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Cleaned up the kennel firewood area

July 27, 2025

The kennel firewood area was a little overgrown with grape vine runners. There was some tree branch debris from the the little T-Storms that have moved through this week.  Over all the area was not bad to clean up. This May before the wood delivery I cleaned the area up so the wood folks wouldn’t have to fight the grape vines.  I covered the top of the new fire wood with tarps after letting it dry most of the summer. From what I have read you should leave the sides of the wood pile open to air and only cover the top to protect the wood pile from weather. I’m trying out this method with this wood delivery. This wood was a bit different as most of the bark is gone. I’m sure this wood is drying/seasoning faster since it lacks bark.

I’m not sure about how much firewood I have on hand right now. I cleaned up the wood piles last year by using the log splitter on old tough to split wood. Just guessing I have 6-7 cords of wood on hand and most of that wood has seasoned for 18 months+. I use about 2 cords of firewood per heating season, along with helping Mom out with some kindling.  I have one old wood rack left full of the hard to split/long wood that I have to cleanup and a new metal wood rack to install. As Mom says my summer work out routine is moving and restacking wood. Adding the metal wood rack will finish cleaning up the carport wood stack area and get rid of one of my very badly made wood racks.

With the wood chips a mulching/mucking fork is a must have for moving mulch. I have tried using a shovel to move mulch. While it is doable a fork is much better for digging in a wood chip pile. The average garden fork won’t move the mulch efficiently. The mulch fork will turn over a compost pile better than most other tools. Mulch pathways are much better than stone/patio blocks in my opinion. Safer for kids and seniors for protecting against falls. Heck if you took a fall what you prefer to land on? A pile of mulch/wood chips, sand or stone/concrete. Concrete/stone does not add anything to the soil creates water runoff. Mulch retains water and improves the soil as it breaks down.

I live in an area  with bad soil and with that comes weeds. If you have weeds you have a soil problem and you need to build good soil and add good plants that overcome the weeds. Every where I put a thick (4-6 inch) layer of wood mulch the weeds mostly stop. Now I just need to plants to that area to out compete the weeds.

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BERJAYA Posted by Jamie

Shopping with Mom and a woodchip delivery.

July 25, 2025

Mom got the rest of the cedar fence boards and screws to finish off the look of the little “redneck” deck. Total cost was under $60.00 for the fence boards and screws. I had planned to give Mom a hand with the  deck today but I got a woodchip delivery that blocked my Shop door a little bit. I have to move some of the wood chips to get the Kia out. So I had to reschedule with Mom completing the deck.

I got about 15 minutes notice via email of the chip drop.  Be aware you might not get a lot of notice before the woodchip drop.  You should have enough space for a couple of yards/dump truck load of chips. I have to say I can move enough chips in 30 minutes to clear enough chip to get the Kia out of the shop.

This is not like bag mulch! You will get some leaves and branches. There are some larger chunks that would do great as kindling for starting fires in a wood stove/fire pit. There are some green leaves in the pile but they should degrade quickly over time. The wood chips I got are a light tan color. So if you prefer a colored mulch for your yard this might not be the best choice depending on your landscaping choices.  I’m going to use these woodchips as the base then add the colored bag mulch on top for looks.

One of the biggest mistakes I made with using mulch is not using enough and making the layer of mulch 4-6 inches deep.  If you start using mulch, you will probably be surprised by how it can loosen up hard soil as it degrades and how much better your soil will retain water.

Before I started moving the woodchips around I had to finish up the little rock garden/bird feeding area.  Mostly just shoveling the pebbles/rock back into the area after laying down landscape cloth to block the weeds/birdseed sprouting.  Like many jobs you got to complete some steps first before other steps you want to do.  I straitened some edging blocks around the backyard grass area and the mulch walkways. The dirt in the mulch pathways was black soil. Considering this area only had a thin layer of topsoil before I added wood mulch. It is impressive how the much the degrading mulch added to the soil.

The garden is the area I want to focus on adding a thick  layer of wood chips. In my little 30 minute test of moving wood chips I probably moved about 6 cubic feet of chips. I’m guessing I have 3 yards of wood  chips to move.  I have been saving up cardboard to make a base layer of weed blocker. Now I can add the woodchips on top of the cardboard and get the garden cleaned up. Some good news on the garden weeds. After I cut back the grape vines the weeds dried out in the summer heat and I can cut them back with the weed eater. It won’t be fast adding the woodchips to the  garden but it is do able in time.

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BERJAYA Posted by Jamie

I got the alley way plants in. Working on more plantings.

June 28, 2025

I got all of the Thyme and moss rose/Portaluca in the alleyway beds. One bed had a bit of soil from mulch break down. I had to add a bit of dirt to the other bed so the plants had a chance to grow. It is early days but I am hoping the low growing thyme ground cover will start filling in the beds. If this works I can expand the beds to cancel out the weeds and replace them with ground cover that will help improve the soil and cancel out weeds. Even if this experiment fails. The plants and mulch will improve the soil if they die back. The landscape cloth will inhibit weed growth to some extent and cutting down weeds and spraying them with 30% vinegar will inhibit weed growth.

Two big things I have noticed in the alley way is I have very little Morning glory this year. While it is pretty I really hate the plant because of how it spreads every where and is all most impossible to remove from a yard or garden bed. All I can say is cut back Morning glory, dig it up if possible and spray it with 30% vinegar and in a couple of years you might get it under control.  The second thing I noticed is other people along the alley are getting after the weeds.  I think it is the alley way is sort of out of sight, out of mind for many people. I like to think people are seeing me getting weeds under control a starting some beds has them thinking about using the space for more than parking a car or putting out a trash bin.

I started landscaping the area for the backyard water fountain/tub and OMG the soil is all hard pan clay. Nope I can’t plant anything there now. I’m pulling out the rock, laying out new/better landscape cloth and setting up large planters for planting. I want to set up more bird feeders and a with the fountain a more wildlife friendly area in the yard. I have added a couple of new landscape timbers to contain the rock in the area and the area is a bit shaded by my trees it gets enough sunlight for solar in summer and to grow plants that like partial shade. I’m trying to make it a space for summer and winter. I can sit and view  from my patio.

I hate to say it but Mom was right about putting my plants in pots/planters rather than in the ground.  I had a couple of planters that I added the moss rose and an Amaranth edible plant whose name escapes me. But the bloom looks like a flame. While the soil in the  front yard is not terrible. I  have found it best to try out new plants in pots you can move around so the plants find a happy place. I laid out the landscape cloth as the morning glory is coming back in the front yard and added mulch. Most people spread  mulch to thin. If you mulch plan for 4-6 inches deep to kill weeds and retain water. While a couple of inches of mulch might look pretty for a week or two. A thin layer of mulch won’t stop the weeds!  Which is the point of mulch.

The front yard solar fountain looks okay for the set up and I refilled the hummingbird feeders. I’m hoping the birds will see the water fountain, bird feeders in the front yard and congregate. I’m going to add a couple of Umbrellas to the front yard for shade. But I have to cut back some plants and do some yard work.

How are the portable swamp coolers working?  Now I have a couple of years of practice. So I added another gallon pitcher to fill the swamp coolers. One pitcher filled in the sink and I fill the swamp cooler with the other pitcher. I cool my house as much as possible at night. Swamp coolers still cool when the outside temps drop into the 50’s.  Swamp coolers just don’t cool the air as much. If I can cool my  house overnight into the low 60’s  by morning. I can shut all windows and not turn on my swamp coolers until 5–8 pm to cool my home when it reaches 75 degrees F. in my house. Is it a bit more work filling a portable Swamp cooler. Yep! is it worth it when your electric bill is $75.00 and not $250.00 +  for air conditioning.

People pay for convivence. It is more work to buy fire wood to heat your home rather than set your thermostat and pay a bill. It is more work to set up swamp coolers rather than some sort of HVAC system and set a home temp you like.  My swamp coolers use  about the same power as three 75 watt bulbs. My wood stove is off the electric grid.

What do you pay for heating and cooling?  Do  you find that is a good price?

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BERJAYA Posted by Jamie

Front yard flower bed cleaned up

May 9, 2025

This  bed was a bit of a mess with trash and weeds. Only one volunteer tree that I was able to cut down. to ground level. I did some clean up of this bed a couple of weeks ago and that really helped make finishing the job easier. I weed whacked the weeds down to bare soil. My compost heap has some good soil once I get down to the lower levels. I hope to till this bed with my compost and add new flowers to this bed. After the thick layer of compost I’ll add some landscape cloth, a thick layer of mulch.  I want to add a border of pavers or landscape timbers. Depending on sales the cost is about the same though pavers need more prep work.

What I want to do with the yard is create sections that II can work on about 30 minutes per day per section on different days’ of the week. It is to overwhelming to do “yard/garden” work without having a focus on aa bed or job like mowing, weed cleanup or pruning bushes/trees.  Right now I have been working a couple of hours on a project. That is doable for me for the basic cleanup. But 2 hours of physical work is about all I can do, with breaks to rest. That is my physical limit at this time. I don’t have the physical ability to do cleanup of the yard and a garden. 

I’m sure some folks think I should focus on growing food rather than landscaping. But my plan is all about improving soil health in the yard. Having the garden sit fallow for a summer is not bad for the soil. I lie in an farming area with lot’s of farm markets. I can buy local produce at fairly low price and preserve it.

Every person’s life is unique. Perhaps you can work 8 hours a weekend or you have 15minutes per day. If your garden goes to waste because you can’t keep up with it. Or preserve the food what is the point of a garden if you can’t harvest the food? The harvest/preserving of food is the thing you want. How you get there is your choice.

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BERJAYA Posted by Jamie

New chickens settled in and new bed in the alley way.

May 7, 2025

The new birds are settling  in and are not so flighty when I walk by them. The doggo doesn’t try and spook  the new birds any more. I found the birds dug into the dirt and the doggo laying on the  sidewalk with no critters getting  excited about each other.

The new chickens are laying pretty consistent 2 eggs almost every day. The older birds are laying about an egg a day. That is a little low so I want to change the feed to higher protein and see if that helps egg production. I have a plan to give the birds access to the compost pile in the future. That should give the birds more good scratching and foraging for food.

I added a short perch in the older chicken house. I fixed the perch that came with that house with a small nail as the perch kept falling out of it’s slot. I  think the birds might have wanted to perch but did not feel secure so hopefully the birds like the newly secured perch.

I got the second bed in the alley way ready for plants. I dugout a little trench for a plastic border and add a bit of soil, compost and landscape fabric to help keep the weeds under control. Once I add the plants, I’ll top off everything with a layer of mulch. I’d like to add some sun chokes, Comfrey and maybe some sun flowers to these beds. The soil is poor and it’s a hot spot in summer. This area often get’s used a parking spot/car/trailer backing area. So any low growing plant must hold up to getting smushed on occasion. I set the bed close enough to the shop that any squashing of plants is kept to a minimum. I have grown sun chokes and mossy rose in this area but I sort of forget the area as I did not have beds for the plants and just stuck the plants in the ground without a plan to care for them long term.

I’m not really planting a summer garden this year as I’m way behind on cleanup and prep of the garden. I started cleaning up the weeds in the garden area but the area is a mess. I want to let the beds lie fallow and improve the soil for next year. Work on the compost pile and add a chicken tractor so the chickens do some work and get all that good manure worked into the ground.  I want to do some landscaping work and use container garden pots a lot more in both the front and backyard. I have screwed up a lot just getting by. Now I want to put into practice what I have learned from screwing up and make a yard  and garden that is easy to work for me in the future.

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BERJAYA Posted by Jamie

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