New Compost Bin

The first step is complete. We've built the new compost bin and torn down the old one. It probably doesn't look like much if you're not a gardener, but it's a nice one. It's 8' x 12'.

We took our time since we had to wait for the wood to be delivered. Delivery is new to us. In the past, we never would've forked over cash money to have someone deliver wood, but this load is BIG (over 2000lbs) and it will save our backs from loading and unloading it.

First problem. The lumber store lost our order. One week, and many apologies later, they delivered.

The deck will actually cost more than the greenhouse. 

The other huge expense will be electrical cable. We want to connect Greg's workshop with the house. This will serve two purposes. Not only will Greg be able to run his heavy equipment from the main power pole, but we can also back feed solar energy back to the house in case we lose power.

Siting the greenhouse has been a merry-go-round. The best place is inside the garden area where we would lose at least two raised beds. 

The second best site is where the old compost bin was. It gets direct sunlight (in summer) for 5 hours a day. A greenhouse should get 6 hours of sunlight.

We opted to cut down three trees to make that happen. 

I hate cutting down trees. Hate it. It took them many years to grow there.

My only consolation is that one is a cedar and the other two are unhappy looking oaks.

All is not lost though. The oaks will go to firewood.

As I look at these plans I know now I will never leave this house until I'm too disabled to manage on my own. We have too much invested.

Over the years, we've slowly been adapting things to accommodate us as we grow older. 

Weeding and mowing should be the only two strenuous chores we have left to us. If we get too old for that, it's easy enough to farm that out and still stay in this house.

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In other news, our rural neighborhood has finally entered the 21st century with fiber optics. We had internet for exactly two days until the crew who came out to bury the cable, severed the connection and we lost the internet. It took a day for someone to come out and reconnect us.

I'm happy with the faster speed, but they would've impressed me more if they hadn't cut the line as they were burying it.

Things are progressing though, which is better than it was a few weeks ago. We try to only work a few hours in the morning. Once the tree cutting is done, it'll be time to lay the foundation for the deck.

When that first board goes down, there's no turning back. We'll be committed.

Today is Labor Day. No mail, no banking, but one more day for us to work. If we're lucky, it'll rain Tuesday and Wednesday. We could both use the rest.

We have one more tree to take down, but this one is dead and must come down because it could easily demolish the greenhouse and part of the garden if it fell on its own.

It looks as if it's been dead a long time, so I doubt there's any usable wood, but we'll see today. 

My deer and her twins haven't been too happy with all the chain sawing and dragging we've been doing, but they still come around for their corn first thing in the morning.

She gets within five feet of me now and only bolts if she sees Odin heading her way. We started feeding her when we realized she had twins. We have so many coyotes in the area. I wanted to give her and her kids a fighting chance.

I know. I sound like a hypocrite after cussing them out for eating my fruit trees and garden, but I'm not against all deer, just the ravagers that strip everything bare.

There is another troupe of deer that come across my front yard. All of them are adults and adolescents and they're like hooligans on a joy ride. They've been eating my alleged deer "resistent" hollyhocks and even my sweet potato vines that I tried to hide behind peppers. (They ate the pepper leaves too!)

Such is life in the boonies.

If you happen to be shopping Amazon, start from this link. Since it's a holiday week here in the states, Amazon is running a few extra specials. I know the brands of cat food I buy are currently on sale.