Tuesday, August 09, 2011

Vineyard and lumberjack news

Since we've been busy hosting and touring around, I took fewer pictures on daily walks in the vineyard. Until Sunday. We had a mostly sunny morning and I grabbed the camera. We had had some rain overnight and everything out there was glistening with raindrops in the sun.

The grapes are starting to mature.

As I mentioned yesterday, it's time to turn my attention back to the yard and garden. I've got to get the firewood cut and stacked for winter and my goal is to have that done over the next two weeks. I began this past weekend by cleaning up under the woodshed where I do the cutting. During the spring and summer, I had been throwing stray branches and twigs in there to keep them for kindling. So my first task was to break/cut those down and stack them.

Next I needed to cut up some of the larger tree limbs that I took down in the spring. That required reassembling the chainsaw (I took it apart to have the chain sharpened). After cutting up the stuff that was already in the shed, I raked up the stray leaves and sawdust for the compost pile.

Then I pulled in about four wheelbarrow-loads of logs from out in the back yard. They are the remnants of the trunks and large limbs of the two plum trees we lost to the February 2010 wind storm. I cut and stacked those yesterday.

Now I have a decision to make: do I start on the oak right away continue cutting the oak (I cut twenty logs yesterday), or take a day off to cut the grass? The rains we've had are causing the grass to grow quickly, so one day this week I will have to cut it. And that means picking up all the apples that have fallen from the trees since the last time I cut the grass.

Don't even talk to me about trimming the hedge. That chore is coming up in September.

9 comments:

  1. I was hoping for a photo of a lumberjack. You always get me with those titles.
    m.

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  2. You're so right about the grass--ours has shot up almost over night! Thankfully we don't have to pick up the pine cones; they just get mulched.

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  3. Walt

    Was in Maine those past two weeks and when I saw stacks of logs along the country roads I thought of you.
    You are lucky - all that outdoor work keep you fit and healthy - no need to go to the gym :-)

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  4. Good luck with that warming up promise.

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  5. I love that phrase, "hot tamale, chilie tomorrow" because even though we are having cooler weather, vegetarian chilie is on the menu for tonight after tasting a fabulous spoonful at my daughter's home, yesterday. Her boyfriend, Doug, is a fantastic cook, and he just had to give me a taste!!!

    I, too, was looking forward to seeing some large, red, plaid shirt on a lumberjack!!!

    Great Enticing Headlines!

    Mary in Oregon

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  6. I got that backwards, it should have read, chili today, hot tomale.
    I also corrected the spelling of chili!

    Mary in Oregon

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  7. mark, well, I do have a red plaid shirt, but I have a feeling that's not what you had in mind...

    mitch, ha! I gave that up for these green acres. Excuse me, I have to change the channel for Arnold.

    n&a, I'd love to just mulch the apples, but they're kind of hard and the mower doesn't like them.

    beaver, that's a good thing. I have no idea where there's a gym around here!

    starman, we shall see. They're still calling for 23-24º for the next few days. Not bad!

    mary, chili does sound tasty, doesn't it! Like I told mark above, I have my red plaid shirt ready...

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  8. I can almost taste those grapes Walt. Yum!

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