The "Project" We All Hate

Income Tax Preparation Day - Who loves it?  I could have done it earlier, but at least I didn't put it off to the very last day, like some people do.

I've used software for it the past 3 years.  It isn't really any faster, but it sure is EASIER!  And it saves money.  And writing!  The last is because I have to make an effort these days to write legibly.  The "easier" part is that the software imports all the basic data from the previous year's file (you do get to review and change it) AND you just answer "interview" type questions and the software puts the answers in the correct places on the tax form.  It also provides a lot of examples of the items to be included on each tax form line.

I especially like that the software does both Federal AND State forms (the Maryland tax form is worse than the Federal one).

Printing out the forms is wonderful.  I was able to print out all the backup forms and worksheets for my files, so everything is well-documented.

The "saving money" part is most appreciated.  The first year, I did the taxes by hand and then compared that to my software-provided return.  I saved about $600 with the software!  Not any sleazy tricks, just things I didn't understand or hadn't known about before.  I was very careful to research the savings the first year, but they were indeed legitimate.  Mostly, those were details of reportable stock and dividend exclusions.  I can discuss a lot of subjects knowledgeably, but financial terminology drives me crazy!

I have even learned (too late) about credits I could have applied in the past that I knew nothing about.

The "it isn't really any faster...  Actual preparation is faster, but it does take time to buy and download the software, save and print the forms and backup worksheets, and answer some of the questions you automatically know don't apply.  From start to finish, it took exactly 3 hours, 2 beers, and 1 pack of cigarettes.  About the same as "before software".  But so much easier.  And I am more confident the submission is valid and accurate.

The software cost $60 (Federal and State), but it was well worth it.  Next year, I'll try to remember to do it in March!  LOL!

Storm Drain and Drainage Easement

The Drainage Easement has been the mild bane of my existence.  A constant itch I can never solve.  If you ever read the phrase "drainage easement" in a house you want to buy, go elsewhere! 

When I moved here, 25 years ago, there was a drainage easement on one side of the property.  It divided the 2 properties.  That makes it joint responsibility.  You DON'T WANT THAT.  Your neighbor will NEVER want to do what you want to.

In my case, my yard is lower than the neighbor's.  So when it floods, it is only MY problem.

Well, I woke up this morning and heard heavy equipment running outside.  It was county people cleaning the storm drain at the bottom of the drainage easement!  I got dressed fast and ran outside to see what they were doing. 

Some background...  A storm last Winter washed down tree branches that got so interwoven over the storm drain that I could not pull them apart.  Then leaves and dirt piled on top and made a dam.  Half my front lawn is sodden.  I mean squishy to walk on like a bog.

Coincidence:  I wrote up a list of things to do this week and the 1st item was to contact an excavator to dredge the easement.  The storm drain itself is untouchable county property.  But I was going to contact them about that.

My neighbor beat me to that.  He is selling his house and called the county to clear the storm drain.  Yay!

I noticed that they had shoveled the drainage path 5' upstream, so I asked if they could use their bucket dredge to deepen it.  No go.  They only own that 5' upstream.  The rest is mine and the neighbor.  I've looked at the drainage easment.  It is silted up almost 2' because the (idiot) neighbor planted willow trees along it.  Willow tree roots LOVE water and grow thick and trap dirt.


When I saw him planting the willows 15 years ago, I begged him not to for that reason.  He ignored me.  Why not?  The problem would all be mine. 

Now, they are trying to sell their house.  I'm a good neighbor.  If the county cleared the storm drain, I can clean up my corner of the yard.  I spent 2 hours clearing the brush from the boggy corner. 

Before:

After:

Here's the view from the street. best in at least 10 years!

Since I had the pruning saw and loppers out, I took out several saplings that had chosen to grow up through some shrubs.  But no pictures of that.  Just happy to have gotten THOSE spots off my list.

Next, the "ugly corner of the yard where I used to stack firewood and has grown all brushy"...

Garden Started Outside

Finally, stuff planted outside!

Well, I did get the snow peas planted outside 3 weeks ago and they are emerging well.

But the other stuff had to wait.  I should mention that I love "square foot gardening".  Well, it's just me here, so I don't need much of anything at one time.  Can you just imagine me using a 20' row of cabbage all at once?  LOL!

So I plant in square feet individually in succession, as long as the season permits and then for Fall too.  So right now, I have individual intensive plantings of carrots, 2 kinds of radish, spinach, beets, shallots, scallions, chinese cabbage, and kohlrabi.  I have leeks ready to transplant in 2 weeks.

Nothing but labels right now, though there are seedlings emerging everywhere but the spinach.  I had no luck with that last year; it may be the seeds.

My garlic planted last Fall is doing well...  They are on the opposite side of the trellis from all the small crops.

My cole crops are looking good as transplants.  I gave the seeds better light this year and it shows.  This year I have broccoli, cabbage and radicchio.  I'll be trying brussels sprouts as a Fall crop this year; it just doesn't work here planted in Spring.

I know it looks like so little, but 3 of each will keep me for a month and I have succession plantings scheduled for 2 weeks.  I will start more of them for a Fall harvest too.

My small herb garden, planted last year, is doing great!  I have parsley, tarragon, thyme, chives,  sage.  And I am growing the few annual basil plants.

 I am even trying celery and parsnips, but it is too early for transplants or direct seeding.

The more regular veggies have to wait for a few weeks.  My heirloom tomatoes are great this year.  They are short and compact with good stems.  I have transplanted them once indoors  and they will go out in 2 weeks.  I have red, yellow, orange, and lilac sweet bell peppers ready to go in early May.

There will be flat Italian pole beans, cukes, 3 kinds of melons, squashes later. but that's for May days, not April around here.

And I have 6 flats of annual flowers going now.  THAT should brighten up the garden.  I love my perennials, but only annuals give a backbone of lasting color and I am using more this year.  And I can plant them in different places next year for a change of appearance.  Salvias, marigolds, forget-me-nots,  impatiens, and coleus.  Nothing special, just some plants to lock in season-long color in varying light conditions.

There are a few perennials I am ordering more of this year.  Some that grew well where I put them and I plan to make larger areas of those successful plants.  The stokesias and troillus did well, so more of them .  My flowerbed was too full of too many small groups of flowers.  I want larger areas of those that do well here.  Instead of 6 square feet of something; 60!  That's still only 6' x 10' per plant!

My total long flowerbed is about 100' by 10', so there is plenty of room.

Flowerbed Problem

Sometimes, perennial flowerbeds just DIE.  Oh sure, there are often 2 of 12 plants that don't return and need to be replaced.  But I mean a place where, for no known reason, an entire area just DIES...

Last year, this spot was filled with columbines and coreopsis.  They seemed healthy at the end of the year!  They are are up and 6" tall in other spots in the garden.  But they are just completely gone here.

What you see there are winter weeds.  Purple deadnettle or something like that.  I've pulled them up relentlessly before they flower in years past, but they seem unstoppable.  Yet, they shouldn't make any difference.  I mean, they shouldn't be stopping any perennials from growing back in Spring.

I'll give them several weeks to show up, then I'm scraping the surface a few inch deep with the spade and then planting annuals (hmmm, maybe tomatoes) this year.  This coming winter, I'll cover the hole area with black plastic and kill all the winter weeds.

Sometimes bad things happen and you just have to start again...

Spring Has Sprung, Part 3

This time, I'm showing off the daffodils.  Daffodils love it here and thrive.  Tulips are only good for a couple years between the climate and shade.  Hyacinths last a few more years, but after 5 they are barely noticible.  Thankfully, there are many more color combinations of daffodils than 20 years ago.

The collection is a bit of a mess.  I started with the idea of many different daffodils plants in individual clumps and expected them to spread.  In follwing years, I planted more where I didn't think any were planted previously.  As you will see, my memory of spots isn't that good.  But I do have a lot of color.

And this year was unique.  Most years, the various daffodils bloom at different times from mid March to early May.  This year, they mostly all bloomed at the same time.  Nice for quantity, but confusing for appearance.

Here are some pictures from different directions.  Usually, there would be fewer flowers at a time, but more similar-looking then.  This year is a riot of blooms of all kinds...

But because there are so many colors all together, here are some individual pictures...

 So it was one of the more spectacular booming years...

The tulips linger in places that suit them best, but they only last 2-3 years here.

This spot had 24 in Spring 2008, but there are only these few left.  It is getting too warm for them in southern MD...  I had some nice Rembrandt tulips bloom, they came and went in only 3 days.  They probably won't return next year.  Sigh...

Still, I sure am enjoying this years bounty of blooms!

Spring Has Sprung, Part 2

Though I have started some yard projects, I wanted to catch up on pictures of Spring before they get too old to mention...

Today, I have pictures of my 2 saucer magnolia trees.  There's a back story.  When I got a new job in central Washington DC in 1984, I saw some trees that just entranced me.  No, not the famous cherry trees (though they are magnificent.  But there was a small park across the street from my office.  Every Spring, these twisted gnarly trees would fill with large 6" pink blooms that just amazed me.  It took 4 years to learn what kind of tree they were.  When I found out, I bought two.  One for the front yard and one for the back yard.

I have tried to shape them, something I am inexperienced at, but I do it judiciously with the much older professionally-maintained DC trees in mind.  It isn't easy.  I suspect the DC trees were treated like large Bonzai trees with wires bending the branches into contorted gnarls.  I'm still working on that.  Each Spring, I work on opening the center of the tree and creating angles in the branches.

The Backyard Tree:  This one gets more sun, so has grown to about 15' high in 20 years.  I have gotten some shape by bending down some branches with cinder blocks.  And I see that, slowly, I need to limb up the tree so that I can walk under it safely.  It will spread wide and strongly as it ages.  But here is the current tree...

As you can see, I've left many lower branches on for photosynthesis.  I think this Fall I can remove the lowest limbs after dormancy.  Plus, I think part if the design technique is to remove most of the interior twigs along the branches, leaving all the outermost.

The Frontyard Tree:  This one is partially shaded, so it is smaller; only 10' tall.  It suffered some loss last year when I had a contractor drive a vehicle into the back yard.  When I planted it, I thought it was far enough away from the huge old oak for a vehicle to pass, but I had to remove some branches on one side.

I plan to encourage some of the tallest branches to grow to the right, but above the height of a vehicle.  I do have reasons for standard vehicles to get past it to the backyard every couple of years, yet I to want it to appear more balanced than it currently is.

Of course, from other views, it is quite shapely.  This is the view visitors get, so it's not bad.

Even then, the lower limbs need to be slowly trimmed upwards.  This is a tree you should walk under, not around.

And by the way, you see that large rock near the tree?  I had that delivered 4 years ago, planning to create an flowerbed island around it and the tree.  I'll be doing that this year.  I'm planning to take some old carpet and cut it to shape.  If I do it soon, that should kill all the grass by Fall.  I'll remove the carpet, plant daffodils there in the Fall, mulch in heavily, then plant perennials next Spring.  Or maybe annuals so that I can change the colors each year.

Spring Has Sprung

It is time to start projects again.  I'm just not good at doing stuff during Winter.  Even indoors.  It's weird.

But every Spring starts off with "Spring Cleaning".  This time, the major kickoff event was TRASH DAY.  I should explain.  I don't pay for regular trash pickup, because I only generate 1 bag per month of households trash and 1 small bag of kitty litter.  At $35/month for scheduled trash pickup, that's hard to accept.

So, since I regularly have stuff to bring to the recycling center (which is also the landfill), I just pay for trash weight at the same time.  They have a flat fee of only $5 for all the residential trash you bring.  I DO have curbside recycling, but they don't pick up boxes, bulky metal, etc.  So I end up going to the landfill every few months.

Well, with the snow in Feb/March, and since I was saving winebottles since Oct thinking I might try making my own, I had a real load.

Part of it was my trash.  I compost everything organic and recycle everything possible, so there isn't much per month.  1 bag.  And it doesn't smell. 

The stuff that DOES accumulate is kitty litter.  I buy the new kitty litter in tubs and keep them for the used litter.  Gaze on this and be amazed...

That's 6 months worth of used kitty litter.  I bet ya haven't seen that much ever.   Don't worry, the sealed bags I use prevent any smells...  But still, that's a LOT of used kitty litter, LOL!  300 pounds of it!

The car itself was filled up with boxes, trash, old fluorescent tubes, unrecyclable styrofoam, etc.

I expected an easy delivery process.  Thursday afternoon right after lunch.  Who would be there?  Well, the whole world, it seems.  I forgot this was Spring Break Week and apparently a lot of adults take the week off too.  The line to get IN to the dump was 15 minutes long and the line to get OUT (and pay) was 30 minutes.  I ALWAYS forget that school is out this week...

And then I discovered that the $5 flat fee doesn't apply to trailers!  It cost me $13 instead.  Still, I can't complain much.  6 months of $35 trash pickup would have been $210!  So I'm $197 ahead (minus 1 gallon of gasoline).  That's a lot of steak and wine...

At least the weather was perfect.  70F, sunny, and a light breeze.

Next, Spring is really here and the gardening is underway...

The Annual Spring Peeper War

I live across the street from a slight swamp.  In the late Winter, the Spring Peepers call constantly.  They started yesterday.  That's OK, because there are thousands of them and the sound is a sort of "white noise" a 100 yards away and on the far side of the house from my bedroom.

What is NOT OK is the dozen or so Spring Peepers that are attracted to the small pond outside my bedroom window.  They are individual callers and  drive me crazy, like the infamous Chinese Water Droplet Torture.  It's an individual thing; so people think the chirps soothing like rain on the roof, others go nuts.

I go nuts.  I can't sleep when it happens and it lasts about 2 weeks.  Before I retired, I was reduced to fitful sleeping in the guest bedroom (opposite side of the house) keeping several doors closed between the pond and me.  I even put acoustical ceiling tile in my bedroom window, but the shrill chirps came  right through the walls.

I confess it sometimes became so bad that I would sneak out at 2 a.m. and stalk the peepers, stomping on them.  I felt like an idiot standing outside in the middle of the night desperately hoping to stomp on a few poor little innocent frogs.

THEN, I got the bright idea of simply closing down their little dating bar.  No open water, no frogs.  No frogs, no noise.  No noise, good sleeping...

TA DA!!!

The side view:

I feel sorry for the little guys (and gals) I really do.  At least they are just the losers in the choice of water to "date" in, and there is an endless supply of frogs with better choices in locale (he swamp from whence they came across the street).

It started this season when I went to get my morning newspaper and heard all the swamp peepers calling.  I knew what was coming next.  So I looked around for a cover for the pond.  Last year, I used a big piece of plywood.  This year I found something easier.

I set my post hole digger across the pond.  The handles open up to make a stable support for a bucket.  The bucket provided height to make the rain drain away.  Various random objects sealed the edges so that the peepers couldn't crawl in underneath.  I trust that Skeeter and LC won't object to my temporary use of the grave markers.  LC always did enjoy annoying the frogs...

My friends sometimes laugh at my makeshift arrangements.  I prefer to think of it as "resourceful use of available objects".    LOL! 

Anyway, so far, not Spring Peepers ruining my sleep...

Seed Starting Success

Well, the seeds are doing well this year.  Partly because I have been making extra efforts to provide each flat with the best conditions for them.

One flat was all cole crops.  The cabbage, chinese cabbage, broccoli, pak choi, and raddicchio are all up (100% germination!) and I move them to the strongest sunlight each day and give them grow-light bulb light for several hours in the evening.  Best seedlings of those I've had in years!

Another 2 flats are bell peppers and tomatoes.  Those haven't emerged yet but are in the guest room at 70F and should emerge very soon.  When they do, they will get all the natural sunlight plus artificial light they can stand.

The flowers are more demanding.  The salvia and impatiens and wave petunias need "strong but not direct sunlight" so I move then around a lot.  They need up to 3 weeks of this, so I will stay on it.  I was relaxed about them last year and had no success, so I am giving them lots of attention this year.  Fortunately, the deck glass doors are south-facing and get maximum sunlight at this time of year.  Yet there is plenty of space that is ambient-bright not not "direct sunlight".

If that doesn't work this year, I will give up on all the seeds that "no cover and bright indirect sunlight"...

 

  

Doing my best this year with these "light-exposed seeds"...

Hello SPRING!

Yay!  First group of crocus blooms yesterday!  Daffodils are emerging.  Hyacinths are emerging!  I have 5 flats of various veggies and flowers started in flats indoors!

Crocuses:

 

 I should mention that I didn't plant 5 bulbs in that pattern.  I plant in groups of 7-20.  That one is a small group where a few died.  If they had all survived, it would have been generally a circle.

I went around the yard and woods today looking for the first emerging Spring bulbs.  I mark them with landscaping flags so that I don't step on them while walking around.

Here is a picture of the flags so far.  There will be more to emerge, but those others aren't peeking up yet...

Most of those are bunches of daffodils 7-20 in a spot.  I think they average about 10 initially planted bulbs so I'm guessing I have 1,000 planted bulbs.  But many have multiplied, so I probably have about 3.000 stems.

And that's not counting the 1,000 that I planted in a dense bed farther back in the yard.  There are about 500 spots and they have multiplied for 15 years.  I think I actually need to thin them because too many stems do not bloom due to crowding.

I would guess that I had about 6,000 daffodil blooms last year and this year will be about the same.  It is impressive when most are in bloom at one time.  I have early/mid.late bloomers, but at the midpoint, there is a sea of blooms.  I like that!

I've given up on tulips.  They only last a couple of years around here and they last less these days than 20 years ago.  Global warming...

The hyacinths are more durable than tulips but less so than daffodils.  They are good for about 5-8 years depending on sunlight and drainage.  They don't like wet roots but tolerate it for many years.  But they die eventually.

The tulips and hyacinths also die out due to vole predation.  I have moles.  They don't eat bulbs, but voles use the mole tunnels and they do eat bulbs.  Daffodils are toxic to herbivores like voles but tulips and hyacinths are not.

I have planted more daffodils up along the rising backyard...

This year, I am going to identify pathways through the woods.  Plants in the way of the paths will be pulled or dug up and replanted.  Available spots for Fall plantings will be marked with paver stones set at ground level (I need to be able to mow down grasses and weeds).

I hope to get around to establishing paths using edging borders, landscape barrier cloth, and hardwood chips.

I can't wait for the daffodils to be in bloom in April!