BACK TO WORK THIS SPRING:

WRAP IT UP!!!

Going back in time, here.

After a long, snowless winter (still rained forever), Violet Days began around mid-April. Laid off in February, I decided to take until late April to go back to work. I had a lot to do to update the property, as I had been driving two to three hours a day to work and the ceaseless rain kept me from doing much of anything. After the roof went on in November, I pretty much went to ground.

But the first Violet Days woke me right up. And so I worked between the raindrops as best I could. The yard needed attention, as did my outbuildings, all of which went on the back burner last year as I prepped the House for the refi.

Knowing summer would appear out of nowhere, with heat driving me inside, I prepped the area in front of the greenhouse for grass. It took a lot of weed and briar removal, much of which had been started last December.

Some wild field grass had already taken root the year before.

I did the same to the first part of the Animal Pens. Leaves and detritus went to another of many mulch piles. Nothing gets wasted a round here.

Before I knew it, the apple tree was loaded with blossoms. I wondered whether it would produce apples this year, since I had removed such a large section months before. I've had one harvest in six years. But I have also never sprayed, so there's that.

A consummate plant thief, I merely relocated this small tree from my grass areas. I think it's a hornbeam.

And this one, another like it, and a dogwood. I need some trees around the yard.

Speckle and Marley in their favorite places.

As soon as the grass dried a little, I was out with the mower, hitting the long grass I would have mowed last autumn if it had ever stopped raining.

Next on the wrapitup list was the barn roof.

I planted lettuce after the last freeze, but it stayed dark, rainy and cold, so it looked like this for over a month.

Speckie likes to sleep with her head up on something vertical. She's pretty much outgrown her deck.

Last fire of the season? Not hardly. It was so cool that this one was around Memorial Day, and several more followed.

My largest yew, not looking so good. Money's tight, but I have to find an arborist.

It's a very old tree; there are over fifty rings in a 2 1/2" branch. The others on either side aren't doing too well, either.

By mid-May things had greened up. The apple seemed much happier without its two twenty-foot appendages.

The undergrowth comes alive, hiding the eighty-year-old garbage pile.

The two biggest leftover projects; the barn roof and the last three sides of the shop.

Ferns begin to crowd the azaleas. The constant rain since August turned the Spring into a growthfest for everything with roots.

This dogwood, purchased at a tag sale four years ago, started at ten inches. It tops twelve feet now. It gave me three white star-shaped flowers this spring.

Cousin It, my climbing nightshade, should be in full expansion mode. But it has only a few live tendrils. Mought hafta cut it back this winter.

The big rhododendron as blooms form. It was almost two weeks behind everyone else's.

Peonies ready to pop.

Azaleas seem happy. They were nearly dead when I stole them three years ago.

Ground prepped for grass seed.

This took a lot of work.

 

Threw out my stolen geraniums last fall; they'd stopped flowering anyway. Put rocks on the boxwood shelves instead.

Roses coming in nicely.

Basil planted early, but it started flowering almost immediately. Other tag-sale dogwood, planted last year, is growing like a weed.

Transplanted runners of climbing nightshade trying to eat the front of the house. I like it.

So will the bungledy bees.

Rhododendron finally explodes three weeks late. It was worth the wait.

 

My few yellow and red iri are multiplying, though it's hard to see here.

 

Cleaned under the maple for additional grass seeding.

 

Began to do the masonry around the cellar window I built last fall.

Rhododendron finished, and the last of the peonies drooping under giant, fragrant flowers.

The dogwood flowers! Well, a little bit, anyway...

Stolen mulberry exploding skyward. It might give the shop some shade in few years. It sported a few mulberries for the first time, and despite being sprayed with dormant oil in early spring, the tentworms returned. I'm pulling off their little tents every other day.

Disassembling the last of the heart pine cutoffs for the shop sheathing. Should not have stored them in the woods; the tannic acid from the leaves stained them dark and rotted a few.

Pressure washer to the rescue.

The one on the top was the worst.

The only gypsy moth caterpillar so far. This one didn't live very long, poor thing.

 

Despite the tannic acid, the pine cleaned up pretty well.

 

Not quite enough to finish the entire shop, I'm afraid.

Starting to get hot, but the barn roof awaits a pile of 5-V metal roofing and has done so for months. I needed two consecutive days without rain on a weekend, a rare thing. First order of business was to add horizontal supports for the ladder so I could install the rough antique pine fascia board on the roof eave. I had to block it out far enough to slip vertical siding underneath later, and all this had to be done before putting on the purlins and drip edge.

Installing 1x4 purlins. Some might question why I'd do this rather than screw the metal directly to the Zip decking. I researched a lot of roofers' chatrooms and decided that flat metal on flat decking can get condensation that would affect the decking. An air space would hopefully alleviate that. Not wanting stinging nasties in the space, I installed the purlins on the eave ends as well. I needed something onto which to attach my drip edge.

It took a day to do all the purlins, drip edge, and trim wood, and I needed a few 2x kickboards for safety. My legs were sore! And it did rain in the afternoon. I was grateful for the shade, though. Big old maple tree will keep this building cool for many summers.

Across the driveway, the shop beckons.

"Where's my sheathing???"

A one-man operation calls for careful setup work. Here drip edge is ready to be installed and the first sheet of metal awaits. Note the rough board screwed into the fascia; this would keep the metal in place as I set and screwed it in. 2x kickboards can be seen at the bottom of the roof and halfway up. They made me feel a lot more secure.

Roof all done except for the edge metal. I'd need to install more horizontal ladder boards on the left side to reach the top of the last metal piece. I was beat, so I left it for another weekend. My legs got a serious workout on that roof. I ain't as young as I used to be. Hell, I'm six years older than when I started this, and I feel it.

Woo-hoo! Grass a-sproutin!

Not so here. I used some seed left over from last year (the blues stuff). It turned out to be dormant because of age I guess. The bit at the bottom came from some newer seed left over from the greenhouse area.

The back of the barn roof just completed. I'll be removing the added shed and hope to strip and sheathe the rear roof this fall. It's not leaking, as it has ten roofs including the original cedar shakes. All must go. When it's cooler, as the temps are now in the eighties.

The last two sides of the shop that await felt and board-and batten siding.

Grass is thickening up.

Beginning the apple tree support structure. The concrete piers were built months ago, and the long lateral branch is heavy with foliage and many tiny apples. Don't get excited, they'll all fall off in the next month.

Note the jack and stiffleg on an angle. Jack a bit, slide the stiffleg in until it becomes vertical.

Grass was replanted back by the Animal Pens and sprouted a week later. Piles of farm and household trash have yet to be removed.

Roof finished for now. A layer of ice shield is the temporary ridge and the left side is merely taped with flashing tape. It will be removed when I install the adjoining roof next year.

Last piece on the end with an overhang above the drip edge.

Apple tree support as the braces go in. I hope the tree doesn't tear the support up, but we had some seriously windy storms and it seems to be holding.

Finished.

Time to get back to the shop siding. Then what?