Didn't plan on having this work to do

In the previous post I mentioned we were hit by a big wind during the night that caused minor damage to the deer barriers around the garden. It also snapped the top out of a cherry tree. Thankfully, this tree was not near the house, but it did fall across my tractor path. 

I wasn't planning on having this clean up to do, but it's not going to be a difficult job. I have a Milwaukee chainsaw that runs on batteries, and I made sure the batteries are charged. I'll take the John Deere 1023 over and start cutting and clearing. When I've used up the juice in the four batteries I have, I'll move on to what I actually did have planned for today - mowing and moving the remainder of the seedlings to the greenhouse. 

It's going to take several days to completely cut this downed cherry into firewood rounds. I'm okay with that. Running on battery power will keep me from working with the chainsaw for too long and getting tired. Running a saw when tired is not a good idea. And being retired, I have no need to remove this tree in one day. There is plenty of room to maneuver the tractor around it. 

Do you know what will keep me focused on the task at hand? Cherry is excellent firewood and it dries, or seasons, fast enough that come next January I can begin to burn it. That's just in time for what is typically our cold stretch. 

Life on the manor requires some hard work, but rarely is anything a singular endeavor. Every "chore" reaps multiple rewards. Processing this tree will be great exercise and will keep me warm next winter. I think it's win-win. Except for the tree, of course. 

The Lady of Holly Tree Manor/The Hideaway

Holly Tree Manor, The Hideaway, cherry tree, John Deere 1023, Milwaukee M18, firewood, rural living, country lifestyle, a writer's life

It's a wind mystery

Last night, between midnight and two, we were grazed by a fast moving storm system. It didn't cause much damage on the manor, only snapping the top out of a cherry tree that was slated for firewood. The cousin and I knew the tree had some issues, and snapping off in a storm proved us correct. Having the top on the ground makes harvesting it a lot safer, so I'm good with that. 

The other "damage" is a bit more mysterious. The wind knocked over a deer barrier. Why mysterious? The deer barrier is constructed out of 2x4 exterior grade lumber. It's heavy. And there were 5-gallon buckets full of dirt sitting on its feet. 

This isn't the first time a barrier has been blown over. It happened to a different one last fall. I didn't think much of it at the time, believing it to be a freak occurrence and nothing more. Now that it has happened a second time, I need to apply some additional measures to keep the deer barriers in place. I ordered a pack of heavy-duty stakes and will drill a hole in each base and pound one stake into the ground. That should help anchor it along with the buckets. 

The really freaky thing is the red plastic flower pot in the foreground of the picture. If the wind was violent enough to knock over the deer barrier, why didn't that empty plastic pot fly away?

The Lady of Holly Tree Manor/The Hideaway

Holly Tree Manor, The Hideaway, high wind damage, gardening, rural living, country lifestyle, a writer's life, security measures, white-tailed deer, flower pots, freak weather events

Where are the hostas?

 

Where did three of the hostas go? No need to answer. I know. The damn deer got them last fall. 

It amazes me the deer will come in this close to the patio. The deer coming up is also how the one screen got ripped out.  I can't blame Deuce for getting excited, and replacing the screen was a cheap and easy fix. But dammit! That deer killed three of my hosta plants!

The good news is that the remaining three plants are in need of being separated. I'll do that during our next warm day. Today it's very breezy and the air has a cold edge, reminding me spring and winter are still conversing with each other. (She writes that tongue-in-cheek.) The pictures don't show up all that well, but there are three clumps of the hosta up where the only tulips on the manor are blooming. 

I wasn't planning on getting the strip along the walk mulched this week, but one of the big box home improvement stores had 2cu bags of mulch on sale five bags for ten dollars. Experience told me I needed four bags for this area. Yes, I got five because there are no shortage of places that can use a hit of mulch. 

It's one more thing to cross off my Spring To Do List. 

The Lady of Holly Tree Manor/The Hideaway

Holly Tree Manor, The Hideaway, rural living, gardening, mulch, hosta, spring chores, breezy weather, a writer's life, home improvement sale, white-tailed deer damage, Deuce's Day

Hard work can make you happy

I posted an entry over at Between the Keys about a yearly chore that needs done. It's not a big deal - until you start pulling up weeds. 

The area at the gable end of my house does have a woven weed barrier down. I got a roll of the good stuff from Grower's Solutions. It does stop weeds from coming up from beneath it, but it doesn't stop weeds and grass from putting down shallow roots in the pea gravel. Of course, shallow roots are easier to dislodge. One must simply get to work. 

I'm happy to have the area cleaned up. I much prefer arriving home to a neatly tended area that is virtually weed-free. It helps keep me happy.

The Lady of Holly Tree Manor/The Hideaway

Holly Tree Manor, The Hideaway, rural living, weeding, gardening, weed barrier, a writer's life, country lifestyle, Grower's Solutions

Squirrels - the new foe

I've been actively planning steps to defend my little garden from the deer, but I think I have a worse nemesis - the gray squirrel. 

Every day I walk over to the garden spot to check on the progress of the strawberries. They're doing great, by the way. A few days ago I discovered a squirrel had been digging in a few of the buckets. What the fuck?  Seriously???

I'm not sure how to combat these fancy rats. Shoot them, for sure, but I don't eat squirrel. Yes, I live at the gateway to Appalachia, but squirrel is not on the menu. 

This row of buckets is where I planned to plant Bell peppers. That's still the plan, but I need a fuzzy-tailed rat deterrent. Maybe something that flutters in the breeze will do the trick. 

People say that red pepper flakes or cayenne pepper will deter squirrels. I worry that they will irritate Deuce's eyes and nose if they are scattered about in a liberal measure. 

I'll be pondering this situation for the next few days. 

The Lady of Holly Tree Manor/The Hideaway

Holly Tree Manor, The Hideaway, gardening, white-tailed deer, gray squirrel, rural living, country lifestyle, a writer's life, garden pests 

 

Damn the deer!!

My area has a big white-tailed deer problem. No joke. When I was a girl, we rarely saw a deer. Now you can't avoid them. I've had as many as seventeen in a group grazing in my front yard. I think DNR needs to schedule a cull because these animals are starving and inbreeding. It's evident in the shrinking size of the animals. 

It takes some serious counter-measures to thwart these creatures. Last spring I got eight strawberry plants from a local nursery and last fall a deer ate them to the ground. I covered the bed for the winter with leaves anyway. Plants are amazing and this spring I found at least thirty runners under the leaves. They've been transplanted into a second Greenstalk. The original eight plants are also doing well. I won't get much of a strawberry harvest this June, but I'll get a few to nibble on while I'm in the garden area. 

I've read that deer have very poor depth perception. To take advantage of that, I'm placing electric fence poles and T-posts outside the barricades. I also ordered a new 10x12 greenhouse and I plan to situate the frame from the old greenhouse as a barrier. My garden will be smaller this year since I'm on my own, but even if it was huge, I don't want to feed the deer.

I lost countless daylilies to the deer over the years. I had them in strips along the edge of the yard and they are all gone now. It's the same for the hosta. The deer even come up to the front porch and eat the rosebushes. 

The deer are a major problem. I may need to learn to cook venison. 

The Lady of Holly Tree Manor/The Hideaway

Holly Tree Manor, The Hideaway, white-tailed deer, strawberries, Greenstalk, gardening, venison, rural living, country lifestyle, counter-measures, a writer's life