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Home and garden projects

Home and garden projects

Old Apr 18th 2015, 9:33 pm
  #76  
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Default Re: Home and garden projects

We had some nice weather and the grass started to green but no moisture. I have burn permit, free from the local fire station, and had been collecting for sometime, old fence posts for example that are too dry to cut and have nails etc in them.

Started snowing Friday so no red flag and I made the notification call, burned most of the day and melted an area 20ft out. I prefer to burn when there is snow on the ground and we had another 6 inches last night which killed any embers.

I do keep the grass strimmed anywhere near the buildings, just in case.

Where I cut wood the sawdust rots out quickly and any bark etc I rake up and fill paper bags with, makes good fire starters.

Some people I know rent a chipper every year, but they have woodland, I do not so not worth it.
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Old Apr 19th 2015, 5:56 pm
  #77  
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Hey Boiler

Was the burn permit easy to obtain?
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Old Apr 19th 2015, 8:29 pm
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Yep

I called the Station and he said that was coming my way and would drop it in and he did.
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Old Apr 20th 2015, 3:45 am
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Default Re: Home and garden projects

We finished our new decking 3 weeks ago. On Friday M spent a lot of time with the power washer cleaning up the old deck and the gazebo, garden furniture and brick on the house.
It looked great, the old decking now didn't look so old and worn up against the new part.

Friday night we were hit by a tornado, a hail storm and 4 inch of rain.

We lost trees but the tornado also took the bark off my fruit trees, crepe myrtle and the oak trees are almost leafless. The hail has put dents in the deck and the fencing, also my large cacti plants all have large round dents in them. The paint on the eaves of the house is stripped off , but just one side. It was a weird storm, it hit suddenly and lasted about 3 hours.

So back to cleaning up the deck again.
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Old Apr 23rd 2015, 12:11 pm
  #80  
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Today is planting day! The soil has finally, finally warmed up enough to put in my summer/fall-blooming bulbs, and to plant the rest of my herbs that patiently waited on the kitchen windowsill, then last week moved outside to the sunny front step to harden off. Unfortunately there's a frost warning for tomorrow night, so I may have to pop covers over some of the new herbs then....

I wish a gentle rain was predicted--always good for new plantings-- but it's clear for the next 10 days, so I'd better get the hose out.
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Old Apr 23rd 2015, 1:40 pm
  #81  
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Default Re: Home and garden projects

Originally Posted by Yorkieabroad
Have finished all the weeding/trimming/cleaning up from winter, so want to get some mulch down in the next week or so, before the weeds come back!

Am planning to get a raised bed or 2 built for veggies, but that has been on the drawing board since 2011 (I have the email flagged)

Want to install a flower bed to the left of the house, but that will have to wait till the ducks that are currently nesting there have moved on..

Want to install a firepit behind the garage, but that's on a back-burner as not convinced we'll actually use it much..

Inside, I need to get some decorating sorted out. We have color patches all over the walls, and think we hae decided what we want, but not 100%. I want to get someone in to do the high ceiling stuff, but will probably do the lower level stuff myself. Unless anyone in this area has a good (and cheap) contractor they can recommend?

At some point I want to get a sink installed in the laundry room, and convert the dogs area to a more efficient "mud room" - not that we have a lot of mud, but just need somewhere for the kids to dump all their gear as the current system has, err, drawbacks!
Your list sounds a lot like mine!

We do actually use the fire pit a decent amount, even into summer.

Laundry room sink and worktop is on the drawing board as is outdoor kitchen. I haven't decided if I'm going to try and take the kitchen on myself or not. There's a high premium on outdoor kitchens here but I think I may struggle to find the time myself...
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Old Apr 30th 2015, 7:10 pm
  #82  
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So I eventually got all ten logs out of the woods, with my truck serving a log skidder (tractor). I am hoping the sawyer will be able to come and collect them next week, and if everything goes to plan I will be able to collect the sawn timber from the sawyer on the Saturday.
Attached Thumbnails Home and garden projects-20150428_111708.jpg   Home and garden projects-20150428_113708.jpg  

Last edited by Pulaski; Apr 30th 2015 at 7:41 pm.
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Old Apr 30th 2015, 7:34 pm
  #83  
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Default Re: Home and garden projects

I like to see wood.....

Mine sees the chainsaw first and the splitter second. Splitter undergoing it annual overhaul.

65f at the moment!
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Old Jun 24th 2015, 2:12 am
  #84  
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So it's June 23rd, the third day of summer, ...... and I went out into my front yard this evening to rake fallen leaves. Welcome to leaf season!

Last edited by Pulaski; Jun 24th 2015 at 2:43 am.
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Old Jun 24th 2015, 2:28 am
  #85  
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Default Re: Home and garden projects

Walked the dog yesterday a long hike, 80F and we came across a snow bank, weird.
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Old Jul 4th 2015, 2:02 am
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So last weekend I installed a fancy Whirlpool front-loader washer and dryer at Pulaski Manor, replacing the old Maytag appliances that we bought 13 years ago, which are showing their age. Now Mrs P is annoyed with me.

The new appliances do such a good job. The washer gets clothes cleaner (definitely whiter whites, though perhaps the almost simultaneous switch we have made to Persil helps ), it is larger capacity, and it is much more effective at spinning the clothes to get the water out of them. And the dryer also does a great job too, drying clothes with a lot fewer wrinkles than the Maytag did, so things that don't get ironed are less wrinkly, and some things that were ironed can now do without.

So why is Mrs P annoyed with me? ..... She's annoyed that we didn't get them two years earlier! Mrs P has been jealously eyeing them since our neighbours got the same Whirlpool laundry appliances two years ago.

Last edited by Pulaski; Jul 4th 2015 at 2:57 am.
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Old Jul 4th 2015, 8:40 am
  #87  
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Default Re: Home and garden projects

Originally Posted by Pulaski
So last weekend I installed a fancy Whirlpool front-loader washer and dryer at Pulaski Manor, replacing the old Maytag appliances that we bought 13 years ago, which are showing their age. Now Mrs P is annoyed with me.

The new appliances do such a good job. The washer gets clothes cleaner (definitely whiter whites, though perhaps the almost simultaneous switch we have made to Persil helps ), it is larger capacity, and it is much more effective at spinning the clothes to get the water out of them. And the dryer also does a great job too, drying clothes with a lot fewer wrinkles than the Maytag did, so things that don't get ironed are less wrinkly, and some things that were ironed can now do without.

So why is Mrs P annoyed with me? ..... She's annoyed that we didn't get them two years earlier! Mrs P has been jealously eyeing them since our neighbours got the same Whirlpool laundry appliances two years ago.
So please tell us what model did you get?
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Old Jul 4th 2015, 1:00 pm
  #88  
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Someone tell me please how I can make my husband understand that most garden "projects" are incremental works in progress and NOT something one does all in one go. He's been trying to "help" me in the garden and it's driving me round the bend. He wants to get everything "done" ASAP.

For me, weeding happens bit by bit every single day, not in one huge hours-long ordeal once a week--that's a great path to backache. Similarly, establishing anything in the garden, from shrubs to seed perennials to vegetables, happens in careful steps over time. I don't want to buy/plant everything at once, I want to gradually design and build a decent series of gardens that work well, each one to its own purpose, whether that's veg for the table, bird & pollinator attraction/feeding, fixing or hiding faults/defects in the property, or nice colour combinations that please the eye.

Until he begins to understand that the best things in life take time, I need him to limit himself to the one job that can be done all in one grand, sweat-drenched afternoon--mowing the lawn.
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Old Jul 4th 2015, 1:44 pm
  #89  
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Default Re: Home and garden projects

Originally Posted by WJS
So please tell us what model did you get?
They're a pair of Duet Steam models, so there a branch in the washer's cold water supply hose that connects to the dryer.
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Last edited by Pulaski; Jul 4th 2015 at 1:59 pm.
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Old Jul 4th 2015, 2:15 pm
  #90  
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Default Re: Home and garden projects

Originally Posted by WEBlue
Someone tell me please how I can make my husband understand that most garden "projects" are incremental works in progress and NOT something one does all in one go. He's been trying to "help" me in the garden and it's driving me round the bend. He wants to get everything "done" ASAP.

For me, weeding happens bit by bit every single day, not in one huge hours-long ordeal once a week--that's a great path to backache. Similarly, establishing anything in the garden, from shrubs to seed perennials to vegetables, happens in careful steps over time. I don't want to buy/plant everything at once, I want to gradually design and build a decent series of gardens that work well, each one to its own purpose, whether that's veg for the table, bird & pollinator attraction/feeding, fixing or hiding faults/defects in the property, or nice colour combinations that please the eye.

Until he begins to understand that the best things in life take time, I need him to limit himself to the one job that can be done all in one grand, sweat-drenched afternoon--mowing the lawn.
My answer to that problem is find him a hobby that he becomes obsessed with and the only gardening chore he then has time for is mowing. Worked for me
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