Adventures in Remuddling

In the fall, I moved a magnolia tree and a burning bush. At the end of the winter, right before spring, I moved another burning bush to the backyard. So no more trees in the front, except for the 2 new fruit trees I planted earlier.

So how are the transplanted tree and bushes doing now that spring is in full bloom and summer’s right around the corner?

Continue reading “Magnolia Tree & Burning Bush Update” »

We use “Mel’s mix” recipe from the All New Square Foot Gardening book for our raised beds. Because we were concerned about lead (it’s very common in New England soils) we wanted to build raised beds and put in fresh soil for our vegetables.

Continue reading “Nano-Farming: The Soil Mix” »

Presenting a finished raised garden bed.

Continue reading “A Finished Square Foot Garden Bed” »

When we bought our house, we planned on fixing the front step as soon as possible. Two years, and two winters later, the step still hasn’t been fixed yet. In fact, the step - and the concrete pad in front of it - seemed to sag even more. This spring, we decided it had to go…

Continue reading “Broken Step = Bad Impression” »

.. continued from “Broken Step = Bad Impression”

After the broken concrete step was removed, we dug down a few inches and filled in with gravel. There wasn’t much organic dirt under to begin with, it was mostly rocky fill. So we topped off with gravel and tamped it down.

Continue reading “New Concrete Pad for Front Steps” »

.. continued from “New Concrete Pad for Front Steps”

Time to build and install the new steps.

The zig zag looking pieces of wood in the picture below are called “stringers”.  They need to be built first.

Continue reading “Putting in the Front Steps” »

Mmmmm, fresh mustard greens, harvested from our raised bed garden on June 6th!

Tig in California (several years ago)

“The weather forecasting is so much better these days. The technology must have improved a lot over the years.”

Tig in Massachusetts (now…every 20 minutes)

“The weather forecast said it was supposed to rain yesterday. Wheeeeeere’s the rain?!?!”

Continue reading “The Nano-Farmer Watches Weather” »

Close friends make fun of me because of my fondness for white in decor and black in clothing. The New York Times ran an article, “What Does Happiness Look Like” about the same debate between designers who love color and those who prefer monochromatic color schemes.

I like color, just in small doses. So when Tig was painting the front porch steps (gray, to match the new steps…sort of), I begged him to paint the ceiling blue like the homes we saw in Martha’s Vineyard. He obliged, and now I have a slice of happiness to look at everytime I walk in and out of the front door.

Continue reading “A Slice of Happiness on the Front Porch” »

After a long slumber, the IPR has awakened…

After spending hours making an infrared paint remover (IPR), and using it for about 5 minutes, it has spent the last year sitting in a corner of our basement. So when it came time to repaint the front porch floor, I revived the beast to remove the old peeling paint.

Continue reading “Using the IPR and Painting the Porch” »