Better Home and Garden

Happy Easter!

Yesterday morning, after breakfast, the husband and I went over to the rental house property. Painting the ceiling in the spare bedroom of the house was at the top of my to-do list. (Deana, your sewing room is getting a facelift!) The rental property is where the greenhouse and garden are located. While I painted, the husband went out to the garden to prep it for grading with the track loader. The western half of the garden had rotted stumps along the side and a couple of big herb plants I had put in some years ago. All of that was in the way of me getting in and out of there easily with the tractor and wagon.

The prep work took a few hours because he had to fold and stack plastic and move other items. We took a break for lunch. After lunch, I planted a half dozen trays of seeds in the greenhouse and he began moving dirt around. The end result is a huge improvement:

The stumps and herbs had been on that right side. Now it’s clear and smooth and I can get the tractor in and out if I need to. There used to be a bit of a swale in the middle and he filled that in. When he finished the grading, he moved a huge round bale of rotted hemp tow to the area and we spread that out. The black plastic will be put down on top of it.

He also planted my four new apple trees near the fence on the left side. I already have two back there, where the pink flagging tape is in the picture.

I will be all ready to plant next month.

Do we need a garden this big? (This is actually only half of it.) Probably not, but having the luxury of space means I can grow things like Georgia Roaster and butternut squash that need room to sprawl. I usually grow those on the far end of this half of the garden and they do well there.

I painted the second coat on the ceiling in the late afternoon and called it a day. I am planning to paint the first coat on the walls this afternoon.

It feels good to get out and move around and it was lovely to be out in the sunshine.

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Guess what finally arrived:

It’s the 2-1/2" Studio strip die that I ordered back in November. I am still waiting on the two dies I ordered in January but at least I have this one. All of the correspondence about this issue has come from some outfit named Qraftful. Apparently, Qraftful is a parent company set up to hold the various brands owned by the private equity firm that bought Accuquilt. Whatever group is in charge, they seem determined to drive Accuquilt into the ground.

I hope you all get out and get some vitamin D this week!