Drstratton - My Backyard Journey Journal

[Baymule]

Your raised beds are lovely. A member on TEG tore out his wood beds this year and replaced them with cinder block beds. I am still planting the old fashioned way, in the ground. But I did graduate to some weed cloth, it is awesome for keeping down the gorgeous weeds that I grow!

 

[drstratton]

Your raised beds are lovely. A member on TEG tore out his wood beds this year and replaced them with cinder block beds. I am still planting the old fashioned way, in the ground. But I did graduate to some weed cloth, it is awesome for keeping down the gorgeous weeds that I grow!

Thank you!

Cinder block is a great idea!

If you ever decide to go with raised beds, you'll never look back...lol!

We will be using weed cloth for the crops that can't be planted in the raised beds! Hopefully it will arrive on Saturday and we can get the rest of our garden in and get everything else planted over the next week! We grow some pretty fantastic weeds ourselves...lol! We still have to finish the new beds & fill them with dirt...well sand on the bottom, we have that in abundance around here!

 

[drstratton]

Progression on the new raised beds. I thought these were going to be 4'x14', but my husband wanted to utilize all of the space he could so they are 5'x14'. I told him that he has the middle section as I won't be able to reach it very easy...lol!

Here are some pictures!

Boards for both boxes primed!

Boards for first box painted & ready to build...I ran out of paint and had to wait to paint the second set of boards. This is the paint that we used for the trim on our house!

After painting we cut the boards to length and my husband drilled the uprights for the pocket screws!

First Panel Framed!

Attaching the metal!

First side panel finished!

My husband dug out the good top dirt where the first box will be sitting, we will fill it from a hill of sand that we have in our yard and then put the topsoil on top. We thought about installing a pond with a waterfall at one time, but that never happened. It's finally being used! The concrete squares are an assortment from the many different pours we've made at our place. My husband built frames to pour any extra cement into, they are great in the garden!

Dirt Removal:
The lawn had overtaken the hill and the grass was very tall, so I had to very carefully mow it down with our rider, it took quite a few passes! We also cut into the remaining root system with shovels to make it easier to remove with the tractor and to not completely destroy our lawn! This would have been a very daunting task without the tractor, we bought it a couple of years ago with our son, it's not four wheel drive and it's as old as I am...lol, but it's better that nothing.

First Raised Bed in place!

Now we just have to finish filling it and get the second bed prepped! The panels are finished for the second box, we will join them together in place...they are very heavy! I will also have to touch up any paint that was messed up! My husband will be putting cross supports into the boxes, he will weld a nut on each end, inside of 3/4" pipe and attach them with bolts, I will share that later. Now, I have to go out and mow!

 

[CntryBoy777]

Looking Good!!..... ....I could sure make use of that tractor here for a couple of wks........got a bunch of sand to move, but a shovel and wheelbarrow will have to do for now....plus I have something else that has moved Up the list of to dos.....

 

[drstratton]

Looking Good!!..... ....I could sure make use of that tractor here for a couple of wks........got a bunch of sand to move, but a shovel and wheelbarrow will have to do for now....plus I have something else that has moved Up the list of to dos.....

Thank you...it sure has been handy...we are no strangers to shovels & wheelbarrows...I find my self using them way to often...

 

[CntryBoy777]

My step daughters got me one for my b'day and I asked where the remote was.....

 

[Senile_Texas_Aggie]

Miss @drstratton,

Those garden beds look really nice. You two did a great job!

I fully understand how useful a tractor is, after having one for almost two years and now not having one for going on two months.

Senile Texas Aggie

 

[drstratton]

Miss @drstratton,

Those garden beds look really nice. You two did a great job!

I fully understand how useful a tractor is, after having one for almost two years and now not having one for going on two months.

Senile Texas Aggie

Thank you! My husband is an excellent builder!

The funny thing is we bought this tractor and used it just a few times. Then it started having an issue with the hydraulics and we didn't have any pressing need for it, so it sat for most of the time we've owned it. Then the work we've been doing around here made us decide we'd better fix it up...the hydraulics worked fine...we believe it had air in the lines and it fixed itself sitting for two years...lol! We are upgrading some of the parts on it though.

Sorry to hear about your tractor... I hope that you can get it going soon, they are certainly nice to have!

 

[drstratton]

We won't be accomplishing much for the next several days! I will be going to our youngest sons house to do some painting and whatever else he needs help with so they can put their place on the market! They live in a 100 year old barn with 6.2 acres. My son had cancer in 2014 and the radiation treatment they did caused damage to his heart, he is exhausted all of the time, so their place has become just to much for him to keep up with and with their new baby, they are even more tired!

My husband is looking forward to a break, his hands are numb & tingling from all of the use they have been getting! He is an electrician and his hands have seen a lot of hard use over the years! We will finish up the raised beds when I get back home and we also hope to have the garden completely planted in the next 2 weeks. We are waiting for the weed fabric we ordered to arrive!

 

[drstratton]

I'm still home, looks like I won't be heading to my son's until Wednesday morning!

My husband came home for lunch today and we always like to take a walk in the yard, check on the animals & garden plants and dream of the day we can look around and see that we have small projects to do and not the huge ones going on right now...lol! Anyway I digress! As we were heading toward the chicken pen we heard a horrible noise and all of the chickens were freaked out, they didn't even come when they heard me call to them like they normally would, they just headed into their coop! We took a quick look in the pen and didn't see anything untoward, so I headed to the coop door and opened it to see what was going on! My husband was still by the pen and walking around it. I did a head count like I always do and noticed that Penny, my redheaded EE was missing. I asked my husband if he saw her in the pen, he said no! So, I closed the coop door and went into the pen and called to the chicks, this time they came rushing down the ramp from the coop to me, but still no Penny! There are a couple of places along the outside of the covered inner shed that we have in the pen where she could have gone, but she wasn't there. Then I saw a bag of feed that I had discounted, I thought it was snugged up tight next to the wall, I gently pulled it forward and there she was cowering behind it! All I could figure is one or more of the other chicks had gone after her...I've actually seen her be kind of a bully a few times...I picked her up, petted & talked gently to her...she didn't even complain like she normally would! I looked her over and didn't see any damage, so I set her down to see if she would get around okay, she seemed fine and still does! It must have been a playground spat and some of the girls decided to take her down a notch, mean girls...that is just idle speculation...