April Showers…Bring Headaches

April 20, 2017

The blowing winds of March seem even stronger when you live in the mountains.  In the hollow where our farm lies, there seems to be a constant breeze blowing which is a good thing on most days.  However, during the winter months (and, in particular, the month of March) the wind can seem to whip right through you.  Wind can also wreak havoc with your otherwise well-laid-out renovation plans.  We had just started to work on the house renovation in late February, starting with the kitchen, when Charming noticed a few pieces of shingles had blown off the roof.  After closer inspection, he decided that the inside renovation should be put on hold so he could replace the shingles on the roof.  No problem, he switches gears fairly easily and I just go along (on renovations, at least).

So as soon as he had gathered all of the roofing materials and the weather started to warm a bit, he began tearing off the shingles…fighting those stiff March winds all the way.  He has had to do this in sections, a quarter of the roof at a time.  He tears the shingles off and tosses them to the ground into a big pile where…you guessed it…wifey/construction grunt worker picks them up and loads them onto the trailer to be taken to the local landfill.  (It’s not loading the shingles that is so bad, it’s the nasty construction paper, intended as a moisture barrier, that the house manufacturer put on under the shingles that makes me cuss…really long sheets of crinkly, stiff, oily paper with nylon strings running through it that I fight to stuff into big trash bags…all the while fighting the March winds…rackemsmackemfrackem!)  After tearing off the shingles, Charming found several places where the roof needed to be replaced.  Although this has slowed down the renovation progress, we figure it was a blessing that the March winds blew off those first few shingles.  Otherwise, the roof might have ended up leaking, which would not have been good for our in-progress renovations. 

I do have to tell you the story about our trip to the landfill to dispose of the first load of shingles.  I went with Charming, thinking that he might have to unload the shingles and possibly want my help.  However, there were two strapping young men and another older supervisor working there who helped to unload, so I took advantage of the time to just sit in the truck and knit while the men did the heavy lifting.  Always curious about other peoples’ lives, Charming asked the young men if they had been working hard.  One of them answered jokingly, “Not until you showed up.”  So my Charming responds (with a big smile on his face), “Well, you know who loaded this trailer?  My wife.  She’s sitting there in the truck.”  I’m sure they took note of me…a middle-aged woman sitting patiently and daintily knitting in the cab of the truck.  Strangely, they were quiet as they unloaded the remaining shingles.  I just love being a “Mountain Gal”.

So now we're into April and we've had very few nice days in a row, so progress on the roof has been slow.  I keep telling Charming that "April showers bring May flowers," but he doesn't seem to be as excited by the possibility of flowers as I am.  While he has been spending his time on the roof, which is not nearly as tall or as dangerously sloped as the shed roof, I’ve been puttering around and planting things.  So far, as shown in my last post, I have partially pruned some unsightly bushes/shrubs that grow wild around the Frog Pond.  I have plans to plant some kind of ground cover around the edges of the pond along with another shrub or two that has either pink or purple flowers.  Haven’t fully decided what I want there…maybe lilac or butterfly bushes, but something that will attract more pollinating insects.  In addition, later on I want to add some kind of seating area there as well.  I’m also in the process of moving the raspberry bushes away from the side of the house and re-planting them in a long row about ten feet away from the garden.  So far, I’ve moved forty-five of the plants with plans to add another twenty-two.  This will make picking the raspberries much easier as I’ll be able to get to them from all sides.  I missed out on being able to pick about half of the crop last year because they were planted in a large round group beside the house and they were so thick and tall that I couldn’t reach the berries that were up against the house.  I probably won’t have a crop this year, as I also pruned them heavily, but production should improve dramatically in the coming years. 

Charming and I planted six rows of potatoes and one row of white onions at the farm.  Since we’re not living there full-time, we decided to only plant things that grow underground (like potatoes, sweet potatoes, and onions) or things that the wildlife might not be interested in (like pumpkins).  I’ve brought out my handy-dandy $12 Tractor Supply boots so I can roll out of bed in the mornings, grab my garden hoe, stroll the short distance to the garden and attack the weeds before Charming gets up in the morning and before the sun gets too high in the sky.  (Being a fair-skinned morning person, I positively wilt when the sun gets hot and I love, love, love to hear the birds singing in the early morning hours.

Last fall, I planted daylilies on our bank next to the road and little tiny pieces of creeping phlox under the pine trees that line our driveway.  I didn’t have much confidence that the phlox would actually live under the pines because, well, most things won’t live under pines, but happily they are just starting to bloom and appear to be thriving.  Although the patches are really small, phlox will spread about two feet, so I’ll simply transplant more patches over the next couple of years until I can get the ground covered.  More phlox under the pine trees means less mowing for me…YAY!  The daylilies are up about eight inches and I planted more a couple of weeks ago, so YAY!, less weed-eating on the bank!  Also, I planted some “hens & chicks” at one corner of the house.  They are succulent-type, low-growing plants that grow in a thick carpet as each “mother hen” produces about five or six “chicks” via its root system.  Since I don’t like bushes growing next to the house (because they harbor those icky spiders that make my skin crawl and my mouth scream), these will be perfect to add to other low-growing ground cover plants that I’ll add around the periphery of the house which will make for…you guessed it…less mowing for me.  YAY!

Re-roofing in progress with synthetic underlayment in place (left side).

Daylilies are above-ground and will hopefully bloom sometime in June.

Last week I test-planted a few Hens & Chicks (circled) on one side of the house.

I also planted small patches of creeping phlox under these pines last fall.

And they're actually blooming...note my cheap Tractor Supply boots.  I love 'em!

A close-up of the creeping phlox...though not yet fully in bloom.

Charming plowing separate areas for raspberries and blackberries.

My raspberry patch beside the house, before pruning.

And after pruning.

Got about half of them moved to their new home & will plant ground cover here later.

Raspberries are planted on the left & blackberries will be planted later on the right.

The Frog Pond...circles show groups of frog eggs...plenty of future bug-eating do-gooders!

This is Misfit, one of our two new barn cats.  So cute, but untouchable...at least for now.

Jax continues to help on the farm by keeping varmints away & by helping in the garden.