowers and have confirmed it is definitely a member of the squash family.

Volunteer...

Here’s the thing though, I don’t know exactly WHAT it really is.  It might be a pumpkin – I did try to sprout some Crown Prince pumpkin, but thought that all of the seeds were not viable and so gave up on them and chucked them into the compost bin. It may also be a butternut squash… or a regular orange pumpkin – I have had a number of those throughout the year and when I was preparing them I just threw all of the seeds and guts into my compost without thinking.

Female flower

Male flowers

Whatever it is, it may not have enough time to ripen before the frosts come.  I actually hope it does though – I’m curious to see what it is, and I would LOVE to have some of my own squash or pumpkin for winter consumption!

With love across the waters,

My Clever Kitty!

After supper last night I was relaxing with a cup of tea on my sofa.  Screen doors and windows open to allow for enjoyment of evening breezes. 

 

Jasmine was asleep on the living room floor, Missy somewhere outside.

 

The sound of a happy cat meowing drew me outside to see that my very clever cat (who last year caught quite a number of mice and shrews) has started hunting bigger things – namely rats. 

 

Missy was terribly proud of yesterday’s catch.  Me? I’m pretty proud of it too – she can bring home as many dead rats as she likes – I’m definitely OK with this!

"Look Mum - see what I caught?"

What a clever girl!

With love across the waters,

Fencing – Parts Two and Three…

A couple of days after my family came up and helped me with the first part of the fencing project, my neighbour helped out with the second part – pouring concrete into the post holes.  He didn’t just blop it into the holes though – they were poured and shaped – what he did (he works with concrete for a living) was to pour the concrete and then he rounded up the pour so that the concrete comes up the posts a little – this way, the soil will have hard work to pile up around the posts and with the creosote Dad painted on the bottoms, the posts will last that much longer and I won’t have to worry about the posts rotting away at the base any time soon.

 

Rounded concrete

Friday of this week, Mum & Dad came up for the day and we built the fence. Dad had had me measure up and down and across the posts at a number of different spots and I also held back about 8 boards from the old fence as he didn’t have enough spare lumber on hand to complete the entire section.  We got started by pulling out all of the needed tools (Dad brought almost everything needed up with him) and getting the boards piled and ready to go.  He pulled the braces off of the posts and we stacked the lumber on those as the grass was deep and a little wet from the previous day’s rain.

 

Dad had these really cool collapsible saw-horses he got from Lee Valley Tools a number of years ago (I need a pair!) and set those up as well.  And we got down to it!  The cross pieces went up first and then the boards went on and then the top pieces went on. Start to finish we were done in about 3 hours!

 

From the alley

From the yard

After we had lunch and packed things up, Mum & Dad headed home and since Jasmine was still at “Doggie Day Care” for another couple of hours, I opted to go over to Slegg Lumber, pick up stain and get the fence stained.

 

It looks pretty damn amazing if I do say so myself!

 

Stained

The fourth part of the back fence project will be a lattice panel on the top of both sections – for a little more privacy from the back alley. That part will, hopefully, be completed before the end of summer.

 

Tomorrow I will be taking a drive over to Slegg Lumber again – this time to price out the lattice and get more information about sizes and so forth.  The other thing I will be doing is getting some 1” x 6” cedar boards that I can make a raised gardening bed with – my plan is to lay a long skinny one out in front of the fence and plant raspberry canes. The bed will actually serve a second purpose – aside from producing raspberries, I mean.  The section of the fence that is at the corner of the yard sits quite high up off the ground – the raspberry bed will effectively prevent Jasmine from escape under the fence.

With love across the waters,

 

Fencing - And Not With A Sword

You may recall that back in November I had an issue with a bear. The bear pulled down a section of my fence, pulled out a wall in my wonderful compost bin and had a munch on some apple leavings from when I made and canned my applesauce in the fall.

 

THIS year I will not make that mistake.  THIS year I will dig the apple leavings directly into whatever vegetable bed I am working on in order to augment the soil directly AND avoid any bear invasions to my yard.

 

This weekend saw the initial stages of the New Back Fence project get off the ground.  Or into it, if you like. 

 

On Friday my Mum & Dad and their dog Querida, and my Brother and Nephew came for a part of the day to visit and help get the old fence torn down and taken apart, dig fence-post holes and brace up the posts to hold in place until I can get concrete into the holes and also to put up a temporary fence to keep Miss Jasmine contained in my back yard while all of this is ongoing. Because it was a Friday, my Sister in Law was working and unable to come (I asked her to skip school but she has a good work ethic and went to work instead of coming to goof off with us up here) but I am hopeful that on the next fence project day she can come too.

 

While Mum and I distracted Finn (my gorgeous Nephew) Dad and Rob went to town on the old fence.  The pulled it down, pulled out the old post that the gate was hung on, dug deep holes, braced and placed the new fence posts (in readiness for concrete insertion - which one of my neighbours is going to help me out with) and then erected a new temporary fence to keep Jasmine in the yard.

 

Here's the state of the union before:

Before the bear pulled it down

After the bear pulled it over and
I propped it back up

Fence post in the corner - yes, it really IS
not touching the ground!

The fun part of Friday for me was actually playing with Finn and my Mum in puddles.  Mum & I walked Finn around to the Number 6 Mine Park in Cumberland where they have some great toddler-friendly activity thingies like slides and wheels to spin around on posts.  The skies opened up and POURED on us while we walked over so we took temporary refuge on the platform and waited for the rain to ease off a little.  We checked out the fun stuff and then on the way back we sploshed Finn in puddles.  Mum and I each held onto one of his hands and played "one, two, three - WHEE" with him - whee being the part of the game where we swung him up in the air and he landed both feet into the puddle. Finn had a ball with this and made some great splashes as Cumberland has some rather significant potholes. Needless to say, Finn`s clothing all came off when we got back to my house and it all went into the drier!

 

The bulk of the work dealt with, after lunch all that was left to do was to take apart the old fence sections.  Rob, Mum & Finn headed back down to Nanaimo, and Dad an I made short work of taking it all apart and pulling out all of the old nails. I will not be able to salvage any of the old fence for use in the new fence - the boards are pretty rotted and worn away - but I WILL be able to recycle the old fence boards into my compost bin.  I`m going to be moving it (yes, again) and I have decided that I will be going back to a single bin as, except for Autumn (when the leaves make a great addition) one bin is typically enough for my needs.

 

I`m going to move it back across the yard to where it was in the first place - between the lilac tree and the shed - it will be less visible in the old (new) spot and with the help of the fence boards I am going to be able to incorporate, it should be sturdy and unlikely to leak compost guts out the sides.

 

Compost bin - current location.

 

New (old) compost bin location

 

Here`s a final shot of what the yard looks like at the end of today`s fencing activities.  I can only hope that no hooligans come around and push the posts over before the concrete gets poured!



Temporary fence in place
New fence posts in and waiting for concrete!

With love across the waters,

 

2013 Vacation - Part The First: May

I am coming to the end of my initial 2 weeks of vacation for 2013 (yes, after 22 years with the company for whom I work, I have a whole PILE more vacation booked) and this last couple of weeks has been spent doing great things.

 

I spent the first week of this vacation at the cabin - my own personal Heaven on Earth.  This time around I took both Jasmine and Missy with me.  I didn't take my camera, but I did take my iPod and so was able to get a few pictures here and there. 

 

Jasmine has been to the cabin a few times - and LOVES it there.  This was, however, Missy's First Time.  Missy likes it there!  She wasn't overly impressed with the weather, I am sure (it mostly rained while we were down) but there was great hunting (mice) and exploring, lots of happy cuddle time (I had the wood stove on) and I am sure that she found a few hidey-holes to curl up in outside because she would disappear first thing in the morning and not show her face again until supper time.

 

Here are a few pictures from the first week of vacation:

 

"Excuse me - it is POURING out there - you're
kidding me when you say come out there, right??"

Happy Kitty in the Window

 

Sleepy Fur Kids. 
But where am *I* supposed to sleep??

 With love across the waters,

Screening Soil

Today's project was to dig out where my initial vegetable bed will be, and then screen the soil dug out of the hole so that what was being placed back INTO the hole is less, well, rocky, than what was there initially. 

You may recall that initially the space I am using was home to that horrific sumac tree (yes, horrific) and a whole host of its off shoots. Last summer/fall I dug and dug and dug some more to get the runners and most of the initial stump dealt with and then in October Mum & Dad came up and helped me get the rest of the stump out.

 

Horrific Sumac with Pretty Clematis 

That was the project that involved my digging out (and then, yes, breaking) a perimeter drainage line and also making most of my back yard into what was a great a muddy mess for the fall and winter.



Sumac Stump with Punctured Perimeter Drain Pipe

Not content with just that, a few weeks ago I dug out most of the hump that was beside the pond (deepening which is another project for this summer) and flattened out that space so as to make the yard more inviting for lawn chairs and, once the grass grows back in, perhaps little nephew feet to play in the grass.

 

 

OK - back to the soil screening.  I had been looking to get my hands on something to screen the rocks out of my soil for quite some time - my brother came to my rescue (thanks Rob!) and loaned me the soil screen that he and his wife have.  It's pretty cool actually and some day I hope, very much, to be able to build something like this for myself - I am certain I will need it each year to screen out my compost AND screen more rocks out of my soil when I start working on the REST of my garden-related projects and space.  It is a pretty cool thing, with handles, and it rests on top of my wheelbarrow quite nicely to allow the needed stuff to sift through and the rocks to stay put.

"Tools" for today's project work included the screen (of course) my wheel barrow, a garden fork, a shovel and a damn skookum pair of work gloves.  Also in use was a hat and  LOTS of water to drink. Once I had breakfast and my coffee I was ready to get started...

 

I got right into it and, of course, forgot to take pictures while the project was "in progress" but the end result is a nice bed that measures 3'5" by 11'.  I have my lattice bamboo lengths stretched across it both to discourage pussy cats from considering it to be a bathroom and to discourage large black dogs who live in my house from using it as a motor-way for chasing the aforementioned pussy cats. I also outlined the bed edges with large rocks to keep my brain in mind of where I have screened soil and where I have not yet screened soil

 

Once blocked out with rocks, I direct-seeded some kale and spinach (likely too early for the spinach, but I will know in about a week if any of it sprouts) in the bed and sectioned off where I will be planting some beans.  We've been forecast to continue with the above zero temperatures and sunshine for the next week - though living in Canada I know that WILL change!

 

That bed dealt with, I took my small hand-held garden fork to my garlic bed and did some weeding. 

 

Garlic Bed - Pre-Weeding

Last but not least, I pumped up my bicycle tires and went for a short bike ride with Jasmine. It was just over 3 KM and I can promise you, I will NOT be getting onto my bike in the next three or four days - my sit bones are NOT happy with me right now!  Good thing that it is still a touch on the dark side for morning bike rides - maybe by the end of this week I can start getting a bike ride in a few mornings a week before work.  Jasmine will love that and I have to admit that I am looking forward to finally conquering the damn hill!

With love across the waters,

Pussy Cats and Paper Bags

I'm not certain what it is about the good old fashioned paper bag that cats love so much... Maybe that it is a place in which one can "hide" and still see what is going on in the room around them?

 

I have left paper bags on the floor of the kitchen - Missy rarely pays much attention to them (perhaps because a Belgian Nose's makes an immediate appearance?) but one evening I left one on my kitchen table and Missy was in like Flynn!

 

 

 

Winter Wonders

Christmas is a mere 8 days away now – I’m not done shopping or making presents just yet, but I’m closer than I was when I started my week of vacation.  I am back in the office tomorrow for three days and them am off again until Boxing Day – so I still have plenty of time to get things done.  Shopping is interesting this year – am trying very hard to do a combination of bought gifts and made ones (money’s tight) and some of what I make will be cooked goodies – so I will get seriously started in on that stuff Friday when I resume vacation time. I can’t show pictures of one of my Christmas present projects just yet (I have to admit, it's up there on the really cool list though) but promise to describe it in detail and post pictures after Christmas is done.

 

In the mean-time, though, winter has made a beautiful show for us here on Vancouver Island.  We had a huge wallop of snow dumped on us last night.  It started before dark and continued on through the night. 

 

Back yard - last night

What I woke up to this morning was roughly nine inches of clean crisp snow and clear skies.  It’s been gorgeous and sunny most of the afternoon and Jasmine has LOVED being out playing in it.

 

Back yard - this morning

Side fence this morning

Looking across the street - snowy paradise!

Days like this make me wish I had a second Groenendael – they are so much fun in the snow! 

 

Beautiful happy dog in the snow!

With love across the waters,

Right Now The Bear is Winning…

… But not for long.

On Saturday morning I got up for work as usual.  Let the dog out.  She came straight back in.  Cat wanted out.  She turned around and also came straight back in.

This is not usual, but on Saturday morning it also wasn’t wholly unexpected either as we were in the midst of what on the Island of Jersey (Channel Islands) is known as a Right Hoolie (not to be confused with a regular Hoolie which just blows the rain around and makes things generally miserable.  We were having gale force winds combined with rain so heavily pouring down that visibility was being impacted. I didn’t force the outside issue as I could let the cat out the front door to a covered (if windy) front step & Jasmine and I would be going out for our regular walk later on anyhow.

After the walk I actually had to strip at the door (inside, not outside) so as not to spread puddles of water all around my living room. Into the shower and ready for work I then got.

Last pre-departure pee time outside for Jasmine and what do I see, but a whole section of my fence lying down in the alley AND one of the walls of my marvellous compost bin lying on the ground with compost pulled out on top of it.

Hm.

When on my breaks I looked up how to repel bears from compost and also bear proofing fencing. FYI, bear-proof fencing sounds scary as hell as the best ones are electrified with high voltage as it takes a lot more than a simple electric fence to stop a determined bear.

Yipes!

I stopped on the way home to pick up some more zap straps, some 2.5’ screws and some groceries for me (I found mint flavoured rosebuds!!) and while looking for the zap straps and screws I also asked about purchasing some lime. Evidently it helps break compost down faster AND it masks the scent of anything a bear would consider to be “yummy”.  None to be had, but the gal I was speaking with DID offer an interesting suggestion – cayenne pepper.  Bears don’t like to smell it (having taken a big whiff when I was dousing my compost pile, I can understand that) AND the taste makes them think twice about eating.

All items in hand, I came home and went outside to prop up the pulled down panel and douse everything with pepper.  It was actually more fun than it sounds.

I spoke with my folks that night & Dad will be coming up to help me repair/replace at least the back section of the fence (which actually has no posts sunk into the ground – no wonder the damn thing just fell over) in a couple of weeks time, but my job for yesterday was to go outside and shore up the fence and compost bin.

While it wasn’t terrible work, it was raining and so it was damp.  Everything was even still in place this morning when I got up, so maybe the cayenne pepper is still working even though it’s wet out!

Today’s projects are more domestic.  Some leaves raked and into the compost bin, bread in the oven baking now and cookies planned as well. I also needed to make a couple of calls to find out where I could get something called “navijack” which is a composite of sand and gravel used to make concrete.  Great news, there’s a big gravel pit not too far from my home that sells it either by the yard, or at a $20 minimum – so the half yard I will need isn’t going to cost as much as I thought it would – woo hoo!

Anyhow, for your reviewing pleasure, here’s what I was working on yesterday…

Propped up

Yes, this is a corner. That's right - that "corner"post
is mostly gone and wasn't actually in the ground!

Look at the right side - yes, that's an 8-foot length
of re-bar, bent at a 90* angle!

With love across the waters,

Sumac Begone!

Today marks the official end of the epic tale of me versus the Sumac Stump. I know I will have future sumac-related tales for you – there is, after all, a second sumac that was planted on the property – I cut it down and have been fighting with its runners this summer as well, but the bulk of my fight with the sumac was because of the big one that was directly outside the back door when I moved in.

Overgrown sumac with clematis tangled up in it

About Three weeks after I moved in, Mum & Dad came up for the day (and brought Grandma with them) to have a visit.  Dad also brought work clothes with him and helped me cut back the sumac tree to a stump.  This spring and summer I have spent time pulling up roots, digging out roots, hacking at the damn stump with my mattock and generally making a dent on it.

A couple of weeks ago I decided to dig out around the thing (and promptly punctured a perimeter drain pipe I had no idea was there!) and got to the point where I found out that although it does have a tap root per se, the tap root on this sort of shoots off to the side and up under the concrete slab poured some time ago for my current patio.

The Stump.  At the right of the stump is the rhizome.
On the left is the punctured perimeter drain pipe.

I came inside and Googled sumac trees (thank God for Google!) and learned that (like irises) sumac actually grow from a rhizome. In addition to that (also like irises) they shoot up new trees out of the length of rhizomes they send out – so a single planted tree can sprout up hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of additional trees.

AGH.

At that point I went back outside, hacked at the rhizome a few more times (it was  about nine inches around), gave up, filled all of the dirt back into the hole I had created and vowed to slap any human I know who voluntarily planted a sumac! I called Mum & Dad that night and sounded off to them about it as well.

Dad told me they would come up again in a couple or three weeks’ time and, if I dug out AROUND the root (and under it,) he would bring his chainsaw up with him and we could cut through the root with that.  Knowing they were coming up today, I dug out around it yesterday.  All my hard work a few weeks ago was rewarded in that digging around it back out today was easier as the soil was nice and loose - and since we have has almost no rain; it is also dry and light.

I did, in the process, come across all sorts of pieces of broken pottery and glass, some old nails; a plastic child’s toy grenade (that nearly made me pee myself in that split second it took me to realize it was plastic,) a chunk of what could possibly original clay pipe and what looks like the corner cap from a very old cook stove. I also discovered that, contrary to what I once thought, I could NEVER be an archaeologist. I do not have the patience to sit in a hole and slowly unearth things one layer at a time. Last night and this morning confirms this newfound revelation as I have extremely sore muscles from digging while contorted into awkward positions.

The state of the stump, however, was better.  I had dug out around and below it to the point where I think I may have also discovered a very old layer of brick. I chopped and hacked at yet more roots discovered (and filled yet another wheelbarrow load of the damn things!) and left the stump in a state where it reminded me of a loose tooth.  I could wriggle it around without too much effort.  The rhizome being, I believed, the only thing still holding it in place.

It was!

Mum & Dad arrived, Dad changed into work clothes and pulled out his chainsaw… down into the hole and whizzed through the Rhizome in about three seconds flat… Rhizome cut, the stump fell over! How cool is that!

Rhizome cut, stump flopped!

A little more digging done, Dad pulled out a few more roots for me and then we hefted the stump into my trusty wheelbarrow, ran some water through the perimeter drain pipe to ensure that all of the additional dirt I lodged into it was flushed, covered the holes back up and then all three of us pushed the dirt back into place. Dad did comment to me how impressed he was at the depth I had dug the hole.  I have to admit, I was pretty impressed with myself over that – it was a deep hole!

Dirt back in place, hosed patio and then lattice to prevent
Jasmine from using it as a motorway. At the top of this
picture is my covered over garlic bed. 

Wheelbarrow full of stump and more roots
and Dad's gloves crowning the pile! 

Mum & I also got my garlic planted – 16 cloves - then we headed out for another gorgeous lunch at Mar’s on Main – I stuck with what I had last time (Greek wrap with calamari) and we came back for cake and coffee. I made an applesauce cake with my own applesauce last night and have, woo hoo, discovered a recipe I can bake, cool, and freeze!

Mum & Dad also brought up a whole pile more canning jars gleaned from my Grandpa’s basement.  A good wash out & sterilize and I’ll be ready to can up more applesauce!  I’m going to try to get out there and pick more apples this afternoon and get some more applesauce onto the stove and cooking… I’m thinking I should be able to get the applesauce cooked down and get at least one batch canned tonight before bed – the rest I will baggie up when it cools and freeze.

What’s next to be done? My Damson Plum has died back and my pear tree is overgrown, so some serious tree pruning will need to be done.  I also have shrubbery in the back yard that is now WAY too tall for me to properly enjoy – so the next Mum & Dad Day’s projects will include some much lighter work in getting these things done.

All in all, it’s been a productive weekend so far and, since it’s only 2:00 in the afternoon, I still have time to get more done!

With love across the waters,