Garden, deck and greenhouse update

We needed some tidbits for the garden so we went to Nanaimo late afternoon the other day, its much quicker later in the day because all the traffic is gone so the wait for the ferries doesn't take as long.

Because we were going big box shopping we decided to stop for supper beforehand and who doesn't love Montana's?... Well, we do so that's where we went. First big box restaurant meal in years I believe and we enjoyed it, sinful as it was.

 

Montana's

I ran more blackberry leaves through Betty (freeze drier for any new readers)

FoodSaver jar sealer attachment

My FoodSaver accessory broke off in the jar sealer so I contacted FoodSaver and they are sending me a new machine as the accessory is hardwired to the machine (they didn't think that through).

The walnut tree is in full bloom now.

Absolutely gorgeous

Okay, so on to the garden:

This uncovered area is the garlic bed. Along the left there will be peas eventually.

The main garden has been finished. We churned the back corner and widened the entire plot then covered it all with the ground cover ( no gaps). Then having gone to the big box shops we put down a watering system.

Widened section

Drip irrigation system

Slower-downers

Inside the hose are what I will call slower-downers hahahahahahaha, I don't know what to call them but they turn the gushing water to only a slow drip.

Jay - finally caught a pic of him.

Brad and Robbie having a male bonding snooze

Woodshed cleared out

We ordered 3 cords of wood this year (only 2 last year and 2.5 would have been better), because we are out of it now the guy is bringing 1/2 cord today (Saturday) so I cleaned everything out, swept it well and put the air vents (wood bits) back in then ran a bead of cinnamon around the inside edges to keep spiders and mice out which I also did last year. Not a drop of mouse poop in there when I swept it out which is fantastic given where we live. The rest of the wood will be brought in next week 1 cord a day.

Deck sorted

With the extra wood (the shed only holds 2 cords) we needed the deck sorted so that was finally organized for the season. I wanted to move the planting stuff moved down to the garden side and the wood will go in the back quarter with those chairs and the generator. The log bench which was under the closest window is now on the outside wall of the deck so we can put our feet up, I'll make a cushion for it if I get time.

Super exciiitiiinnnggg!!!

Greenhouse is almost finished, just the door and window left to do today.

 

Dog fight overhead and Hummingbird Heaven

Our house operates on a cistern (massive concrete water container in basement), as such our water is collected from rainfall which runs down the roof (house, woodshed, cabin and carport) into the gutters and is funnelled into the cistern to provide the house with water for daily life. 

On Wednesday I cleaned out the gutters on the wood shed and yesterday the gutters on the carport of the cabin next door, both were quite blocked with crud which would obviously have to absorb the water before allowing it to trickle through into the gutters and a decent amount of our precious water would then simply evaporate before getting to the gutter. The main house and the cabin roofs themselves are just too high for me to contend with, if we owned the home I'd bother but as its not ours I'm just not going there.

Not the worst one, but the only gutter I got a picture of.

Basking in the shade... typical men.

Wood shed is filling in.

View of our place from the cabin.

When we moved in the peaches looked like this.

Now they look like this.

Some interesting ships sail by here so I think I'll create a photo collection of them.

(Looks Titanic-ish)

Yesterday we had Eagles and Buzzards fighting over our heads. The buzzards had a significant amount of feathers missing from their backsides - the eagles were clearly winning. One older and one younger eagle (perhaps it was training day). You can see the missing plumage (lower bird) in this picture if you look closely.

They flew around very close - we'd never seen an eagle in flight within 20 feet before. Beautiful.

Second unusual ship. Reminded us of an old Japanese ship (name escapes me).

I am going to show before and after pics when I get a better shot with sunlight... supposed to rain all week but I'll watch for a moment. Meanwhile, the wood pile is stored.

All the wood is put away and there is still room for our garden tools.

The grape vine was overgrowing the upper deck in the front of the house, the landlord said we could cut it out but we felt so guilty about it that we are trying to keep them alive... Absolutely no clue if this is doable but we had to try. I know from an app that this is an invasive species so we are hoping that they will take if we keep them saturated for a few days. They are clearly not doing well right now but they appear to still be salvageable. We will see. 

Special treat. 

There are dozens of Hummingbirds around here and they love the feeders the neighbour has on the cottage. They will drink my feeder but not to the extend they do his, I'll ask him today what his secret ingredient is.