Bitter Sweet

I am sorry for the sporadic writing but spring is here and I once I go outside I have a hard time tearing myself away to come back inside.  I could be outside for all the hours it is light out, if I didn't get hungry.

I might have mentioned before that I am simplifying my landscaping, since I am not able to do the work anymore...ironically I am expending huge effort to do the very hard work of taking down arbours and pulling up posts, rolling boulders around and digging up dead trees and planting new ones. I have had to have some small amount of help from Robert but so far have done most of it myself...foolishly...

The day I planned to incorporate a half assed rose bed into an existing raised bed by pulling the half dead rose bushes out with a chain and my 4x4 ATV. I am still picking fine little thorns out of my left forearm.  hahaha some of them have festered.
Once I had the bushes out, the crappy arbour down and a huge chunk of rhubarb moved to another location I dug a trench, rolled some boulders into it and then mixed 3 bags of ready cement and with latex gloves on hand placed the somewhat dry cement mixture into the crevices...mortaring smaller rocks into the gaps...it turned out quite nice I must say and if I had a camera I could actually figure out, I would take a picture. For now you will just have to take my word for it.

I planted a golden dogwood, ground covering juniper and ringed the entire bed with miniature day lilies. It looks quite nice...of course that was just the first phase of that project because not two feet away is the rest of the bed which was originally a terraced bed with three levels. The old timbers we used to create the levels have rotted and a colony of red ants have moved in and make life a misery anytime I have to work down there...I am allergic to their bite and get a bad case of hives almost immediately upon being bitten. So I am determined to removed those rotten timbers, and hopefully the ants along with them. Destined to a far off brush pile where they can live in peace and so can I.  Black ants are one thing but red ants quite another, if you piss them off they bite back.

I had a bit of a break down yesterday afternoon, while I was raking up and shovelling back the dirt and mulch mixture the dogs so kindly kicked out across the sidewalk and lawn after they dug themselves a pair of nice cosy nests the night before smack in the middle of my newest bed by the front door. Robert called it a moment of senility on their part because they haven't done that sort of thing for years not since getting their ass kicked as pups for digging where they shouldn't.  Dirt was spewed every where, and when I saw it and gasped, turned slowly looking at them with accusing eyes..they both hung their heads in guilt. So they know, oh they know they did wrong. I didn't realize Robert was behind me, so I was muttering to myself and God in general, while I scraped the loamy black dirt off the sidewalk, that,  is it too much to ask, I said, that I could have just one thing in my life that's pretty and lovely.  I don't want expensive trips to Ireland, or jewellery or sports cars, I just want for once in my bloody life to plant something and have it actually grow to maturity without being burned by grass fires, sprayed with chemicals, eaten by bloody deer or dug up by god damned fat ass self gratifying dogs. I mean, honestly, it seems like I have spent my whole adult life planting things and digging them up because they either died, they were in the way of something to do with the farm, or his parents didn't like them there, or they got insects on them or the damned dogs dug them up and exposed the root all weekend while we were gone..etc...etc...etc...

I actually had that happen once about ten years ago...this house we are in now was just finished and I wanted to put my yard back together. Everything from the first house was planted about 50 feet in front of this one and down a hill. It all had to be moved up to where this house was and I wanted to have a bed in front of this house with a feature tree. I bought a very expensive red oak tree to be that feature tree and planted it with some lovely low growing shrubs around it. it looked quite lovely, and those of you who have seen my front yard are probably scratching your heads thinking you must be losing it, because you don't remember seeing a bed in front of the house...that's because it was only there for one year...

It turned out to be the dogs favorite place to lay, shaded in the hot afternoons, with a good view of the whole farm...a dogs dream...
We had a family party in the City at Roberts brothers house and were taking the parents with us...we left Saturday morning and were back Sunday night but it wasn't until early Monday morning while returning to bed after a trip to the Lou that I noticed the destruction. I actually had to take two steps back after passing by the bedroom window because I thought I was seeing things.

The small fence that had surrounded the bed was just a tangled wire mess off to the side of the crater, that's the best word to describe what was there in place of the dozen or so shrubs and my 150.oo Oak tree.  A huge hole was in the centre with  mounds of dirt strewn everywhere on the lawn, spirea, dogwood and hostas, lay with withered, moisture starved leafs wilted beyond rejuvenation. Some where totally above ground, sacrificed for the perfect spot to lay, others were half buried by the dirt but the root balls disturbed by the digging.  The Oak, oh my beautiful Oak tree, a tree I planted thinking that 100 years from now, who ever lived here would appreciate its regal beauty, lay like a leafless corpse out on the grass, with only a few clumps of determined dirt clinging to its many roots. Some of the few branches it had had been chewed off or broken when the dogs drug it out of their way. The leaves which had been just emerging were wilted.  We weren't sure how long the plants had layed exposed to the sun, but the dirt that had been disturbed was dry and we were never sure which dog was the culprit, since when we arrived home they both ran to greet us...but I have my suspicions and it has festered all these years...until yesterday when it bubble to the surface with a lot of other frustrated gardening failures, resulting in a bit of a tantrum / rant.... there was no physical abuse but plenty of shouting and fist shaking and finger pointing... and the dogs looked sheepishly contrite, with their hound dog expressions and bowed heads...so I spent the rest of the afternoon between swats at mosquito's erecting an ugly, hillbilly looking little fence around the new bed they had dug in just the other day I ran out of the little wire fencing and had to use this ugly white plastic snow fence....last night they looked quite forlorn, that they were not able to access that nice soft dirt any longer...hah....fixed them... but that only means for the time being until they die or I get sick of looking at the ugly fence.

The fire in Slave Lake is a terrible tragedy...we had a grass fire not far from us last week, while the winds weren't quite as horrific then, it was still a frightening thing to see, the smoke and flames moved so fast...

A neighbour with a brush pile burning all winter, thought it had gone out on it;'s own and when the wind whipped up so did the fire and burned both his quarters of land that of a two close neighbours, a couple of grain bins were lost and he lost a garage...but it was just a mile away when they got it out...helicopters and fire trucks...it was quite the endeavour and on a much smaller scale than Slave Lake.   but had they not stopped it the wind was blowing it our way................  Luckily we were home and Robert started the CAT, to make sure he had it going in case he needed to make a fire guard. which , given the year I think would be a good idea anyway...

We went from having snow on the ground four weeks ago to being so dry it is ridiculous.  This wind is incredible...80 km/hour with gust to 100 km.
Branches have broken off the trees in the yard and they barely have leaves on them yet.

We ate our first picking of asparagus yesterday and it was delicious...looking forward to a long season of that.hmmmmmm

gotta go make lunch... have a great day...and again...sorry for the time between posts...it's a busy time of year for me, so they will not happen as frequently as they do in the winter..but keep looking...I am sure to have some interesting stories to share.