Garden Re-Hab Phase Two, New Feathered Friends! Old Cedar Planter Rescue, Bye Bye Technology

 

Garden Re-Hab Phase Two-

Dave removed the old cold frame last week to prep our new garden area, inspiration below, modified to fit our space-

Old cold frame, top course already removed

I helped him come up with the perimeter marked with bricks, then he raked out the soil. He added a few wheel barrels full of soil from our veggie garden-

He put the plants from the cold frame in pots, will re-plant some and some going to his work for another project!

Rough draft of the garden border-

See the ducks?

Yesterday we bought a Japanese Maple and some shade loving perennials to plant in the area. We may add a really small pond to the area, not sure yet.

We hope to have it all planted and bark dusted in the next week or so. Looking better all ready with the green along the fence! Next he removed the big Bamboo and moved it to under the maple tree to fill in the space. Luckily it had a shallow root system! 

Bamboo gone, more sun to plant more veggies, just need to weed! 

New home!

New Feathered Friends!

Last week a pair of wild Mallard ducks showed up in our backyard. I put out some extra wild bird food for them and gave them their space. They've been in the backyard all day today, except for a short period of time. They forage, swim in the pond, drink and sleep. I'm wondering if they'll build a nest? I read if they hang around they may already have a nest. Time will tell. They're quiet and pretty tame. Dave mowed and he said they stayed within about 5 feet. Nice shots, makes me smile when I look out and see them. A good reminder why we have an organic backyard, no worries for them! 

Mr. Handsome! 

Dinner time

Heading to the pond

And the pond repair tape worked!!! 

Lots of info here on wild Mallard ducks Audubon.org

Old Cedar Planter Rescue-

Dave built me a nice cedar planter years ago. The wood was split and rotting, time for a re-do! We took out the plants that wintered over. Dave bought some new cedar and he re-used the galvanized metal-

Last he added the metal sheets and the old soil-

I re-planted the old herbs and added some new ones! We should be good for a few more years.

Bye-Bye Technology –

We bought a laptop last year since we were still working off of Windows 8 and it wasn't really being supported much anymore. We reached the point where we couldn't do TurboTax or banking securely.  The computers we had were also really, really sloooooooowwwww. So we decided to buy a laptop, with an adapter, so that we can also use a regular PC monitor with a wireless keyboard and mouse. I backed everything up to the nth degree and it works great! We decided to keep the two old hard drives just in case we forgot something. We decided we reach the point of being happy with where we are at. I pulled out the two hard drives and removed the memory chips from both of them. We retired them both to a local PC recycler, who work with lots of government agencies, schools, etc. I removed the chips since I knew how to. I had actually added some for additional memory. They did lots of good years of service but it was time for them to be retired, haha. Freed up some extra room in my craft closet and under my kitchen desk/counter. I was able to sweep and mop under it and looks nice and open! Bye bye!  

Before shots, black hard drive and printer gone