More Vine Clearing, Bees, Pumps, Spiders oh my

 One would think that with the changing of the weather and get getting cooler I would be more active ... Yeah No. I hurt more with less effort these days. It is nice and kinda weird to bond with my folks over arthritis treatments, but I'll take what I can get. Still tickled pink to be able to walk and have both of my legs.

Since the last post I was able to get another section of fence cleared of vines. The blue marked section is still along the back and same line I have been clearing. The green is along the side of my property. With the brown the piles of vines I have taken down.

There is another view of the area to the left of the bee hive that I cleared. Once the wire field fence has been taken down I can start working on cleaning up the back yard a bit more.

Wanting to make sure this, my last surviving hive, has the best shot possible to make if thru the winter I put 2 feeders on it. The feeders also work as an entrance reducer, making it easier for the hive to defend itself against intrusion.

While I was watching my bees, something that I think is better than TV, I was able to witness something new. An old worker bee getting kicked out of the hive. That's right folks Bees are harsh once to get to an age where you can't work any more. The bee didn't survive long once it was kicked out. She fell to the ground where a waiting carnivorous bee/wasp quickly found and incapacitated her. All worker bees are female.

The water filter I have had for about a year now developed a leak that just kept getting worse and worse. It had gotten to the point that the pump was running too regularly for my liking, so that got replumbed. 

When I went out to replumb the water pump filter I found this ....

Best I can tell not that much of a threat to humans, the bite is painful (what bite isn't?), but not fatal. However this spider is just TOO BIG. It is as it is in that picture just slightly bigger than the palm of my hand. I have yet to find something that will kill it though and I am not getting close enough to squish it.

Clearing the Vines

 

This week's update is all about clearing out the vines over part of the washout on the property. The above picture is a before. I was hoping to clear the vines in a manner that would allow me to fashion some wreaths for a friend, but due to the thickness of the vines and the intermingling of a thorny vine I had to cut the vines into roughly 3 foot sections to remove them.

During the clearing I found what looks like a kids baking toy set.

I don't know what this blue thing is, but it looks like a tarp.

Then there was the comedy find ... a Wheel barrow. There is also what looks like part of a roof and some tires down there too.

I was able to clear the vines away from the two oak trees, so hopefully they will stop having branches ripped off them from the vines and wind.

It doesn't look like much but that is the finished clearing. The reason it doesn't look like much is because I just couldn't safely get to the branch with the vines still on it, but hopefully I did cut all the vines so that they will die and fall off.

 

Removing the Old Fence

 Removing the old fence is a very large project. Not only is there a lot of fence that needs to come down, but some sections have been buried in the ground and have a tremendous amount of over growth needing to be cleared off of it.

Big thanks to Mom and helping me take down about half of the front yard. The other half of the fence in the front yard is chain link and I am waiting to see what and how my neighbor refences between us before making a decision on that section. I left the fence posts in place as a guide for when I refence that section.

The back yard was essentially cut in half by the fence line that was put up. This fence line was also buried about 4 to 6 inches either by accident or design. Right now I am cutting it flush with the ground just so I can gain access to beyond it.

The only section I have completely removed:

Right next to the above section I have started clearing out on the house/yard side so that removing the fence can happen:

While Clearing the above section I found another random piece of fence; leading off into the woods this time. The red line indicating the direction of the fence line I was working on and the blue line the newly found fence line.

There was also a piece that was jutting into the yard making mowing a pain that I have removed.

With any luck I will have this cleared out before the end of the year.

Until next time...

New Home Garden Planning

Well as some know I sold my house in Port St. Lucie area and bought up near Jacksonville. The new place needs some love, but it feels like home in a way the other house did not.

With my new home I also have just over an acre of land. Of this land only about a quarter was cleared the rest is wild and over run with vines. The idea being that with more land I would have more room to raise my own food. So far I have about 30 square feet of container garden going, however with the recent changes in the world i am getting more aggressive in my planning.

I found this free goal setting journal online in pdf format and decided it would be great for planning my garden goals.

The goal is to produce 80% of my food from my own land by 2025. Ambitious, but long term goal shouldn't be? My reasons being that I want to be less dependent on the grocery chains, less dependent on having a job to have food, maybe find a way to make money from it, and have more money free to improve other areas of my life or less need for money in general.

To achieve this I will need to keep a grocery journal for the next year so I know how much I eat and thus how much I need to grow. Once I know how much I need to grown then I have a definite idea of the space needed. 

But I dont have to wait for the results of my food journal to start, so I am also working on improving the existing cleared areas on my property as well as starting the work of clearing at least the vines from the back yard. 

 Improving my front yard had already started by planting 2 different varieties of plumcot and trimming up a large Bush that existed prior to my inhabiting the land. Under the Bush is a good part sun and shade growing area. The front yard has also been treated with yard lime so that its acidic nature can start being addressed. 

The next phases of improvement for the front yard was to remove an old field wire fence, thank you Mommy for the help there, and to plant a roselle hibiscus. Roselle hibiscus are very etible, their leaves, flowers, and scapes can be consumed in one fashion or another. The hibiscus was placed in a corner of the property that requires a low of weed eater use to keep maintained due to the angles of the fencing. So rather than having to constantly weed eat around there, I am going to turn it into a garden patch that has 2 7ft fence sides. 

My next project will be to get the planter under the bush fixed up and ready for spring, if not before. This will be a 8ft by 10ft bed, but only the outer two feet will really be implantable due to the bush taking up the center. This is again an attempt of mine to reduce the weed eating needed as mowing in this area is not possible. 

Hopefully I will figure out soon how to add pictures from my phone to there blog posts so y'all can see the different projects take shape.

Until next time....

Please leave comments and ideas, they are always welcome.

Finally Done .. Or well Almost

So I finally got tired of looking at the not even half done side of the house. Add to that the need to sweat out the last of this cold I have been dealing with and well you get the following.

This is where I left it off how ever long ago and where I started today. The recent rains have ensured the faux gardenia plantings survived.

After mush needed sweat and stuff the edging blocks were finally in the ground and round up applied. Normally I am not a fan of round up, but considering I will not be growing food here it is worth the lack of hassle to get the unwanted green things dead.

And the last step of adding mulch is done. I still need to pick up one or two more bags to complete it, but close enough. I am still deciding on what other plants I want to add here for color and contrast etc. I also put another cutting of faux gardinia in the ground.

Reality Check

You don't realize the pain you have lived in until you encounter someone who hasn't

You don't realize the levels you have accepted until you encounter someone who hasn't

You don't realize a lot of things until reality checks in and shows you different. The young remind you of a future that could have been, a wish unfulfilled. The older show you what happens when a dream is put on hold.

But neither show you how they got from point A to point B. Why I can only guess at, but I would have to say regret and shame play a roll, but yet how can one be ashamed of ones kids. For many for go their dreams for the chance of a future,  a future embodied in children.

Is that why parents live vicariously thru their kids or others?

Can one blame a person for not committing as deeply? When all is knows is humiliation and degradation?

Is perhaps the "micro-aggression" fad an attempt to bring to light the consequences of a groups lack of an ability to empathises?

Is that why once you hit a certain age you live more for the story than the actuality?

Pressure Washing and Blow Drying

So today I decided to go meet some new peoples in Orlando, FL. It was a great time and I completely enjoyed not having to worry about silly high school politics from work... oh did I actually put that out there .. yep.

So on the way home, this being Florida and all, I managed to get soaked to the bone 3 times and blow dried twice.

I'd say it was an excellent day.