Suffice it to say, we've been busy

It seems like "forever" since I had time to sit down and pen a blog entry. I've been busy with a project practically every day. Just this rainy, dreary morning, I finished burning the brush from when the tree trimmers were here to cut down the top of a dead oak tree. And I confess I've been busy with my new hobby - making videos of what's going on here on the manor. You can go to Youtube.com and search up Holly Tree Manor with KC Kendricks. 

I suppose I'm a bit old-fashioned in that I keep a desk calendar. It's a Day Designer, and I use it as a diary to keep track of what I did when. Looking back, it's no wonder I'm TIRED!!!!

• Today, October 13, 2025 - burned the last of the brush, ran a backup, paid my mother's bills
• October 12 - Sunday, domestic chores
• October 11 - worked in the wood yard; videoed it
• October 10 - laundry, worked in the wood yard
• October 9 - grocery run; canned carrots, baked muffins, brought in tender plants
• October 8 - burned 40% of remaining brush, set up new budget sheet, HVAC guy installed new fan motor
• October 7 - worked in the wood yard, the Internet was out, went to Trivia night
• October 6 - cousin fixed toilet, updated laptop, ordered HVAC parts, gave Deuce a bath
• October 5 - mowed grass, HVAC system fan crapped out, called HVAC tech, cousin brought topsoil
• October 4 - weed whacked, spread stone on parking area and lane
• October 3 - spread stone with the John Deere 1023, dismantled bench at shed and burned
• October 2 - weed whacked, load of stone delivered, got diesel fuel
• October 1 - made grocery run; removed shade cloth at sunroom, steam clean LR area rugs

I have no idea why I'd be tired. And that's not all of it, just the major items. But maybe it does explain why I've not been blogging, or writing, these past few weeks. 

I'm grateful I'm able and active enough to handle all the day to day here at Holly Tree Manor. With winter closing in fast, there is still much to do. It's now wood splitting season, and the cousin has mentioned it a few times. We're both set with firewood for this year, but we need to split for next year so the firewood can season for a year. That's the way it works. 

So forgive me for not blogging much. I really have been busy!

The Lady of Holly Tree Manor/The Hideaway

Holly Tree Manor, The Hideaway, canning, gardening, John Deere 1023, rural living, country lifestyle, firewood, splitting firewood, shade cloth, black Labs

The impulse purchase - it's not a bad thing!

I confess. I do shop at Walmart from time to time. They have quite a few pantry items at much lower prices than the local grocery. For example, our favorite Ragu spaghetti/pasta sauce is $.71 cheaper per jar. If I'm re-stocking the pantry with ten jars, that's quite a savings. 

So I was at Walmart, and I took the opportunity to wander around in the garden department to see what was already set out for the season. The seed packets called me over. It was a summons I couldn't ignore. Seriously! It was not my fault!!

Joking aside, I've been thinking I should include more flowers for the bees in my garden. The Lord of the Manor has, in one of his rare absolute authoritarian edicts, forbidden me a beehive. Okay, so he's scared of bees. He can't stop me from feeding the wild ones, ergo, flowers in the garden patch. Last year, the bees "worked" the begonias and marigolds, so expansion is called for in 2024.

I've got a seed starting area set up in the den using grow lights. This will be the first year for it and I hope it works out. In past years I've set seed trays in the sunroom, but that is also my office. With everything else going on this spring, I don't need that chaos in my workspace. Add to that I plan to reinstall the shade cloth over the sunroom porch around the first of April. That cloth blocks a lot of sunlight and keeps my office space cooler in the summer, but it would also block sunlight the sprouts need. 

The first of March is my target date for seed starting. A little before or a few days late matters not. Some time between the middle and end of April, the seedlings will migrate to the greenhouse to harden-off, and then be planted in the appropriate container around the first of May. And then we can sit in the garden and watch everything grow until it's time to harvest. 

I really think having lots of flowers mixed in with the veggies will be pretty to see and help create a relaxing area. I hope so, anyway.

The Lady of Holly Tree Manor/The Hideaway

Holly Tree Manor, The Hideaway, seed starting, gardening, rural living, country lifestyle, shade cloth, greenhouse, container planting, beehive, seed packets, seasonal living, organization, planning

It was a great idea: shade cloth

My office is in our sunroom. The Lord of the Manor built the addition for the sunroom back in 1995 or 1996 when he was still young(er) and mobile. It's my favorite room in the house and not just because he built it for me. It's got windows on three sides and is the next best thing to working in the woods. It's a front-row seat to observe the deer, squirrels, foxes, chipmunks, and the occasional raccoon, possum, skunk, groundhog, turkey, and even snake. One day it was even the neighbor's cows! 

The windows are wonderful and the space wouldn't be the same without them. The biggest drawback is that in the summer, even with central air, the room heats up between ten and four o'clock. In past summers, I had an umbrella on the porch that I opened and moved a little bit every hour to create shade. The problem with the umbrella was that even with a heavy base, it liked to fly away like it was looking for Mary Poppins! 

I put up a good set of black-out curtains last year and they helped, but I didn't like closing off one side of the room during the day. I like to look out over my domain. I decided to try shade cloth this summer, and I got it put up. I can already tell it's going to make a huge difference. And when it gets really hot, I will close the curtains to help with utility costs.

It's not a fancy setup. We got some 2x2 exterior grade lumber from Lowe's and made simple frames that we affixed to the porch railing with zip ties (cable straps to some). The 70% shade cloth was purchased from Amazon. I used simple hooks to attach one side of the shade cloth to the house (it has grommets), draped it over the frame, and used more zip ties to fasten it to the frame and the railing. 

The shade cloth creates enough shade to make sitting on the porch in the afternoons bearable. I can already tell it will help keep the sunroom a lot cooler. If it works for the entire season, I'll take some time over the winter and figure out if it needs improvements for next summer. The shade cloth will come down for the winter and be stored in the shed. 

Is it perfect? Not really, but it's functional. That's all that matters to me. 

The Lady of the Hideaway

Holly Tree Manor, The Hideaway, rural living, country lifestyle, shade cloth, keeping cool, cutting utility costs, home & garden, sunrooms, critical thinking solutions, home office, a writer's life, writing, romance novels, gardening

We need this rainy day

A rainy day view

It's a wonderfully rainy day here at Holly Tree Manor. It's been very dry, so dry in fact that the county government issued a burning ban. Twenty or so miles west of us, several wildfires have occurred in the last few days so this rain is a blessing to the firefighters. I'm always worried about wildfires living as we do. All it takes is one fucking idiot discarding a lit cigarette on the mountain trails to change the mountain forever. 

We've been busy with several projects. The Lord of the Manor is working on modifying an aluminum ramp to more easily load his power chair into the van, and changing out the engine on the log splitter to one that has an electric starter. We've reached the point where a pull-string starter no longer works for us. 

I've been busy with my little garden setup, getting seedlings to the greenhouse, and planting brassicas. Having an abundance of tomato seedlings, I even planted a few tomatoes into their buckets. My instincts say we're unlikely to see a hard frost this year, but if it looks like one will happen, those buckets can be moved inside the greenhouse. It's not a problem. 

Everything here has turned green. I "threw the mower" at the yard to chop the tops off the high spots, but after this rain, I'll need to actually mow. I took a morning and cleaned up around the edges of the yard, picking up and raking downed sticks and general tree debris. Anything large enough to damage the mower blades went on the brush pile. 

We built a rough frame for the sunroom porch and I draped 40% shade cloth over it to see if that would help keep my office cooler. It appears to work so I've ordered a denser shade cloth to make a more permanent installation. The shade umbrella I've used for several years has an unfortunate propensity to fly away in the wind. I'm not buying another one. 

This rainy day gives me the chance to catch up on a few things I've let slide. I want to get my planting diagram into the computer, all neat and tidy, so I have it for next year. I may even get some laundry done! The weather may have convinced me to take it slower today, but that's fine. A little break never hurt anyone.

The Lady of The Hideaway

Holly Tree Manor, The Hideaway, gardening, greenhouse, rural living, country lifestyle, rainy days, a writer's life, shade cloth, wildfires, woodlands, log splitter

Shade cloth

Last year was the first time I used shade cloth. The small greenhouse I purchased really heated up inside and it was pretty obvious if I didn't moderate the temperature, plants would burn up on really hot days. The answer was shade cloth.  What surprised me about the shade cloth over the greenhouse was that it also kept the inside a bit warmer a bit longer in the evenings. I hadn't expected that. 

I also learned last year that "full sun" can kill a tomato plant in a five-gallon bucket. I had a devil of a time keeping the soil in the tomato buckets from going bone dry. It's one of the many reasons I've moved my garden to its current location. It will get dappled shade early in the morning and full sun from about ten-thirty to five-ish. So will that still be too much full sun? 

Good old Sol is doing a few things that are not conducive to great gardening. We've had the Grand Solar Minimum, we've had coronal flares, and pretty soon it looks like a solar maximum may be in the works. What's a gardener to do? 

I'm going with shade cloth. I recently purchased a small shade cloth for over the frame of the first tiny greenhouse I got several years ago. The plastic shredded (I knew it would eventually) but the frame is fine. The plan is to cover the frame with the shade cloth and go from there. I also got a larger shade cloth to drape over the wooden frames. I can screw one side down and pull it over the rails as necessary. I think it should work, but as with all things, I'll make adjustments as I go along. 

And for those who wonder how well the greenhouse withstands high winds, I zip-tied 10-pound barbell weights to each corner for a little extra insurance. The greenhouse hasn't moved yet. 

The Lady of the Hideaway

Holly Tree Manor, The Hideaway, gardening, greenhouse, shade cloth, rural living, country lifestyle, blogging, a writer's life, sun activity

Getting the Greenstalk ready

I read somewhere that progress is made the way fish eat - a nibble at a time. A lot of times, that's true. I have my spring list and I'm working on it a nibble at a time. 

On a recent trip to town, I got potting mix for the Greenstalk, and filled the sections. I figured the dirt needed to settle a bit so I went ahead and filled the sections.  

I still need to paint the plyboard "base" I want to sit it on, and get a small shade cloth for the older small greenhouse frame. Right now the plan is to set the Greenstalk under the protection of that old frame. We'll see how it works out. 

It's almost time to start a few more seeds (brassicas), and I must decide what herbs are going in the Greenstalk. I've been dithering because I have had the time to dither. Not good. It's never good when I have time to dither.

In my defense, we did just purchase a new washer and dryer combo. That took a detour through my week. I also just finished a new manuscript which now needs to go for edits. 

Things. There are always things to do here on the manor. 

And now, instead of just writing about doing it, I think I will peruse my herb seeds. Purslane, anyone? 

The Lady of the Hideaway

Holly Tree Manor, The Hideaway, purslane, Greenstalk, gardening, shade cloth, greenhouses, rural living, country lifestyle, a writer's life, Whirlpool