Projects 16

Thanks. My local nursery had a huge yellow-berried female Ilex opaca in a 3 gallon pot sitting next to the door. I am tempted, but I think I'd have them plant it. I have to ask for more information.

Sounds like a nice plant!

Didn't work out. It was a meserve hybrid after all, so not something I will change routines to plant.

Ah.....I haven't done any fall planting except for the small alliums......I don't have much space left for much......

We had to leave before i could get my new daffies planted.

That's an enviable problem.

We've had enormous luck with weekend weather, so I can still get a few hours of planting done several days at a time, and I periodically buy a new salvia or set of bulbs when I see them on sale. The biggest project here is using a pickaxe to break up the rotten woodpile that DH crushed with the Dingo tractor last spring, and then load up the mulch to distribute to all the new trees and shrubs. It is brown gold, but for no charge.

Sounds like profitable work, Rosemary! I don't get along well with a pickaxe anymore. 😁

Fortunately it's only to disentangle roots and debris, it doesn't require that many strokes to loosten mulch, and it can all happen gradually.

Yeah, I think I'll give the pickaxe a miss here, too! You're tougher than I am, Rosemary.....

Well, today I was good for two taps with the pickaxe, and two wheelbarrows of mulch. A lot of people could do more.

pickaxe is a useful tool here - spent all weekend raking lugging the leaves out back - lower front down both sides of the driveway are done - and mulched up the leaves by the road in front of the wall and on the other side as well.

next week it will be the back yard.

DH raked leaves in front of our wall which runs along the street. Down the hill into the woods via tarp.

I stayed inside & knitted!

LOL, Marilyn! Good call!

Bill, with your long driveway, that's a LOT of leaves! Glad to hear you aren't getting lazy on us! HAHAHAHA....I can't even imagine that.

it is a lot - back yard has even more :)

need to think about getting a leaf shredder

You can run the lawn mower over leaves. Then rake up.

yup that is what I do now - just wonder if it a shredder would do a better job. thinking about spreading them in beds that have nutrition issues from hickories sucking up all the good stuff.

We try to use the mulcher in our leaf blower. It's a little heavy for me, but it does chop up the leaves so we can drop them into needy areas, which I think is just about everywhere except where the oak and pine trees grow. I blame the ubiquitous Norway Maples and sandy soil that takes over eventually. Lawn mower smashes them to the ground if it's rained, which it has here.

ok here are the pictures from a couple different angles

we shall see if this goes to the office - will be on the hunt for more red base rock first :)

New office address:
131 Polpis Rd
Nantucket, Ma 02554.

It's a winner. Red base rock is stunning. Patti

Hahaha. The other office is in Pennsville, NJ

Love all the different colors and textures just the way you have them together. Stunning!

Another winner, Bill.....those rocks just seem to belong together! Thomaston is also a good home for cairns! My parents had a Cairn terrier.....seems like that should count for something!

Thanks - the little cairn is just 10" tall - lost some choice stones while drilling them because they are so small although I'm happy with how this came out, not the original plan I started with. Not many good beach stones left to choose from so will have to be patient and go slower with the next one.

fortunately the red rock is soft so easy to drill into so the few I have lugged back in my luggage have survived - have a larger granite red one outside that is all drilled and set up on its white quartz base - just need the perfect companion stone, think small plate of contrasting of color (the one planned to be used cracked - painful) and then complete the balance with beach stone to mirror the one made in the spring.

Oh, that will be a beauty!

Very pretty. I just had a thought. Do you check your work if it's an inside cain-- with a Geiger counter?

hum - interesting thought

Thought I would post the rock balance coated with snow.

And the balance to be is next to the arch.

Both have large white quartz bases that are buried in snow.

They take on wonderful shapes under the snow!

Those are so interesting and pretty! I never even gave it a thought how pretty they would look after a snowfall! I can't wait to see the new balance when you find what you are searching for!

I did end up giving that cairn posted above to my wife for her b-day - she was trilled, and commented on how hard it must have been for me to give it to her :) - she knows me well - it now sits in her office at work.

so i needed to get busy and build some for me.

the first one pictured was built quickly - although it took three weeks of looking at the rock supply and playing with different set ups before the form came to me. that base quarts stone came very close to being another stone flower base, had even drilled all the holes in stone's for that would be flowers. just as i was about to drill i balanced the green second stone and the rest fell into place.

i was busy building the other one when i wasn't playing the different ideas for the first one shown. Look close at the base rock of the second one - cool mixture of green, red, and white.

think i'm about done now - wife will be happy not to have to listen to the hammer drill.

Bill, those stones are all really beautiful!!! I love both of these, and I'm proud of you for giving Cindy your first one! LOL. These are real works of art. You have an amazing eye for pairing the stones and for creating the balance. So cool!

Beautiful and very individual stone sculptures, Bill. Did you think of also giving your wife the pinker one for Valentines Day? :)

I marvel!!

Was the base from the ocean. It looks like there was wave action.

The first one is a whale....love it to pieces!

all the rocks came from the ocean shore Lucy.

Rosemary I did not give another away :)

Well if you are looking for a home to give one to, I know a good one!!

You never know when an office thief will strike. Now, where are they?

funny girls - you can visit them in June if you want :)

want to make a large one out of lichen covered stones that will sit on the rock wall down behind the fire pit. That will require some snow melt!!