When we get an alert on a Ring doorbell cam, more often than not, we get a message that says there is something there that is not (it's always the cat that is identified incorrectly).
Still, we always look just to make sure.
Recently, we got an already that said "a skunk is walking on the porch". Sure it is, let's take a look:
OK...this whole bucket gardening thing is pretty cool. With Fall coming sooner rather than later, we wanted to figure out a way to make this all a bit easier, instead of just random buckets sitting around.
Enter this:
...they look like this! Pretty cool, huh?
Could I build our own from scratch? Probably.
Can I get to my tools yet? No.
Do I know if I even have the right tools? Not really.
So, in the end, we figured it was easier and of course much quicker to get this and just make it happen now, so we had it before the Fall season arrived.
It was a lot of pieces that's for sure. Plus, I had to put it together outside, so I didn't have to try to fit it through the door. There were no screws, it was all dovetail type connectors so no tools required.
It took about 45 minutes or so but after I was done, we ended up with this:
As they say in real estate, "location, location, location" and rather than just put it out in the middle of the yard somewhere, we have found the right spot for it. It needed to be close to water and close to us for just stepping outside and taking care of things, so we put it alongside the well shed wall.
This keeps the garden plants free of weeds, safe from rabbits, and it makes everything at a nice height.
We're thinking there might just be a second one coming soon and we might move them to the garage wall, but we need to see how much sunlight that area gets during the day.
That would mean twelve buckets...
My mind races at the possibilities for Fall gardening adventures!
So we were sitting down, eating dinner and I saw this out the window.
Wow. It was a hot day. "Feels like" of a 103.
It's rained so regularly over the last few weeks that the yard has been too wet to mow. Thankfully, we went a whole week with hot and sunny weather, no rain at all. So this weekend was mowing time.
This is what it looked like. Sure it's green and looks good but you can't see how tall it really is. Wow what a mess it was to mow.
This was about a 1/3 of the way through. I cut it short because there's a chance of rain again next weekend.
Looked outside one day and saw these.
Honestly, at first we thought they were bats, ha!
They are "Barn Swallows". They are actually a protected species. You can't remove active nests or harm them but it IS ok to prevent their nests and encourage them to go elsewhere.
They use mud and regular nesting material to make a hanging nest of sorts. "J" said they have had them before and they are very messy. We had some years back at the old house.
This was as far as they got, definitely starting to be a mess. I stood on a chair and cleaned it up and then had to come up with a way to discourage them.
The ledge is not very big so we had to get creative and so I came up with this idea:
Recently, 2nd Man and I were talking about how we didn't get our garden up and running for this year. So many other expenses we've had along the way, that was one we just couldn't justify this season (building raised beds, clearing land, putting a fence, the soil, etc is expensive). Plus we aren't exactly sure of the spot.
Still, I've had the itch to grow some veggies. Then I remembered a growing method I've seen online and after some research, off to the store I went one day on my lunch break.
An hour later, I had two 5 gallon buckets (food safe), a large bag of potting soil and a couple of plants!
Now this time of year, garden vegetable plants are few and far between. Mostly tomatoes and peppers but hey, we're OK with that.
