Spring is definitely here now. Lots of sunny days, birds coming back from the south in huge flocks, and ice melting in lakes and rivers. Only a few shady spots where there is still some snow on the ground, but that won’t last long anymore. The forecast looks wonderful.
Paul and I spend an evening to start with setting up the garage in a box. We didn’t get really far. It was a lot of preparing and sorting before we could actually start. But we got a few parts done. Sometime this week we will finish it, so it is ready for the building crew.
I got my quote back from Norman and it will work out great for me. We talked through the material list and other specifics and agreed on doing business. YAY! I’m so happy. I’ve seen the cabin again he’s working on and wow, it turns out so nice! I can’t wait to have my little cabin up.
While I was visiting for my quote, I bought some lovely wood from Norman to build my 3 above ground gardens. Nice strong wood. The next day I went to the acreage with my wood, drills, screws, wood, linseed oil, brushes, bags of dead leafs from last fall, old newspaper and card board, rake and of course our dog Scruffy. She loves to be at the acreage for a good run so now and then and watch the birds flying over. I got the gardens all ready that day, except for the last one. I ran out of soil. So next time I will finish that. It was a lovely sunny day with 19 c. Scruffy got so warm that she would lay in the shade of the truck most of the time while I was working.
The grouse was very busy again in the woods with his rumbling sounds and the squirrels were loud too, while jumping from tree to tree. At times geese, swans and hawks would fly over. An Osprey flew over the yard and Scruffy started to bark at it. It flew down towards the yard and I called Scruffy back to me and told her to stop barking. When she was quiet the prey bird flew away. Scruffy doesn’t like big birds. But this bird seemed upset about Scruffy. Probably it has a nest near by.
I saw my first butterflies on the acreage. I love butterflies. Not so much their offspring though. They love garden greens. With this warm weather the bugs come out, and so are ticks. Ugh. I really dislike ticks. I didn’t notice them until I came home and had a shower. I found 4 of them on my clothing and in my hair brush. Bbrrrrrr. Time to use Off again. I don’t like chemicals, but I don’t like to get covered in ticks. Scruffy had her drops last week already so she is ok. I also started to trim her coat, bit by bit, because she doesn’t like to be groomed so much. But clicker training her for standing still while I trim her, helps a lot. She will feel much better during hot days with less fur.
I bought my two exterior doors and ordered the windows from the building store in town. Windows take another 2 weeks before they are in. But that is ok. I will have the measurements so the openings can be cut out. The driveway isn’t done yet. The RM is very busy around this time of the year. But I trust it won’t take much longer. There isn’t a real rush. Sometime this week I hope to have the sewage trenches done though. It would be nice that is done before building starts. It is harder to do that after the cabin is up.
I finally could take all my compost scraps I collected over the winter to the acreage. One part of the scraps I already did in a bin in my backyard. (I drilled numerous holes in this bin to get it composted faster) But there were many plastic bags in the back of the house that now were thawed out. As soon I came at the acreage I drove up to a spot facing south, alongside the driveway. I emptied all those bags with rotten scraps on a pile between the brushes and trees, and added some dead lily leafs from home to the pile. Once I was done, I couldn’t tell I put anything there. Great! I like to keep my place nice. When I first started opening the bags, it all smelled SO bad. Ugh. Disgusting. But as soon the contents of the bags were exposed to oxygen, the smell disappeared. I was happy it went away, as it was a little nerve wrecking. Bears have great smell and I wouldn’t be surprised if one would have come over to check it out. But I did not see any. I thought the pile would be way bigger for a whole winter organic food scrap collection. It turned out not too bad at all. Knowing now how much I will collect over a winter, I’m not worried at all to compost the whole year through. With our beautiful hot summers, the compost process will go very fast. Neither am I worried about composting toilet waste. I will do that in separate piles and let it compost to feed the brushes and trees.
At home I’m hardening my plants during the day. Some didn’t make it. Some I’m still a little worried about. I have to see if they are strong enough to acclimatize. But most of the plants are doing great. I can’t wait until it’s time to plant them in my new gardens. In the trailer at LPine Meadow, I seeded some sunflowers. Give them a head start in good moist dirt. Another week and I will plant them out at different spots. And another week after that, everything else can be planted and seeded outside. I love Spring!
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