Wildflowers

 Last summer, I built a wall. 

The small knee wall was something I always envisioned for a problematic area between the house and shed. It happens to be where I park the car and for decades it was an eyesore and a sore subject with me. I asked several men (ex-husband, a live-in boyfriend, the current spousal unit) and none of them was willing to do that much hard work. Ultimately, I did it myself.

Ultimately, the Lord of the Manor will never, I repeat NEVER, be absolved for not doing it. I ask for little, being quite self-sufficient, but I did ask for that. And he refused. It'll bite him in the ass one day, I assure you.

Last year I sprinkled the contents of a few cheap seed packets and got a bit of late summer bloom. This year, I bought a good quality pack of wildflower seeds and the wall is now exactly what I envisioned for so long. It's in full bloom and is gorgeous! I think next year I'll add a few herbs to the mix and see what happens. And next year I'll keep the seed envelope so I know what all the little flowers are because there are quite a few I don't recognize. 

It was worth an afternoon of very hard work and a lot of sweat to dry stack the rocks. Really, it was. I'm very pleased with the end result. But I can't help but think how much more it would mean if just one of those men had been willing to give me the gift of their time and strength. 

Apparently, not all of us are worth an afternoon.

No matter how pleased I am with the wall, it will always be tainted with my disappointment. It has made me examine other projects and figure in a factor for the same disappointment. I plan on doing things myself. 

So at what point does the man become nothing more than a millstone around the woman's neck? 

We are sometimes who we are forced to become, not the person we hoped to be. 

The Lady of Holly Tree Manor

How many stages will it take?

November 2020

 We've begun to do the work to clear the old tractor path. It's been a long time coming because it will be a lot of hard, physical labor, labor that I will need to do. The Lord of the Manor no longer has the physical capability and I thank God that I do. 

Last November, on a bright sunny day, we made our way to the edge of where the work started and did a few minor things - mostly assess what really needed to happen. That led us to the purchase of a Brush Crusher.  Brush Crusher is the brand name for a front-end grapple for the John Deere 1023.  We purchased ours from Good Works Tractor and had it shipped since we knew we were capable of the assembly. 

The grapple is able to lift heavy logs and hold them while I use the chain saw to cut them to length. It can also "bite" into the brambles, yank them out, and hold them firmly for a trip to the brush pile to be burned. Oh, if we'd had this thing twenty years ago! 

June 20, 2021

There is a massive amount of work involved with clearing the old tractor path. Deuce and I took a walk along the southwestern strip of it last winter. A short video of our walk, in the snow, can be found here. 

The path was clear back in my grandfather's day. The property he gave me was at one time a small apple orchard and a strawberry patch. I still have tiny wild strawberries grow each year. 

It may not look like we accomplished much, but we can at least see the stone fence again. Our next task is to finish cleaning up as much as we can before we move on to the next twenty to thirty feet. It may take us this entire season to clear the whole stretch, but we'll keep after it, a few hours at a time, until we reach the corner of the property.

Making the turn north will have to wait for next year. Maybe. The Brush Crusher is a true game-changer. 

The Lady of Holly Tree Manor

The historic stone fence

 The north side of the manor is bordered by a tall and wide stone fence. I'm about five-foot-eight and it towers over me by a few feet. The best guess estimate is that it's at least twenty feet wide at the base. Yes, it's massive. 

One of the things I would love to do is to dry stack the section I can see from the patio and sunroom. It's never been stacked, so it will be quite a challenge. I've always loved artwork depicting medieval walled gardens. The same for the modern urban backyards featured in so many home and garden television programs. A walled garden has that unique blend of fresh air and privacy. I have plenty of both so maybe it's more of an aesthetic for me. 

My grandparents purchased the land I live on during the Great Depression for $236. They were more fortunate than most in that they both had jobs. One worked days and one worked nights and they didn't see each other at all Monday through Friday, but they did what was necessary. They made weekly payments to the man who sold them the land until the debt was paid. 

I refer to this stone fence as historic because it's actually listed on the property deeds going back into the 1800s when the manor was part of a land tract known as P--s Resurvey. When my grandfather first planted an orchard here, folks from the area would bring in stones by wagon and toss them on the stone fence. It was a local thing and certainly explains how the thing got to the size it is. 

I don't plan to stack the entire length of the stones. I'm not that crazy to attempt a job like that. I think a section behind the house, picnic table, and the firepit would be just enough. But if I get bored in some future time, or maybe get ambitious, expansion is always on the table. 

And I will be on the lookout for the not-so-friendly neighborhood Contortrix Agkistrodon. 

The Lady of Holly Tree Manor