We are on a roll with cleaning and decluttering at the moment. The Husband even cleaned the oven! A new fridge arrived, destined for the garage, and I had to make space for it. This fridge is going to be for storing produce, seeds and any overflow from inside. It cost $20. No, that’s not a typo. Now, we all know that the garage is a place of dreadful mess. The fridge needed to go where the small chicken cage was, beside the freezers, so I had to move the cage. And that led to tidying a whole patch of my ‘chicken stuff’ area. There is much more to be tidied and cleaned in the garage, but for now, I have to turn to other things.
I am slightly over-excited to report that I have moved the demolition pile from the Cedar Pen. Woohoo! This pile of wood and corrugated iron had been taking up space in there since we demoed the old woodshed, fence and chicken coop. I can’t exactly say I’m down one pile, because I made a pile of wood out the front for selling. Some bits went behind the potting shed for potential later use and there is a growing collection of ‘to be cut’ wood in the carport. Some of the corrugated iron can hopefully be used to make proper roofing for the firewood racks.
While I was working in the Cedar Pen, I thought I might as well do other things that needed to be done in there. The chickens needed to switch to this pen as the Orchard Pen had gotten too muddy. I moved the kennel coop out, pruned the bay tree suckers that had shot up, scouted for poisonous weeds like nightshade and removed a bunch of weedy crocosmias from around the cedar tree. And I put a stump in there. Partly for amusement for the chickens and partly so we don’t have to cut it up. Hehe.
I am also excited and relieved to report that I have finished pruning the old apple tree. There is still a wide section that needs to be cut off by way of The Husband and his chainsaw, but I have done all I can with the pruning saw, which is a lot. There was more damage from woolly apple aphids than I realised on the tree, so I tried to cut off all the worst affected branches as well.
And if that wasn’t enough, we have almost finished dealing with the new pruning mountain. Much sawing, chopping and wheelbarrowing loads of wood has been going on. As of nightfall, there are just a few branches left that could be chopped up with secateurs and some piles of wood that need to be transported away. I was eager to get rid of the pile because 1) it was blocking our view, 2) there’s more pruning to be done, 3) there’s another patch of rain coming and 4) I seem to have acquired another fruit tree that I seem to want to plant somewhere in the vicinity of that pruning mountain.
I went to a plant sale this morning and acquired an apple tree. I guess I had apples on the mind after spending a lot of time with the old apple tree. But can you ever have enough apple trees? Apples are one of the few fruits that we eat year-round, as they store so well in the fridge, and they are very versatile. I chose a bareroot ‘Belle de Boskoop’ tree. It is an old heritage variety that is known as one of the best cooking apples, with a tart flavour. It has a weeping habit, so I was told I must plant it somewhere where it will be seen and enjoyed.
Amidst all this, I have finished building a raised vege bed for The Little Fulla. I figured he needed his own vege garden since he’s so fond of digging. And eating things. We had these old, blue wooden signs sitting around for ages after The Husband bought them home. One got cut to use as a chicken ramp and the others were rescued from a life of holding down cardboard on the ground or sitting around doing nothing. I lined the raised bed with black plastic, although I’m not a fan of it, because the wood was already showing signs of deterioration. The Little Fulla and I have started filling it up with dirt, which seems to be half the fun. For one of us. I have been asking him what veges he would like to grow in his garden and every time he says pumpkins. Little pumpkins. But until then, I figured he could grow some cold weather crops, so we had fun picking out some seedlings. He was allowed to chose three types of veges and he chose beetroot, purple broccoli and red onions. He also chose purple and red pansies for something pretty to look at and something to feed the bees. We’re not going to fit them all in his little garden, but there’s plenty of space for any extras in the big person’s garden.
Wild Hope Homestead 