Mary, Mary Quite Contrary, How Does Your Garden Grow?

This is about the only garden growing around here these days since our spring has continued to remain so cold and blustery.

Our regular garden has struggled to rear tiny heads just mere inches or fractions of an inch since planting up to a month ago. Last evening I hustled to cover everything, even bringing ferns inside, as the weather called for a frost warning which will continue again tonight as well.

Marc was unexpectedly dispatched to Bismarck in a big semi with a load, as he wears his “other” hat of CDL driver for Blenker Transport; as if he didn’t have enough to do with his many projects. Just as soon as he returns, he will head out again for a potential new project in Marquette, MI—a four story dormitory for the college. I swear they are working that man to death and I’ve about given up on ever getting much needed things accomplished here on the home front. Nix our plans to sell the RV this year probably; there is just too much to fix on it for Marc to see his way clear to doing so. It didn’t help that I inadvertently added to his burden while trying to open the slides and not realizing the battery had been removed. There was a small meltdown of the 12V components and now Marc doesn’t know what will be entailed in trying to fix it.

Thankfully, daughter and her boyfriend will ride to the rescue, coming to visit at the end of the month for five days and Marc signed up for a long overdue vacation week so we could really enjoy our time with them, showing them central WI. We hold out tiny hope that they may consider relocating here since the blush is off the rose with Portland, OR and its insanely priced real estate. Beautiful places are often the most costly so you have to ask yourself at some point “At what price beauty?” or even better: “At what sacrifice, beauty?” Do they continue to work long hours just to support their housing costs or do they consider moving elsewhere where they actually could own a house AND have a life beyond just supporting a roof over their heads? And as they say: beauty is only skin deep anyway.

As I do so occasionally, I wanted to remind readers to please continue to think about donating to your local humane society. Thank God people in this community are doing so, and we were able to save this sweetest boy Chance, from a horrible death from being run over by a car and having his leg crushed beyond repair. Yes, he's still struggling with the aftermath but he has a such a loving attitude, is full of life and will soon make someone a wonderful and devoted companion. If I wasn't on the verge of being the Crazy Cat Lady already, he would certainly be coming home with me!

What Have We Been Doing?

Working of course! The weather has been kind to us on a few days allowing us to finally get outside to all the chores that wait. Our main priority was the garden since the growing season in WI is so short we need to take advantage of every single day we get. Marc got busy on constructing the gate and I got half of it painted before it was hung. Once up, I finished up the painting on another day.  

From that task he went on to buy and plant 300 onion sets! This past Saturday was nice so we prepped the opposite side of the garden and got in three rows of various types of peas, one of spinach, two of chard and lettuce. It’s backbreaking work to stoop over and plant thousands of tiny seeds! We still have about half or more left to do when the weather clears. 

Since Sunday rained, we made the trip to a nursery in Appleton to finally purchase the birch trees I wanted for our small grove. In the far right of the photo you will see the area where we've placed those large boulders--the grove will go there. They will get planted next weekend if the rain abates; one has paper bark and the other silver bark, three stems in each set. Trees of good size are very expensive so we need to spread out their purchase; to complement the grove I still want a quaking aspen to complete the trio.

Meanwhile, in off moments when I wasn’t needed in the garden or had a paintbrush in my hand, I finally got started on the redo of the $14 Goodwill table I had purchased last fall. It was a dark, beat up mess but held potential so I figured for the price, it deserved a chance. If all else failed, I would just spray paint it and use it on the porch! Working outside, I put on three coats of stripper over as many days, which I removed with a putty knife. In between and after, I was hand sanding like mad to the point where my arthritic fingers and hands finally told me they didn’t want to work anymore. After speeding things up with one of Marc’s old sanders, I moved things inside due to more rain and cold and am now in the process of applying the natural finish I want, Tung Oil. I figure it should match my antique hutch fairly closely. Each coat needs to sit for 24 hours so it too, is a slow process but the table is looking fabulous!

I’ve also been busy working with the shelter on their main annual fundraising event, Cinco de Meow, a dinner and night of games to be held May 7th. Recently I distributed publicity posters to all the businesses out at the Chain of Lakes and donated some of my jewelry and new glass flower art to the cause for the raffle baskets. On the day of the event I will also be called upon to help set up and decorate the VFW hall where it is held. I enjoy making the glass flowers so much I have made several for myself and with Marc’s help for doing the backer for the pipe inset, I got the first one on display outside. Some, I am adding hand beaded jewelry accents to the center. There will be many more to come after Marc cuts these tomato stakes to size and does the small block of wood I glue to the back.

Coming up: Marc is working on making me a kitchen window box with kitties on it! Wait till you see that; hopefully in my next episode…he is enjoying his wood working shop so much he could spend all his time buried in the basement!

Last Minute Winter Stuff

Yes, you read me right; we had another snow storm this weekend, with wind chills in the twenties so it was another indoor weekend for us. Marc needed to take it easy anyway as he had some minor surgery on his back with the removal of a cyst which inhibited his ability to move his shoulder and left arm. At least this allowed him to rest up after his arduous week in ND, where he logged a 73 hour work week! We are very excited to note however, that the forecast for this coming weekend will be spectacularly warm for us—the 60’s! That means we’ll be able to complete the garden fencing and painting of the posts.

I finished up my yard totem and got it planted and completed the first flower plate faces as well. Marc has purchased copper pipe which will be used for their stems and they will be planted in the gravel area where no real vegetation is intended. I really enjoy the search for their parts, then piecing them together and seeing how they “grow” into originals, so I plan on doing more. Compared to some, mine are rather tame so I need to keep an eye out for more colorful glassware. My final project was a beaded wind dancer which sparkles in the sun. These also are a fun project so I will likely be making at least one more. I may eventually paint the PVC pipe.

Last evening was nice enough and Marc was moving well enough to tackle pruning the lilac forest. I’ve wanted to eliminate the dead wood since we’ve owned this property; we figure the bush is likely from the 1940’s since that’s when the original farmstead was built here, in the area where we are planting the garden. The poor thing has been badly neglected for years and years so hopefully this is the start of bringing it back to health and more blooms. Now I’ve got two huge piles of branches and twigs to pack out across two lots to our burn pile as today’s major chore!

It was not winter's last gasp as we had hoped. The morning after another big snowstorm dawned gorgeously still and quiet. I think they may be about done for the year with the possible exception of some flurries coming up late this weekend. This one didn’t last too long due to warmer ground temps and the ground shows up once again even though we got about 8 inches. 

This gives you an idea of what we are planning for our garden with the possibility of a few flowers thrown in around the house. The lawn area we tried to plant last year on our excavated ground turned into runaway crabgrass and clover so after killing it off this year I will need to start all over again. I’m looking forward to the upcoming days and weeks of warmer weather spent outside working on things. I’ve never really had a yard to develop and I never got into gardening at a younger age but am avidly looking forward to it at this point. We have lots of plans; now just to see if we can make them work out!

Marc is away in Bismarck, ND this week but managed to add a huge safety feature to his big saw so he no longer has to reach across by the running blade to guide a long piece of lumber. It’s quite cleaver, done with rollers and folds up out of the way when he is done. That man is so inventive!

I took advantage of his absence and visited Goodwill for more yard art project material so hope to have some photos of those by the time I blog again.

Winter's Last Gasp?

We’re hopeful we’ve seen the last snowfall of the winter earlier this month because recently our temperatures have been so warm we are completely rid of snow. Next come the spring rains so we’re not out of the woods by any means, although we are getting some days of warming sunshine. 

Marc has taken that time to do some outside chores like the apple tree pruning; something he didn’t get the chance to do at all last year. In addition, we spent the weekend working on our garden area and fencing. To make it tall enough to keep out the deer, he is doing two courses of four feet field fencing with a lower layer of mesh at ground level to help prevent rodents. All of that is weaved together with fencing wire to make something strong and secure so it’s no easy or quick task. He also had one pole left to set which I now need to paint and there is yet a gate to be built. Since our last killing frost can be in mid-May it’s really not safe for us to plant much until the end of April so we still have time to get things in order.

We’ll actually be working a whole bunch on outside tasks this summer as we have lots of landscaping planting plans. In addition, there is some major fix up to be done to the RV and Freightliner which we are considering putting up for sale. We can’t envision ever fulltiming again and there is no need locally for such a large RV so if we can ditch this one we may eventually get a 30 foot bumper tow we can pull with the Dodge. But we’re not even sure if we’ll do that since Marc only has two weeks’ vacation a year so other than weekend use it would likely sit a lot. Marc has continued to work in his basement, putting together his work area and building drawers for storage, etc. Once he feels he is practiced enough, there will be laundry room cabinets to build and the kitchen island and hood.

He did decide he’d like to get out fishing at some point soon so he picked up a clean little boat & trailer the other day. He has to go through his old motor to get it running but maybe before long we’ll have some fish stories to relate. I was holding out for a pontoon boat but remain hopeful maybe we can add to the fleet a little later with one. Wisconsin has over 11,000 lakes and 300 rivers so there is just way too much water fun to be had to live in this state without a boat or two!