Late December

I'm not really into Christmas.  Technically, I'm more into Soltice Day.  It a natural event.  I enjoy the idea that the days are getting longer, leading to Spring.

But I'm also a an emotional sap, someties.  I love Christmas Carols of all sorts.  And I have  aweird streak.  The more religious the better and the least religious better, too.

So when one I enjoyed in the past didn't play on the local 24/7 radio, I looked it up today.

Don't laugh too much, but it is 'Christmas Wrapping' by The Waitresses.  "what, you forgot cranberries too?"  I listened to it a dozen times in a row, just for the smiles.

And then I thought of another I hadn't heard.  'Christmas In Washington'.  I listened to that several times,

Why that led me to  Canon in D' by Pachelbel, I'm not sure.  I know, it it isn't considered "the finest piece of music ever written".  I don't even know know if it is in the Top 100 Classical Pieces.  But it is at the top of MY chart.

I even have a site of many versions (from classical to Rock) bookmarked (everything for standard viola to vox humana to music box versions) .  But after the week, it just blew me away.  It starts so slowly and builds...

I sat at the computer and cried...

Happy tears, of course, but it was a good release of a year's tension... 

And though it is "only" approaching 4 pm (I stayed up all last night on the computer)  I think it is time the feed The Mews and gather them all up fat and happy into the bedroom in an hour or two where we will sleep for 14 hours or so to "catch up"...

I get a little bit off-schedule from time to time, but The Mews don't seem to mind.

I think I'll go out first and collect a bit of wood for the New Year's fire and let it dry out indoors.    It won't be a big one,  more symbolic than anything, but it will be sufficient for thoughtful staring.   I may be ready for 2019.

I love you all for reading The Mews's blog and this one when it appears sometimes.  You don't need me to tell you of the pleasure of having cats around...

But, you know, I sometimes just marvel at the idea that there are sort of wild animals in my house, and that they seem to like me...

Xmas Holiday 2018

Most of these pictures are also on Mark's Mews, so these are more to mention the decoration details...

I put tension rods at the top and bottom inside of the front windows and just use clips to hold regular light strings.  And they are each on a timer.

I've collected many very nice ornaments over the years.

The bird nests may be my favorite.  The nests are real (collected, cleaned, and preserved after use).  The eggs are wood.  The apples are glass.  I've had both those kinds for decades.

The tree is brand new.  I liked that that it is pre-lighted and table-sized.  The better 7' one is just too much to handle sometimes.  And not pre-lighted.    

Mom sent me this wall-hanging 20-something years ago.  It makes a perfect under-tree mat.  Mom often sent me arty decorations.  She WAS "artsy-crafty".  But, sometimes her stories of their origins (made vs bought) varied from year to year, LOL!  Dear Mom...

And the wide view of the decorated room.  And, yes, that stocking is really my childhood one.  I note that the other side has a niece's name written on it though, so it got re-purposed for a while...  When I was a child, Santa would fill it with rare treats (for the 1950s).  A navel orange, a red delicious apple, a box of chocolate-covered cherries, a small jar of maraschino cherries,  and usually a couple of little toys (a top or a set of specialized cards for Go Fish or Crazy 8s, etc).  Ahhh, memories...

Some years, I don't decorate.  This year I did, and found an enjoyment in it.  Next year, I may drag out the Big Tree and really decorate it.  There are so many decorations that won't fit on a small tree.  I must have 100 glass icicles, for example.  My cardinals are too big for a small tree, and some are just too heavy for a small tree.

Here's a picture of the big tree from 2014, and even then I didn't decorate it fully...

One of the cardinals...

And a special decoration from Mom.  It was a house-warming present 32 years ago.  In case it isn't obvious, it's a mailbox (representing my first, and only, own house).

HAPPY WINTER HOLIDAYS TO ALL MY FRIENDS

The "BAD" Room

There is always some room where the junk goes, right?  For me it is the computer room. 

I'm changing things.  But things look at their worst before they get better.  I moved a bookcase that had been in place for 32 years.  And the cheap carpet I had installed there was awful.  It faded fast.

Proof:

The middle part is the carpet that was covered by the bookcase for 32 years.  The bottom part is how it looks today in spite of vaccuuming and even a few "steam" cleanings.  The top is all the awesome gross dust and grime that settled behind the bookcase all those years!

I am replacing the carpet of course.  And with linoleum.  It is the computer room, after all, and having a solid surface easy to roll a chair in makes sense.  I haven't decided on a color/pattern...

I could go with anything from jet black to solid blue too speckled.  Need to wash the walls and repaint too. 

But it was astonishing to see the difference in the original carpet and the current look!

I bet I end up with soothing greens.  What colors and floors are YOUR computer rooms?

The Bramble And Sapling Jungle, Part 3

So, my back working again, and ready to wreck it again if need be (that area WILL BE CLEARED) I went at it again 2 days ago.  There were some last saplings to be chainsawed and hauled out of the way.  There was most of the underbrush and brambles to be mowed and turned into mulch, and there were vines still attached to saplings.

I went after the vines first.  My habit of bad luck is that any vine attached to a sapling I cut down will fall on me as opposed to away from me.  So the fewer of them connecting saplings, the better.

Funny thought:  The vines don't show up to neighbors.  They might have seen me thrashing around at ground level and up over my head with a hedge trimmer and concluded I was completely nuts, LOL!

But then I went after the remaining saplings with the chainsaw.  MUCH more carefully this time.  Instead of leaning over to cut, I knealt carefully so as not to strain any back muscles.  And I dragged the cut saplings instead of lifting them. 

After that, I took out the DR brush mower and went over the entire area.  I was so pleased to see the results...  I also chainsawed the saplings into stemless trunks.  The trunks are worth saving for the fireplace.  The twigs and vine debris went into piles. 

I used the brush mower on the piles of stems and twigs and vines.  It was like mowing leaves into the lawn until there was only leaf-shreds left.  HURRAY!

From the deck...

Closer...

And in directions all around the former jungle...

I was so happy to uncover my bridge...

And discovered a hose stand that had been covered with vines.

There is still debris there that I may or may not remove (it might smother new underbrush).  But the important thing is that the entire area is clear.

I finished it.  And with only some slight muscle complaints.  I'll count that as a victory.  

The next step is to make sure the undergrowth does not return.  Trees shaded them out before; I will plant new trees.  But these will be smaller ones; Dogwoods, Sourwoods, a dwarf apple...  They will shade the space under them, but never grow tall enough to shade the garden.  I have 4 in a raised bed ready to transplant in January and will have pre-dug holes ready to receive them.  I just need to decide exactly where to put each.

And I can get at the pond again.  That will be in Spring when things warm up.  It is too cold to try and install a new pond liner now.  But I WILL get the pond and raceway set up and working again come Spring!  That will be SO nice...

The Bramble And Sapling Jungle, Part 2

Well, the DR Brush mower is pretty fearsome.  It basically says that if you use it carelessly, you could lose a foot.  The blade under that shroud is very heavy, fast, and sharp.  You can't cut a 1.5" sapling into mulch with a simple lawn mower!  A word to the wise is sufficient...  I was careful.

Here is what the half of the backyard looked like before...

The cleared portion on the right; uncleared on the left...

The view from the deck.

And that was after an intial test of the DR brush mower.  I could tell it would work well.  It is self-propelled and can push over and mulch saplings up to about 1.5" diameter.  At the same time, it is a large machine for an individual and turning it around takes some effort.  But it mowed down the brambles mercilessly!!!

I wish I could say all it took was guiding it around the brambles, but there are limitations.  There were old 12' tree strumps.  There were 3" diameter saplings.  There were rabbit holes where a tire would spin helplessly.  I did the open areas first, and when I had to force the tires out of rabbit holes, I did.  The reverse propelled gear helped.

So then I was faced with saplings too large for the brush mower to push over and chop up.  I stopped.  I have to say that I sure liked the battery-powered hedge trimmer.  It cut the wild vines very well.  I still got stuck on a lot of falling brambles, but I found and old leather hunting jacket in a closet (I'm a bit of a "saver" and that was immune to bramble thorns.  It was so old I couldn't zip it closed (it was about 6" too small at the waist, LOL!) but as a cover, it worked well.

After hedge-trimming as many vines as I could from ground level to as high as I could reach, I went after the larger saplings with my electric chain saw.  I deliberately cut them about a foot high so that I knew where they were ( I wanted to know where they are for complete removal later).

That was several weeks ago.  Because after bending around awkwardly to chainsaw the saplings and haul them out of the vines and put them in piles for cutting the pieces to fit my hauling trailer (to bring them to a County place that makes free mulch)...

I woke up the next morning and couldn't stand up.  Yes, I mentioned that in a previous post and I'm just catching up.  I had 2 weeks of pain and used up 2 tubes of muscle relief ointment (Aspercreme, not that smelly type that athletes use to advertise their need for something).

A few days ago, I woke up and all was well with my back.  So, naturally, I went back at the yard work.  And more about THAT tomorrow...

The Bramble And Sapling Jungle, Part 1

IIRC, it was Disney's 'Sleeping Beauty' that had a briar jungle raised around her sleeping place by the evil Queen Maleficent.  Her briar jungle had nothing on mine (in my eyes).

 After I removed some junk trees that had finally grown tall enough to shade my vegetable garden 6 years ago, the increased sunlight below them allowed shade-supressed wild blackberry, wild non-fruiting grape vines, green-briars, and English Ivy grew rampant.  Junk tree seeds found a good spot to grow.

When I moved here 32 years ago, it was like that.  It took me 5 years to clear the area.  I dug out a 10' circle 2' deep and installed a pond liner.  I dug a 40' long raceway downslope to the pond and installed a liner and a submersible pump to push water to the top for waterflow over rocks I placed in the raceway.  The sounds of the splashing water were always soothing.  I bought a bench to sit on to enjoy the pond and raceway.  I built a nice little bridge across the raceway for convenience and planted hostas along both sides and planted astilbes all around the pond.

Somewhere over the years, I kind of ignored it for a while.  Fall leaves filled it and were hard to net out among the lily plants and sweet flag.  A fallen branch poked a hole in the liner about 6" from the bottom and the pond drained.  I tried to patch the hole, but could never get it properly sealed.  Then one hot Summer day, I realized there were tens of thousands of mosquito larvae growing in that 6" of water.  I poked more holes in it deliberately to drain it completely, intending to replace the liner and get the waterflow working again.

That didn't happen.  The pond liner replacement was always on my "to do" list but other things came first.

Two years ago, I decided to try to reclaim that portion of the back yard.  Loppers on 8' high 1" thich wild blackberries does not work.  They ALWAYS fell on me and getting those things loose is awkward and sometimes painful.

I decided to hire someone to clear the area.  Individuals said it was too much work; companies said it was too little work  One guy agreed to do the work.  He didn't show up.  When I called him, he was in a hospital with a broken leg and that he was retiring from yardwork.  I expressed my sympathies to him about the leg, but it left me no choice.

I was going to have to do it myself!

I bought a DR Brush/Sapling mower.  After delays (the shipper lost it) then (after they found it 3 weeks later) discussions about how it could be delivered (they wanted a commercial dock to deliver it to and I had to arrange a 3rd party delivery), I finally received it.

The Brush/Sapling mower works great.  But that is for tomorrow...