Farm->chicken coop->now the bobcat and pond!

;Badseed, It was so interesting reading this new thread to catch up on what is happening with you and your family and your move. I was out of town for a week, my daughter was here from VA visiting for more than a week, so I didn't spend much time in front of the monitor.

You did so much with your bobcat. And your pond will be just beautiful. I sure don't know how you accomplish so much . Don't overdo tho.

DonnaS

Hi Donna! Welcome back, it is nice to see you. I hope you had good visits.

Here is the current state of the pond. I stuck in several ornamental grasses and have several more to go. I need to get that clay moved out of there and up by the foundation, then lay down carboard and pile it up with dirt. I was trying to decide whether to use the nice landscape blocks or rocks around the pond. I think I will go with plain old rocks so it looks more natural.

This will be one of the shade beds. I plan to build beds around each tree. I'm not sure if I will connect them in any way. The idea is to eventually have beds around all the trees and the pond with paths between them all.

Here are the first two beds. For now they are holding beds. I don't know what they will be by spring. LOL They are not quite finished. I ran out of time, light and kid patience. I have to finish cleaning up around the edges and flatten out the rest. I really only plan on these being temporary beds that will get some new shape come spring. I am just in a mad dash to get my plants moved so I spent a small fortune on good soil so I can plant right into it. The ground is fairly flat and sits wet in the spring. I didn't want to worry about crown rot on a HUGE scale.

badseed - can't wait to see the finished pond. you looked great on the machine.

it sure is nice to sit here and watch someone else do all the work!
looking GOOD!

You go girl!

I am woman, hear me roar

I am woman watch me grow
See me standing toe to toe
As I spread my lovin' arms across the land

I am tired, going back to bed.....

Chele...it is looking great! You have such large visions, plans and energy! I agree...you go girl !

I also had to read the part about laying the laminate floor. I was sure you meant laid on it...not layed it down!

Can you see we are weaklings compared to you! I'm with Sue...not going back to bed, but sitting my the computer with my cup of coffee....enjoying what you are getting done!

Cilf.Sue
I love the song I am woman . but at 63 and after bout with big C,I have changed words to
" I am woman here me WHINE "
"Not all the time but enough to know i am still alive"
"Touch not my flowers or i will still roar ,
and kick you out the door "
Looking good badseed !
and roar while you still can ?

Yep, I'd have been laying down ON the floor, too!

We have lots o'laminate at our house - our formal living/dining, the den, the hall, and the bedrooms are all done in oak-look laminate. While it isn't as nice-looking as my (real) cherry floors in our last house, it has proven far more durable and it suits the age and style of this home. We've gotten a lot of compliments on them, and you can't beat laminate for easy cleaning - run a dustmop or sweeper and viola! it's done.

Oh, and my kitchen and eating nook has tile-look laminate ;o) It's soooo much less maintenance than linoleum or the real tile floor we laid when we first moved in. (Putting tile in a house with a crawlspace was a new experience to us - we came from a region of slab foundations. We learned the hard way that you REALLY need your floor to be extremely tight with no sway at all if you want tile to stay put. And that's next-to-impossible with a 25-year-old house.)

60 YARDS of compost??? My goodness - I don't know whether writing the check or moving it around would make me faint. But either way, I'd be swooning!!!

Heck I would have been lying ON the dirt you had brought in. I doubt I would have been able to walk to the house after all that activity. Running after six girls has you in good shape as far as endurance goes.

It is all lookin good.

We are putting a bamboo laminate in our bedroom with an oriental rug over part of it. It will be a whole lot nicer than the 70s gold shag carpet we presently have up there. I love a good laminate because it is harder to break glass that you drop on it and I do drop my fair share of glass. :o(

THat Bamboo laminate looks really nice!!

Well she just left here w/ 3 to 5 hundred more pounds of cardboard to meet the Bobcat delivery Dude.
I'd say more beds are on the way!

Rican

tell me something then Rican, did she sit down at all? Does she have a coffee IV? Didi she pull in with the radio blasting?

Rofl

mg

Hmmmm..........no radio (I'm thinking the silence w/o the 6-Pack....golden)
or IV (well not coffee anyway! lol)
And yes she did sit down.
(As we drove around to the different spots here to load MORE cardboard).
I know I'm sitting down now!

Rican

Tee Hee, Thanks!

I'm just trying to figure out HOW she does so much. Maybe the clocks around her are magic?

Did your watch go screwy when she showed up?

mg

Clocks are always screwy around Chele.
A 1/2 hour visit takes at least 2 hours!

;)

I would think its the other way around :0) the way that Badseed flyes around and the things she gets done I acctually have started to wonder if shes not getting more that 24 hours per day
Janett

I think Santa let Chele in on his suspension-of-time trade secret.

I'm home! Thanks to Ric and his cardboard, I got beds around three more trees, and beds on both sides of the driveway (one goes down the length of the fence about 20 feet). I got all the clay scooped up from around the pond and piled around the foundation. Our home inspector thought it was a bit low. Not now! LOL I spread out more cardboard in front of the shade garden and piled it with more good soil so I won't have to keep running to the barn with a wheelbarrow or the riding mower. I still had time left so I put more cardboard by the pond and left a huge pile of good soil there too. Whew! I wish I had one of those bobcats! I saw a big tractor go by with a loader buckey on it, so I guess I can look forward to buying a tractor! LOL

I want to post my most profound thanks to Vic! She read that I had hardly any shade plants and now have shade and she sent me a monster box of shade plants. I am overwhelmed by her generosity! My shade beds will fill up quickly!!

Mystic saw my plea for help and is coming for a sleepover workout this weekend! Okay, she said she would come before I posted. LOL My girls absolutely love her! We always have a good time hanging out and I am always sad when she has to go.

Where is the darn pizza guy??? The only thing I have eaten today is a Little Debbie brownie and I am starving!!!!

Chele, here's a "wedding cake" redneck style... Little Debbies and Twinkies! Make one for snacks, LOL.

Horseshoe I thought the same thing!! - thong. LOL

Chele I have been lurking!! Your threads move so fast I haven't posted! The EE's you received will do great in a shade bed, mine only get morning sun.

I am SOOO jealous!!! Wish I were closer, I would come help! Promise.. You need to recruit some DG's to help too! :) I know there are a bunch up there! Heck I may even be up for a road trip!

Still don't see how you do it all with watchin' the youngins. You are just awesome! You are going to have some serious well adjusted kids!!!

Nicolel

Wow. I mean WOW. Give Peggy a hug from Howie & me.

Just checking in and caught up on all of these threads! Great job Michele and I'm so happy for you and yours. What a great event and I know your garden will be well on it's way next summer!!

You inspire me Michele!

Hey I am loading up in the morning with shovels etc. Anybody in the area is welcome to join in. We can get these gardens put to bed pretty quick. Oh I can't forget the chocolate milk. lol

No blue sodas, Peggy? If we didn't have plans today and tomorrow, we'd be down to say hey and I could help dig holes. I'd get garden bed/soil envy baaad, though. :D

There are people that one meets in life that will do almost anything in the world for you. Even though it remains unspoken, they just sort of show up when you need them. Like many of you, Mystic wouldn't let me back down from buying the farm. She kept telling me she would be here to help. Friday she called and told me she would come Saturday morning and do anything I needed her to do for me.

She got here Saturday morning, car loaded down and asked what I needed. She agreed to mind the monsters so I could dig up another 4 dozen plants or so and she even got them to fold laundry. When I got done, we loaded up plants, stuff for a sleep over, lunches for travelling, etc. She took two kids and I took four and we headed for the new house.

When we got there, she helped me decide how to do the beds which will hold about 400 hems plus other various perennials. I turned her loose and the kids sort of alternated back and forth between helping me, helping her and helping with the baby. I think we worked from 4:00 to 8:00 pm and had to quit because it got dark. LOL

When we went in, she pulled out everything she had brought. I do mean EVERYTHING! She had a veggie tray with dips, crackers, cheese cubes, tortilla chips with nacho cheese and salsa, pretzels and cheese snack crackers, pudding cups, rice crispy treats, brownies and all the paper and plastic goods to serve them with, on and around! She also brought instant coffee since I don't have a pot there yet, sugar and 2 kinds of donuts for breakfast. As soon as we ate, we went right back outside. I think we started around 8:00 and quit about 2:00 so we could load up and head back to the other house.

In the end, between Peggy and I and the kids, I think we planted around 300 plants in the course of about 10 hours. It could have been more. I tried not to think about it WHILE we were doing it. :) My eldest looked up some of the hems to help with placing them by colors or ran up and down the rows to place them so Peggy could go behind and plant them. My second oldest filled several wheelbarrow loads so I could move them and she went behind me and planted large rings of hostas around four trees. VIC, THANK YOU FOR ALL THE SHADE PLANTS!!! The four youngest girls mostly ran around and played and had a good time. The baby spend a lot of time climbing the huge mounds of soil, ripping out a tag or two and digging with a plastic hand trowel. This morning they got to awaken to roosters crowing and spent the day playing with caterpillars and a monarch butterfly, grasshoppers, crickets, stray cats, got to see a wild bunny, can't even say how much we are all looking forward to our new life.

More than anything, the purpose of this post is to say thank you to Mystic. Thank you for coming to help. Thank you for thinking of everything. Thank you for loving me and the kids. Thank you for all the hard work. Many hugs to you. I do have one question....

(edited cuz I am too tired to use good grammar. lol)

This message was edited Oct 16, 2005 8:53 PM

Wanna come back next weekend? I'll tow your tired fanny back to the house in the wagon again! LOL

Wow! What a great treat, eh?

Yep, Mystic is the "Surprise Champion"! Always thinkin' bout what someone needs, what needs to be done, and how to do it.

Ya'll really got a lot of work done! Bigtime Congratulations on that!

Ya done good, Mystic! And it sure sounds like those young'ns sure chipped in and helped bigtime too, BS...you gotcha some good farm hands there!

What a great trip, eh?

Wow, that is wonderful. Great to have friends like that.

good friends are hard to find and harder to keep. lol
sounds like you both had a blast.

Good grief I knew my ears where burning. No thanks needed Chele but you're welcome. I think every part of my body is sore this morning. lol It was a good time. It's always more fun to work in somebody else's garden then your own. You might be cussing me when things come up next year. I was so impressed by how much Chele had gotten done at the new house since I last saw it she has really worked hard.

I am not sure how many plants we got planted, I am sure 300 or more if you count all the bulbs. The beds are sure shaping up. We got all the bare root stuff and bulbs she had dug up planted and lots of the things she had potted. The shade beds look great. Still lots more hems to go but sure put a dent in getting them planted.

It was a great weekend. Now do I want to do it again next weekend just for another wagon ride I don't think so. chuckle! Sure glad there was no camera around then. lol BTW you have a treasure planted in your yellow bed it won't make ya rich but will be fun when you come across it next year. lol

This is part of the shade bed across the front of the house.

The rest of the shade bed across the front.

This shows 2 of the trees with the beds finished around them planted with hosta all four trees in the front yard are finished and planted with hosta around them. You see the water garden in the picture too.

The hems and perennials holding beds.

This is one row but it shows how long the rows are.

So.. you heaped up the dirt for hte holding beds so you could dig them up easily later. once you figure out where they are going?

Hey I recognize that cardboard! LOL
Sounds like an exhausting but GREAT time.
Sorry we had to miss it.
Seems we're always missing mystic when she comes up.

The 'ply' you dropped off Friday night is now firmly attached to the new GH.
THANKS!

http://davesgarden.com/forums/fp.php?pid=1818567

Ric

Jazz, the land up there is very flat and sits wet in the spring. I laid down layers of cardboard, had soil mixed to my specifications then piled it about a foot deep to hold all of my plants. I also started other beds, the pond and the plants around the foundation. I tried to have everything ready so if and when I got help, it would just be a matter of setting the plants. I may leave the long beds that way, reshape them or just add more. :)