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Un-Bear-Able - The Agony of Defeat

7/28/2024

As you know, the bears have been waging war on my trash container for several months.

Back in April, I built a "skirt" around the steel container with the hope it would stop them from knocking it over. It worked for over two months and I was feeling pretty darn proud of myself.

However, the bears are just as persistent as squirrels and about 1000x bigger. They ripped the entire platform out of the ground ... Bears: 2 - Human: 0.

Fortunately, they couldn't get the container open

I was defeated ... once again. Clearly, an "easy" solution wasn't going to win the contest. It was time to roll up my sleeves (not really; I was wearing a t-shirt) and do some real work. After eight bags of concrete and a bunch of rock, the platform is now a solid 600 lb slab.

I embedded 3/8" stainless steel rods into the slab and bolted the container down with aircraft nuts. I hope this is enough ... but I may add a skirt ... just to be sure.

I have visions of laughing bears stealing an excavator so they can get into my trash.

Never Give Up! Never Surrender!

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Woodland Gardens - Cardboard Compost

6/10/2023

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Folks, I'd like to write about how the Democrats in Illinois tossed out the Constitution last week but I'm just too tired. Let's talk about something fun, for a change.

The Great Replacement
As I mentioned in a previous newsletter, we lost over $2000 in shrubs from the record cold last December (so much for Global Warming). Consequently, I haven't expanded the gardens this year ... I've been busy replacing deceased shrubs with plants that are more cold-hardy, such as hostas (for shade) and cannas (for sun).

We put in about 120 hostas... this was the first batch of 50.

Upcycling Cardboard
We don't recycle corrugated cardboard... we use it as a weed-block that decays to create compost in about one year. We've been doing this for the past four years and it works.

Here's how it works for us. I pile mounds of dead leaves into an area that will be a future garden (we have a LOT of dead leaves every Fall). I cover the leaves with cardboard (thanks Amazon) and then cover the cardboard with 2 - 3 inches of topsoil.

The cardboard plus topsoil will gradually compress the dead leaves down to just a few inches as they decompose.

The cardboard has a number of benefits.

It blocks the weeds
It prevents the topsoil from washing down into the leaves.
It's organic and decomposes along with the dead leaves
Worms love the cardboard. The corrugations are like a luxury apartment complex for our wriggly little friends.

This area (about 200 square feet) will get covered as Amazon donates more packaging. It will be a new expansion to our woodland gardens next spring.

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Patio Project Progress

8/26/2022

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The long promised and often delayed Patio Project Progress report.

The project started with 2 tons of flagstone dropped into the carport.

The first task was a small patio and several steps, and a path down the hill to the southwest of the deck/carport.

I started with a layer of M-10 (crushed granite).

... and then installed the flagstone.

There's still some clean-up required... but the heavy-lifting is done. YAY!

The path leading down to the small patio.

The 'upper' patio with the firepit.

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Woodland Gardens - Destruction

6/9/2022

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Construction Is Destruction
Construction involves a lot of destruction.   Building a house (particularly on a challenging site) 'destroys' an area about 10 times the size of the house... particularly if there is a basement that has to be dug out.

A lot of space is needed to pile up all the dirt/rock that has to be moved. You need staging areas for materials and to move heavy machinery.   When it's all done there's a large barren area all around the structure.   This isn't apparent in the suburbs where you plant some grass and do a bit of landscaping, but here in the mountains construction leaves some pretty bad scars.

                                    A 60' long 4' high pile of rock from the basement.

Little by little, the area east of the house has become a fern and hosta garden. Now there's a winding path where the huge pile of rocks was staged. The two pics are from the same vantage point, as you can see from the trees in the foreground.

We put a lot of thought into ways to minimize the impact. For example, we instructed our subs to stage most of the carpentry, siding and roofing in the area destined to be the driveway. We roped off a group of 5 oaks and hickories, which now 'anchor' the 'north garden'.

I'm happy to report that all of those trees survived and they are thriving. It has taken several years of digging up rocks and amending the soil, but the hostas in the north garden are flourishing! As a bonus, the Black Cohosh and Trillium are making a comeback.

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Goldilocks And The Three Bears

5/7/2022

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I confess... I don't have beautiful golden hair like Goldilocks. It's grey. Maybe I can be Grey-dilocks LOL.

We enjoy living in the woods and doing what we can to preserve a bit of nature. We often have a herd of deer hanging out and two months ago I was able to get some pics... there wasn't much for them to eat then.

This week, Moma Bear and her two, almost-grown cubs from last year paid us a leisurely visit. The forest has burst into life over the past few weeks.

What difference!!

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Earth Day

4/22/2022

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In spite of my rants against (dishonest) Climate Hysteria, I am an environmentalist. I strongly support legitimate environmental concerns for clean air, clean water and expansion of forests, parks and wilderness areas.

When we were designing neoTerra one of the goals was to reduce our energy consumption by 80%.

Prior to adding our solar panels we achieved a reduction of 77%, proving that it is possible to make substantial reductions in energy consumption while sustaining a very comfortable lifestyle. There is no need to give up hot showers, cold beer or live in a doghouse to save planet Earth!

America has abundant land and amazingly diverse climates. There is no requirement to live in urban hives or accept the Progressive's demand that we should own nothing and be happy. That is The Road To Serfdom.

I suggest that it's better to own land and be happy.
I suggest that its better to own land and take some responsibility for the environment.

The deer are abundant (much to the distress of my gardens), the Eastern Bluebirds returned in time for Easter and the hostas are sprouting.

We have more trillium than ever this year and, for the first time, we have a yellow trillium which is rare in our area.

The Mayapples are prolific this year. I wish the deer would eat these instead of hostas, azaleas and hollies.... but they don't. Mayapples are toxic (except for the tiny ripe fruit). It has medicinal uses but is best left to professionals. I suppose that's why the deer leave them alone.

HAPPY EARTH DAY !!

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Native Plants - I

6/28/2015

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I was walking around the lot today and noticed a lot of plants with tall, spikey flowers starting to form. It took a bit of searching but I was able to identify the plant as black cohosh (Actaea racemosa).

Black cohosh is a medicinal herb that has been used to treat a variety of gynecological problems and age-related disorders like osteoporosis. I don't put a lot of stock in herbal remedies but it's fun to discover native plants that are attractive and beneficial.

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Stacking Stone

4/14/2015

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We have a lot of rock and stone on our site. I guess you could say that neoTerra is half Star Trek and half Flintstones. It certainly makes for some interesting contrasts.

Early in construction we stacked large boulders to create primitive/natural retaining walls.

Since then, I bought "Building Dry-Stack Stone Walls", by Rob Gallagher to get an idea of how to properly construct rustic stone walls.

Although many of their examples require heavy machinery, I found the book useful for learning how to build low retaining walls using the rock on our site.

I built my first dry-stack stone wall and I'm fairly happy with the way it turned out. It sure is a lot of work gathering and fitting the stones but I think it will be pretty stable.

We are planting a variety of azaleas and rhododendrons around the house to create a woodland garden and bring some color to the landscape. We have a lot of ground to cover and a limited budget so we're starting with teeny-weeny plants. But some of them have started blooming so we get to enjoy a bit of instant gratification :-)

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Un-Bear-Able - The Agony of Defeat

Woodland Gardens - Cardboard Compost

Patio Project Progress

Woodland Gardens - Destruction

Goldilocks And The Three Bears

Earth Day

Native Plants - I

Stacking Stone

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