The Door
At the moment, it’s all about the door. I finally got onto painting the future front door. It’s been waiting for a wee while. But it has been very difficult to get enough child-free time in which to paint it. Small children and paint don’t mix well. Or they mix a little TOO well and too easily. The door needed a little more hole-filling and masking taping before painting could begin. I felt a little bit sad as I painted over the wood. I do like wooden surfaces, but the wood on this older door wasn’t good enough to be displayed in all it’s blemish-filled glory and painting will keep it in better condition.
So far, the door has had one coat of primer on both sides, three coats of paint on the front and one coat on the back (inside). It was quite a while ago in which we, well I, chose the paint colours and I did wonder what I was thinking when I opened the cans. I felt like the red I chose for the front of the door may be a little too light. I changed from my original darker inclination because I was worried it would make the front door area, which is a little dark, too gloomy. Mind you, much of that is thanks to the entire carport being grey, which is not a colour I would choose for the shadiest corner of the house. One day, I will get my painty hands on it. For the back of the door, inside the house, I chose the potential future wall colour, a creamy colour, which I may have switched a little bit since then, but anyway, I thought I had picked the lighter potential skirting and framing colour for the door, but no. Ah well, it’s not like we’re going to be painting the house any time soon. We just need the door finished. And actually, you should never judge a paint colour by what it looks like in the can. Or after its first coat. I think the colours will be fine. The shade of red is actually a really nice colour for a door. Two more cream coats to go, and then we can see how the door looks in place.
Back Carport Clean-up
But it’s never really just about one project here. The back carport clean-up has continued. Somehow it became a project all of its own. I was tired of looking out at a dirty garage, so I cleaned the front of the garage with a water brush attached to the hose, which is best done in winter when we have an ample water supply. Did you know the garage is actually white? It isn’t greeny-brown after all. That’s nice. If only the inside of the garage could be cleaned so quickly.
I moved the various concrete blocks to the left side of the carport to await removal in some way or another, because The Husband left his messy wood pile on that side so I thought I might as well put the mess together so one side could be clean. The Little Fulla helped me to move the weedpost pile that had somehow become a thing by the Vege Garden. The less-composted stuff got dumped into the old compost area, for now, and the nicer stuff got left there for when the next long vege bed gets created in its path. I also emptied and removed the black rain barrel. It had made a comeback when the rain gushing into the Vege Garden area got too much, but I really didn’t want it back there. I need to take down the carport guttering so the rain isn’t concentrated into one exit hole.
The next thing that needs to be dealt with, aside from The Husband’s obvious task, is to move the big wooden thing. I kept forgetting it was there, because it really just looked like fencing along the carport. But what it actually is, is one of the huge wooden pallet-like, but more well-built, very heavy, long platforms that The Husband found one day on one of his excursions. It is still hanging around! He cut up the other one for various things, but I fully intend this one to be turned into a plant growing table. That is going to require some work.
The Branches
I made another pile. A few nice sunny days in a row means one thing at the moment – pruning time! It was the walnut tree’s turn. The walnut tree is very large. I used the full reach of the telescopic pruning saw to cut off some branches from the sides that were getting too far out and ones that were overhanging the front fence too much. There is a large branch crossing through the centre of the tree that also had a lot of rot in it and The Husband will need to finish getting that one off with the chainsaw. It was a good workout, but now there are more branches to deal with. I couldn’t bear making another pile where the last pruning mountain was, so I made one in a different spot. Does that make it better?
So, we were left with the walnut pruning mountain, the grapefruit pruning mountain and the rest of the original Pruning Mountain. And I haven’t got to the ominous feijoa tree yet. Never fear, for we found a friend with a mulcher, and we are in possession of it. The Husband took great delight in feeding branches from the original Pruning Mountain into the mulcher, which heartily chomped them up into beautiful mulch. I took great delight in ogling this mulch and spreading it onto the paths around the Vege Garden. It is such beautiful stuff I could just about roll in it. We ran out of daylight, but there isn’t much of the Pruning Mountain left now, with some bigger branches that need to be sawn and some mostly decomposed stuff at the bottom of the pile. We have mulcher love. The Husband has already been looking at mulchers online.
Other Things
The Stone Pile is all gone as of the weekend. Hooray! The front carport area is getting its own tidy up.
I got our first lot of seed potatoes, Summer Delight. We were quite pleased with them last season so they are making a return. I showed The Little Fulla how to chit the potatoes by placing them, rose-end up in an egg tray. He managed to break only one tiny shoot and took to the task quite well. We have now bought our second lot of seed potatoes, Agria, so they will need to be chitted too. The Little Fulla’s vege garden is looking more productive than mine at the moment.
I mowed the lawn. This is a huge thing, as the lawn hadn’t been mowed for a few months while the grass was growing very slowly and the ground was too soggy. I chose the last day in a row of good weather days, and got it done before the evening rain. Only the road front grass remains to be cut and it’s probably still too soggy out there anyway.
I made some hearty soup, literally. It was a vegetable soup recipe, but we like meat, and there were some chicken hearts and livers in the freezer that I had saved during processing, so I chopped them up very small and threw them in. It ought to be good for the heart.
The chickens are doing pretty well. Betty had a bought of sickness, but is back with the others now and will hopefully be ok. She doesn’t eat much when she’s put in chicken hospital, I think she just gets too lonely. It is very worrisome. I’m just trying to get her better. She’s such a sweet, relaxed chicken. She seems to be eating fine back out in the pen so I’ll have to keep an eye on her and make sure she fattens up. I had to make some wooden roost holders, as the plastic ones couldn’t hold up to the weight of such a long roost, and they died. The wooden roost holders didn’t split or get munted during manufacture this time, so I am very pleased with them. And guess who was spotted acting broody a couple of mornings ago? Annie. I don’t want a broody Annie at the moment. She’s my best layer. She only missed two days last month and so far, she’s laid an egg every morning this month. She’s giving me even more reasons to want her babies. But without a daddy there can be no feather babies at present.
The Little Fulla has learnt that he can catch Rory very easily when she squats and picking her up has become a hilarious daily occurrence.
Spring is in the air, as the fruit trees are getting dressed in buds and tiny leaves and the first daffodils are coming out to play. There is so much going on and so much to look forward to.
Wild Hope Homestead 
That is a lot of walnut debris. That tree must have really been obtrusive. The tree does not seem to be grafted. Is it grown on its own roots?
Remember that if it is to be chipped, it should not stay on the ground too long, especially in the rain. Dirty debris is abrasive to the blades in the chipper. Of course, you should not chip roots.
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Most of what I cut off was either sticking out too much and overshading the grass verge outside the fence or sticking out too far over the drive and edging towards the powerlines. Most of the branches I took off were quite high up. I guess it’s grown on it’s own roots, as all the growth looks too low down for grafting. The house is a bit over 40 years old, so the walnut tree could be that old.
Oh, this pile won’t be sitting around too long if I have anything to say about it!
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My last walnut tree grew from a walnut planted by squirrels, so was not grafted. Sadly, it as at the fence, so died when the neighbor cut the roots. It would have been a problem anyway. The walnut trees at my ancestor’s home in Sunnyvale were grafted so low that the understock was not visible! I do not know how that worked. the trees were very old. Supposedly, the grade was changed, and the graft unions were buried. However, the trees were there for a very long time without rotting like one would expect from trees that got their lower trunks buried.
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It’s amazing those trees lasted for so long being planted so low.
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What is worse is that they were supposedly not planted that low, but that the natural grade was buried by the soil excavated from the foundations and driveways of the homes! They were middle aged trees at the time, and lived another half a century after getting their roots and lower trunks buried! It might have been only a few inches, but I am still impressed. I really do not know what happened. That was in about 1940. If the trees had not been cut down, they would probably still be going now.
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