Finally, at long last the painting is done!! We still have to get the mason guy to come and fix the chimney which needs to be regrouted, and flashing installed around the bottom to protect the new roofing from water, and also to regrout the original rock foundation in places where it is rock, and not masonry blocks.
We removed the lilac bush that was 30 feet tall, making it more like a tree instead of a bush. We’ll work on eradicating the roots and next year we’ll plant something a little more manageable, like a couple of rhododendron, and some more bulbs for spring color.
Dan piled the lilac tree/bush branches in a pile next to the driveway, and the deer said, “For me?!?!” I took this picture out of the front door window, so it looks a little strange. I didn’t want to interrupt her snack. Her fawn was snacking on the branches a bit earlier, and the little tail was whipping around, the snacking was so good!!
The grass on the hillside in front of the sunroom is all golden and mature, with nice seed heads that the birds who like that sort of thing will appreciate, soon.
The view of the back of the house, heading down to the garden. The grass is really tall back here, too. We need some sheep, or maybe some cashmere goats (my preference). I’m sure the mountain lions and coyotes and bears and wolves would like if it we did that for them. But the grass would get shorter… for a while.
We’ve pick most of the cherries on the tree, but there are still at least several gallons left to pick. I guess we’ll pick those tomorrow. Not sure where I’m going to put them.
The black raspberries are almost all picked, just a few left after today.
We are just now starting to pick josta berries. After today, I have a gallon of these frozen and that’s basically off of one bush, which is still heavily loaded with fruit. And we have three other bushes we haven’t really touched yet. Next week we’re getting a new range for the kitchen, as our current range appears to be dying, and I no longer have enough burners to make jam. So all I’m doing is freezing fruit.
The tiger lilies are just starting to bloom. A bright splash of color!
These low bush blueberry plants have quite a bit of fruit this year, but they don’t have as much flavor as we thought they would. It could be the ground isn’t as acid as they would like. So we’ll have to see if we can’t improve things for them next year. I’m not even going to bother picking these, this year. I have several gallon freezer bags of wild blueberries I got at our favorite fruit stand, and we’ll just make pancakes with those all winter.
Our apple trees are both pretty well loaded with fruit this year, and this poor tree has so many it’s falling over. We tied it off to the fence and need to put in a crutch for the branches to keep the weight from breaking them.
The harvest today was red raspberries, which are finally starting to slow down a bit, black raspberries, enough strawberries for a lunch, and josta berries.
Tomorrow we’ll pick more josta berries, and cherries, and should pick gooseberries. Kind of hard keeping up, but it doesn’t feel quite as frantic as it did in early July when everything got ripe at once.
The greenhouse is doing really well. We are getting lots of tomatoes and peppers setting, and the Veronica is getting big, and the corn plants are taller than me! Of course, the fact they in raised beds might have something to do with that. And I seriously need to start freezing swiss chard as those plants are getting carried away with themselves.