Troubleshooting, Maintenance and Improvements
springtime at the yardfarm
Most suburban American yards look something like this:
A “postage stamp” behind the house, patch of grass, bordered by trees, easy to maintain. That’s a listing photo of our current property before we got in there and started messing with things. Here is a photo taken today from the same vantage point:
and a few before and afters:
The “after” shots, although they all reflect work that we have done, aren’t exactly in a state of being “finished”.
In our defense, we are a family of four with two dogs, two cats and five - no, now eight - chickens. Plus the goldfish that are in the little pond that we dug in the far left corner. And the tadpoles I took out of the library park two nights ago. Add to that a number of garden beds, a wood stove (necessitating woodpiles) and various human and gas-powered vehicles, and you are bound to have some amount of chaos.
The previous owner was a single, elderly woman with no pets. I think our next-door neighbor misses her.
I embrace the Work-In-Progress as a state of being. I love to identify mistakes, make adjustments and discover better methods. But we have been here for less than two years, and it takes time to take down what isn’t working and get your basic systems up, running and optimized. And until that happens, things are bound to look a little squirrelly.
But I am hoping that this will be the summer for tightening up the ship. This will involve:
building a low, covered shelter for garbage cans and bikes (priority)
shifting some planting beds (priority)
planting and weeding
building a new gate in the dog fence to access garden
re-flooring the front porch (requires time and money)
new driveway (expensive, but has to be done soon)
dismantling greenhouse
maybe creating a cat yard (another story for another post)
In addition to those projects, here are a few that I am addressing this weekend:
This is what can happen when you go full buzzard (scavenger) on your carpentry projects. I found two of these painted cabinet doors in the basement, where they were put after the kitchen cabinets were dismantled to make room for a dining table. I should have considered that they would not be weather-hearty, but didn’t. A month ago I replaced the one at the rear of the coop (because I was afraid the chickens would start eating the chipped paint), and this weekend I will replace door number 2.
Next:
Although the dogs, who are the primary occupants of the back porch couch, agree that cushions are improved by dirt and odor, I recently ordered a new set that are currently undergoing a 48-hour process of “fluffing” after delivery.
And:
This has been the state of the backyard screen door for the past year. It keeps out roughly 34% of flies and mosquitoes, but the chickens are really the last straw. I ordered a new one along with the cushions.
Tune in tomorrow to see the results!