TIPTOEING THROUGH THE BACKYARD

Spring is here people…best one we’ve had for at least 3 years. This year there will be nuts galore on the oak, hickory, and beech trees! The pickings for the squirrels have been sparse the last 2 or 3 years, because heavy rains came every time just as the trees tried to release their prized pollen. No baby trees were made and the squirrels and chipmunks had to dip into their reserves or range further from home. Incidentally, there haven’t been too many new baby squirrels around either.

However, I suspect that this year the acorns, hickory, and beech nuts will be piling up in the driveway and bouncing off my metal roof! I suspect too that there will be many new baby squirrels and chipmunks chasing each other in the yard. Good thing Baylee is getting a little old to chase them far, or she would bring back their little pelts for me to pick up and toss in the garbage!

If you look closely to the left of the top merged photo, you can just make out Judy pulling weeds out of her yellow cannas bed, while I keep watch! Well, someone had to keep Baylee occupied, otherwise she would be lying right in front of Judy and mashing down all the young green shoots! You can see in her eyes that she could care less about flowers!

The azaleas, both in front and out back, have been there since the mid-seventies, pretty much as long as the old tire swing! Judy will not let me trim back the flower laden bushes and shape them up. So, they grow pretty much wild, as does the rest of the yard.

Jeff commented once that we must work our butts off in the yard, but the truth is, we do very little besides pick up dead limbs, cut up the trees that occasionally get blown down, and mow. We don’t really weed or mulch, we just mow very close and sit on the deck and admire God’s good works. After all, they were growing pretty well before man came along to corral and bunch them up into tight little color groups!

I don’t fertilize or aerate, like Corey, I just keep it mowed and mulch back in the fall leaves. I don’t know if it’s true or not, but I remember reading something about how trees use up the soil in a yard and actually lower its level over time if you didn’t add back in what was used up! Makes good sense, and I figure that’s all the fertilizing it needs. It also makes for less raking!

Oh, I do trim off low hanging limbs, especially the ones that slap my hat off, waking me up, from time to time, while I mow, or those that poke me in the chins or ribs! I hate it when that happens! I also keep my grape vine pruned back, but I have yet to have a crop survive the birds…and I don’t really care. It’s not like I’m going to make wine or anything! I get a couple off each year, as I make my mowing rounds, and that’s about it.

The other merged shots either look toward the back of the house, or toward the lake, which has not filled up yet, but we can see the water getting closer every day. Once a spring the water covers the backyard up to the azalea line, and the carp come in and roll in their love tumbles in the grass! Its TVA land up to that mark anyway, but I mow everything down to the shore anyway. I keep hoping someone will give me one of those Florida air-boats and I can come screaming in off the lake and up into the yard! What a hoot that would be!

Well, thanks for walking around with me and enjoying spring. I’d love to share it with you any time – free of charge…’course you could bring some beer!

ROANE COUNTY TENNESSEE SPRING WALKS

We are blessed in East Tennessee with many wonderful state and national parks, greenways, and pocket wildernesses to walk in and enjoy the spring wildflowers. Closer to home, in Roane County, we are again blessed with city parks, river walks, and a great little county park.

We often walk the .6 mile circuit of Riverfront Park within the city of Harriman. This week the garden clubs’ flowers are bursting out meeting the warm sun and blue skies. I captured the tulips this week, one beautiful Saucer Magnolia, sometimes called Japanese or Chinese Magnolia, and some bright green grass optimistically beginning life in a crack on the side of an old concrete storm drain!

Today and Sunday, Judy and walked Roane County Park enjoying the 1+ mile paved path through tall hardwoods, blooming wildflowers, like these May Apples and Trillium, looking at the Harrison Bay backwater from the Tennessee River, listening to the birds sing, and the ducks quack, and watching the turtles line up on a log for sunbath from the fishing pier!

We are truly blessed in this area with miles of quiet nature trails, some just 3 miles from home, unless of course you want to count a stroll in our own backyard. If we would just do it more often, we might not be look like we do!

Then of course, there was today’s walk around mom’s yard looking at her spring flowers and appreciating them…right down to the yellow dandelions, which have blown over from her neighbor’s yard!

CLICK ON PHOTOS TO ENLARGE!

SPRING WILDFLOWERS

Ron, Neena, Judy, and I went on a short 2 mile hike yesterday at Frozen Head, a Tennessee State Park only about 10 miles from where Judy and I live. It is up in “God’s Country”, otherwise known as Morgan County, near Wartburg, Tennessee (I know, everyone loves that name)!

Anyway, on the way you have to pass a lot of county buildings and the Morgan County Correctional Complex. We always wave at the prisoners sitting outside smoking, just in case one escapes. That way we at least appeared friendly!

One facility is the county road crew garage, and outside, just for Bruno, was this 1918 Caterpillar road grader. I thought he might like to see it, so we stopped and snapped off a few rounds.

On into the park, about a mile and half further on up the beautiful valley, we disembarked and started our search for wildflowers. We had gone only a hundred yards when a doe signaled us with her white flag and snorted her way off further ahead. Chandler, Ron and Neena’s grandson, ran down the path in hopes of getting a better look. We’ll have “the stealth talk” when he’s older!

We love this time of year when wildflowers begin poking their heads above the leaves. You never know what you will find and it’s like a big treasure hunt. Sometimes you are surprised at the rare ones you find (like the pink geranium [left] and blue violet [right] and the bloodroot [top]); other times you just enjoy the walk.

Yesterday we found lots of trillium; large-flowered, Purple Wakerobin, and the very common Sweet Betsy!

One my favorites, the Bloodroot, made the trip worthwhile! You can see more at FLICKR, where you can see them supersized!

It seems the little “fiddle head ferns” are the first things to greet spring, and these were lovely. Did you know you can fry them up and eat them!? Tasty too!

Hey Lin…notice that our rocks have moss on them!

Don't forget to click to enlarge!

SPRINGING BACK INTO SOME KIND OF SHAPE

It has now been over a year since my first shoulder operation, and nine months since my second one, and today, for the first time I worked like I used to in the yard. Now don’t get the impression that I’ve lost a bunch of weight, ‘cause I’ve not, but I do have some stamina again, at least for a couple of hours work.

First though, I had to change my bed, and make a couple of phone calls. Judy and I applied for early Social Security online this week, and mailed in the documents they required. I got a follow up email from the SS Admin office in Tampa, and they wanted me to call. So, while I was changing the bed, I kept hitting redial. Each time I heard them say “All agents are currently busy. Please call back later.”

Yes, they didn’t mess around with putting me on hold or asking me to leave a message, just “call back later!”

I finally got through and that’s when I found out I did not have to mail them my original documents or any documents at all. I’m not sure why the instructions tell you to, but they do, and I did! However, I was told they would mail them back to me.

Then Baylee (my dog) and I began work on the lawnmower trailer. The Knights have this old trailer frame that we share. Steve was the last to have it and the deck rotted away, so I picked it up and brought it home last summer. Ron and I planned to work on it together, but, as you know, he and I both had a little surgery this past year and we haven’t been able to get the job done.

So, today I did it by myself, with a little supervision from Baylee, and Judy who held two bolts that I could not reach until I tightened them. The trailer was stored sitting over on one side, so I just put the plywood up against the trailer frame. I held it in place while I drilled the holes with c-clamps, alternately shifting each end until I centered the 4X8 sheet of marine plywood on the trailer. The only bolts I could not tighten were those I could not reach over or under and hold with my other hand. That’s when I went and got Judy away from Dr. Phil!

Turns out I completed the little project in about an hour. I had thought it would take much longer, but it did not. I plan to use the eye-bolts (shown) as anchor points for my tie-downs, which should hold the mower firmly on the rig.

Then the real hard work started.

Two years ago I put in a rainwater drain at the top of my driveway. Then about a year ago they started a new house about a hundred yards from the cul-de-sac where the drain is. Oh, they put up the required plastic barrier and straw like they are supposed to, but it did not keep the mud from stopping up the county drain and threatening my supplemental drain. I should report them, but I don’t think the EPA is too concerned about local housing construction too much!

My drain was already cleaned and clear, but the county drain was completely stopped up. I dug through about 6 to 8 inches of dark topsoil, in about a 3-foot square area until I found the grate. Surprisingly, the drain box was clear of dirt and debris…just the grate had clogged and allowed several inches of soil to be deposited on it, rendering the drain useless, and forcing storm water further down the curb to my little drain, which constantly gets clogged with leaves and overflows down my driveway.

So, I finally got, after having to make Baylee move several times, she loved the dark damp earth and wanted to lay right where my shovel was supposed to go, the grates out. I bashed them against the pavement and cleared off the dirt and roots, and then put them back in place.

I have much more digging to do along the curb of the cul-de-sac, above and below this drain, but that hour was all my old body, especially my back, would stand for one day.

I got on the mower, which I used to carry my implements of destruction up the hill on, and took them back down to the basement door.

Before putting the mower up, I ran several rounds in the front yard, knocking down the wild onions, and mulching up the tiny limbs that had accumulated over the winter months.

It was a good day, even though I hobbled back upstairs from the basement in pain.

After a hot shower, I was pleasantly surprised by a wonderful meal Judy had waiting – ham, mashed potatoes, peas, and some fried onions and apples! Man that was delicious and hit the empty spot in my stomach, which by then had begun eating itself!

At least I know now that this year has the potential of being a much better year than last. Come on warm weather…I’m ready!

AH, SPRING IS IN THE AIR

I have been trying to get back in hiking shape again and walked the 6/10 of a mile around Riverfront Park three times the day before yesterday. However, yesterday I could not make it once! I cannot seem to get air down deeply into my lungs. I am going to the doctor today to get some answers. I cannot let this get me down.

Anyway, the flowers were beginning to bloom, bringing color back to the world.

There was also one bride out having her picture made. There was no groom around so I do not know if this was post or pre-wedding shooting!