Forestry Projects

 Retired Mountain Man is on it!  He has been out in his woods spraying pathfinder plants.  He's trying to eliminate as many as possible since they're nothing but a serious nuisance in July and August, especially with the dog.  It's impossible to keep the pathfinder seeds off of the dog during those months, but he's determined to at least get rid of a few of the plants. When you lived on a place for 40 some years and have dogs, the seeds get spread everywhere.  The seeds easily cling to the dogs and then dry up and fall off - everywhere. 

He hasn't finished that project as he stopped to begin another one.  

We have a bark beetle infestation in our Douglas Fir trees so yesterday he spent the afternoon stapling packages of MCH to the trees.  The MCH is a combination of chemicals that release pheromones.  The pheromones release a "no vacancy" signal to the beetles which causes them to avoid the tree or log.  The packages are stapled to the trees about six feet high and are placed around the perimeter of our property, spaced about 15 feet apart.  He finished to job yesterday and we're hoping that it works.  We hate watching our trees die. Jon stapled 140 bubble caps to our trees.  Good work!

We bought the bubble packets from a company, Synergy Semiochemicals in B.C. Canada.  The bubbles will continue working until August or September as sometimes there's a second infestation during those months. 

The photo below is one of Jon working on cleaning up one of the places where we had to cut down trees.

We had a nice rain last night and it looks like it's going to continue this week.  Rainy days ae a good time to head to the Flower Farm to buy some plants for my raised beds and me deck planter.  My tomato and pepper plants are looking good with some of them large enough to transplant into larger pots this week.  

I found a few photos from last year's plantings.   This planter was new last year.  To store it for the winter we removed the soil and kept it in 5-gallon buckets.   Then we covered the planter with a piece of plywood and a tarp.  It survived the snow and rain well and is ready to plant with the addition of some new fertilizer.   

The turtle is still hanging on. 

My plan for the raised beds this year will be lettuce, carrots, kale and a few beets.  The cucumbers did not do well in the raised bed so I will plant them somewhere else.  

Some flowers in pots will brighten up the place.

P.S.  Almost forgot to mention that the hummingbirds have returned.  We have at least four at our feeder.  A rufus, of course, a calliope and a black chin have all been sighted. Our quince bush is not blooming yet (one of their favorites) so I definitely need to plant some blooming flowers in a pot on the deck.  The hummingbirds love fuchsias.  

This photo of a calliope is from the National Audubon Society.  Beautiful little birds. 

The Grape Arbor Project

 The spring yard work has begun.

Jon and I had a big project in front of us.  It's been at least 5 years since we pruned our grape arbor.  We're not sure how that happened but we think the neglect began in 2019 after I had my last hip replacement.  That was followed by the Covid pandemic and all of Jon's surgeries.  Somehow in the midst of all that the grapevines did not get pruned.  I know it doesn't look overgrown in this photo, but trust me, it was.

They were so overgrown that for the most part, there was no way to tell exactly where to begin pruning so we just started cutting out vines.  It took us three days to finish with a couple of days off in-between to rest. 

We filled the back of the pickup with the vines and debris. 

As I was pruning and raking I was thinking about where the grapes came from.  We rented the Loman place, now Loman's on the Hill, for six years, from 1974-1980.  When we moved in there was a big garden plot in the back yard which also had an orchard, raspberries, currants, rhubarb and grapes growing on a fence.  

Our goal at the time was to build a house on the property Jon had purchased from his Uncle, Pete Kiebert.  In 1980 it actually happened, and we built our house.  After learning something about gardening during those six years, I knew that I wanted to have a garden on our place so I took grape cuttings and "heeled in" about a dozen of them in the ground on the east side of where the house would be.  

The spot where I had planted them was in the shade and I also transplanted rhubarb, peonies, iris, day lilies, currants, Montana Blue Bachelor Buttons, lilacs and Forget-me-nots.  The following summer I moved the transplants to where I wanted them in my garden. 

This is a photo of the first transplant location in 1980.  The low spot just on the other side of the two boulders.  There are still Mountain Bachelor Buttons that sprout there every year.  They don't bloom because it's too shady now, but it just goes to show you the resilience of plants.

Montana Bachelor Buttons

Three of the twelve grape cuttings survived being transplanted twice and now are the major vines in our grape arbor.  

Amazingly, all of the "starts" I mentioned above survived the transplant process.  There are four lilac bushes, more than four currant bushes, two very large rhubarb plants, at least six peonies, and day lilies everywhere.  I still have some iris, but not many since over the years the iris collection grew so large that I had to scale it back.  

The dark lilac is my favorite.

I did buy a couple of grape vines and they have also grown, but they are not as hardy as the original vines.  The grapes grew on a fence for many years and then in about 1999, we decided to have a metal arbor built by Tony the Torch.  Somewhere in my collection of thousands of photos, I have a picture of the six-eight men who carried it from the driveway to its permanent location in the garden.  

I found it!

The people in the photo are Joe Heisel, David, Tony the Torch, Tyler Long and Eric Perryman.  I think there are a couple others carrying it, but not in the photo. 

As the grape arbor grew it became quite impressive and was the backdrop for wedding photos and other family events.

Jon drove the pickup loaded with the vines over to one of his burn piles.   We unloaded the vines there and he will burn the pile this fall. 

It's amazing to see how large the vines are now after forty-four years.  In 1980 they were just single cuttings with a couple of leaves.  

There have been many years of winemaking and dozens of batches of grape jelly and grape juice from the vines.  A worthwhile endeavor to transplant them in 1980.  

Bananas - Fifty of them

 

We have a family joke - which began many years ago with David's Aunt Linda and let's just say it involves ba - nan - as. So, it seemed appropriate to have fifty bananas delivered to David for his 50th birthday.  

How to have 50 bananas delivered on Friday, April 19th?

It turns out that it wasn't very complicated since we now have grocery delivery from almost every grocery store.  The price for 50 bananas was around $12.00 which meant my total spent wasn't quite enough for delivery so Jon and I decided that we would add to the 50 bananas and send everything needed for banana splits.

50 Bananas

Vanilla Ice Cream

Chocolate Ice Cream

Chocolate syrup

Caramel syrup

Whipped Cream Topping

Maraschino Cherries with stems

50 paper bowls

50 plastic spoons

We also added an angel food cake.  

The Yokes store on Reserve Street in Missoula delivered my order on Friday.

There were indeed, fifty bananas.  Great-Grandson Jason counted them for verification. 

Why did we send an angel food cake when Julie was already baking a cake?

Since his birthday was always near Easter, I always baked and decorated an angel food cake, never thinking that he might not like angel food cake.  He finally had the courage to tell me (after about 20 years) that he really didn't care for angel food cake and would I please bake him a chocolate cake for his birthday. 

This year Julie planned a nautical theme since David has always been interested in ships.  She baked and decorated a German Chocolate Cake.   The krakens are awesome!  The cake looks delicious! 

Julie also frosted and decorated the angel food cake.

It turns out that Jason likes the angel food cake.  

The banana splits were assembled and eaten.  Later on, there will be banana muffins, banana bread, Bananas Foster, banana cream pie...

The Battle of the Krakens!

Happy Birthday David!

Everything - including the kitchen sink.

 My friend Marianne Love reminded me in her last few blog posts that I also have a story and photos to share from a project that was completed several weeks ago.  Jon and I had discussed replacing our bathroom sink sometime this spring and then we discovered a leak underneath the kitchen sink.  I contacted Marianne because I remembered a blog post she had written about her favorite plumber, Joe Zavala.  

The leak had to be fixed. 

Our house was built in 1980 and we haven't replaced any of the sinks since then.  We were on a very tight budget back then so that meant our sinks were not exactly on the high end as far as price and quality goes, but they served their purpose for 44 years, so there's that.

It seemed logical to replace both the bathroom and kitchen sinks.  Joe Zavala was available that week so off I went to Home Depot to find two sinks along with two new faucets.  It wasn't easy.

Even though it seems that there are endless options for both the sinks and the faucets these days, my choices were narrowed down to only a couple for each situation.  The new sinks had to fit the cutout in the countertops without too much adjustment and I was looking for good basic faucets and middle of the road quality.  I don't mind paying a bit for quality but let's just say that I won't pay an exorbitant price for a kitchen sink. 

Joe and his assistant, Jada, were very professional and efficient.   The installation took about three hours, so we had a great chance to learn a little about each other and our mutual acquaintances in Sandpoint and Hope.  

 

Lady felt like she had to be involved with the installation and monitor the two new humans who had shown up in their big truck.  Joe and Jada were "fair game" to her, especially since they spent a lot of time on the floor working underneath the sinks.   They were very patient.  

The end result was fantastic.  Replacing the kitchen sink has been wonderful.  I bought one that was a few inches deeper and now I can fit my large pots that I use for canning underneath the faucet.  So much easier to wash.  Who knew that one could get so excited about a sink??

I can highly recommend Joe and Jada for any plumbing repairs or installations.  

For those of you waiting to hear about what we sent to David for his 50th birthday, I will soon have another post.  

50 pairs of socks?

50 pairs of underwear?

50 hedgehogs?

50 cups of coffee? 

How about 50 Big Hunk candy bars?

None of the above.  

Fifty Years!

 Happy Birthday to son #2.  Today is a special day!  There are a lot of milestones and memories in fifty years.  Jon and I are hoping he's having a great day.  I'm posting some photos of a few of the memories in no particular order.  

Honduras

A pot-of-gold graduation gift from his grandparents.

Day 3 in 1974.

Fossil hunting near Drumheller.

The Loman Place - 1975 The chicken house in the background.

Wading in a mud puddle in the driveway - 1975

Jamie and David in front of the Loman cabin.  

Mischief with his Aunt Linda.

Belize 

Mushroom hunting

Acting, singing and tap dancing...

Fishing trip to Lake Mary Ronan

Happy Birthday to the kid that never turned down a chance of an adventure.  

We are sending him 50 of one of his favorite things.  It's a surprise.