He Couldn't Take It

I knew it wouldn't be long.

With his trusty sidekick of course.
Yesterday was the day.

Mr. LB fell the 2 big trees that needed to come down.
It had snowed Saturday
so there was still a skiff covering most of the ground in the morning.
Needless to say, the ground was still as wet as last weekend.
Above is the locust which was dead.
You can see a couple large rounds of cottonwood in the background.
Those are from one removed out behind the shop 2 summers ago.
We will take care of them this summer.
He got this all bucked up and taken care of before moving onto the next.

My folks came up so Pa helped with the cottonwood.

This one was pretty good sized and was leaning way over.

They got most of it cleaned up and I have a feeling when I get home from work,

I will find Mr LB out here working on bucking up the rest.

It amazes me just how much water these trees use.

That's actually a puddle in the stump.

This is also how that large one in the background of the first picture was.

The wood from this will need to cure for a while before we do anything with it.

Now I have to figure out what to do about the stumps.

Always something :-)

A Simple View

It might sound silly to someone who wants a sweeping view

of vast expances or city lights.

But I'm completely thrilled at the moment with our front view.

This is looking right out our front door.

We aren't far off the little mountain road.

It had become overgrown which Mr LB actually liked from a privacy aspect.

Buuuuttt.....

There's only so much we can take.

We actually fell and cleaned up 2 large trees and numerous smaller trees 

from this not so large area.

We did keep a bit of firewood from the larger two.
(A thorn apple and an old plum - not all shown.)

We got the spring fire going and worked out here all day.
I'm hoping to put a waddle fence up to hide the propane tank.

This is the closest thing to a "before" view.

Maybe that makes me a bad blogger

since I don't think of everything in life as a bloggable moment 
and take pictures of the progression.
Sometimes it just feels good to work - without technology.

All I know is it's kinda difficult for me to make the decision to cut down a tree

so when I ask hubby if he wants to play with the chainsaw,

he seldom hesitates.

We would have half as many trees if it were up to him.

We have two more yet to go (over in the big yard) but the ground is too wet at the moment so we have to wait.

One is a huge cottonwood that is reeeeally leaning.
That won't make good firewood, 
but we might use it for early fall or late spring fires.
The other is a good sized locust that is dead but one little branch.
That one should be great for firewood.
For now, I will look out my front door and appreciate a day spent working 
with my wonderful husband and how much cleaner it is.
This is my simple view.

The Rebel in Me

You may have already figured out that I have a wee bit of a stubborn streak. 

Oh, you hadn’t noticed?

Bless you friend. 

March 11, day light savings time requires us to “spring forward” an hour.

Ha!  I didn’t change half my clocks.
I changed the coffee pot (important!) the alarm clock (sorta important,) and the mantle clock (not as important but convenient.  When it strikes, I know the time.)
The other clocks I left on day light savings time.
We just "fell back" in November.
Regardless of the hear-say blaming the idea on farmers,
it was actually businessmen who came up with the idea and pushed it through government.
It worked so the date has been altered a couple of times to promote consumerism.
Farmers actually lobbied against it as it messed with the cycles of their livestock.
(That makes sense to me.)
So I guess in my own quiet way,
I'm lobbying against it as I'm driving to work, 
and it's after 8AM according to the clock in the car.
I wouldn't care which time we stuck with as long as it didn't change.
And now you know, I'm a rebel.

Another Project from the Scrap Pile

These are homemade seed starting trays. 

As I shared back here and here, I have a scrap wood pile that I’ve been working on in order to make it disappear or at least shrink considerably. 

Over the course of the past few years,

we’ve been working on removing plastic from our lives. 

This is no small feat as our society promotes quite the opposite (disposable) 
as the norm.
We might never completely get there, but we do try.

This year I will be using eggshells for seed starting.
(They aren’t yet washed in the pix, but they will be.)
I’ve never tried this before but have always thought it clever
so will have to let you know how they work out.
For the trays, I began with a 1x2, made a frame with two sticks measuring 12” long and two sticks measuring 13 1/2” long in order to make it square.
I had a bit of hardware cloth so used that for the bottom of two of the frames.
I ran out of 1x2s so made my own from a short piece of 2x4 as well as some slats.
For one of the frames I used the slats, and
I am hoping to make a few more.
The ones with wire are lighter weight wise,
but the slats I am able to make virtually for free.
These are so easy and can be made to fit 
whatever size seed starting pots you use.
If I wanted to “trap the water” I could place a plastic bag in the tray, but I’m hoping by watering carefully and watching, I won’t have to mop up mini-floods.
So far they are easy to stack and move~
Again, will let you know once full of plants.
If I can't be in the garden,
I suppose I can at least make something for it.