Casa do Bruce

Last weekend was great. Josh and I got up and had a bit of coffee (not my usual practice, but we have a coffee I like at the moment), and ventured out into the yard. It was “Clean Up Your Backyard Full of Crap” day and I am feeling the pressure to have our house be somewhat respectable when family arrives on Oct 27th.

So out I went, clad in a thick sweatshirt, work shoes, a warm jacket and gloves. I realized that being prepared via clothes and warmth allows me to stay outside longer. We sorted the wood pile (burn or salvage) took apart wheelbarrows, and loaded all the appropriate crap into the Caddy to take off to the dump and recycling site. Man, did it feel good!

Then I had a hankering to rake up some cedar pine needles and make things look pretty outside. It felt so awesome to see a clean backyard! Now I know what Lauren and Stan are talking about, regarding being outside.

Our family used to spend a lot of time outside. Now that I am an adult (officially, now that I’m 30), I realize that I have been missing them, out there with me in the garden. I must be intentional in either inviting them to physically come over, or just bringing them with me in my heart while I pull weeds, rake, and harvest the bounty our land provides us.

I’m eager to have people over and despite our slow progress with our various remodels, it’s good to have occasions to get our shit together and have visitors.

Stay tuned for how we pulled off the pre-wedding event!

We’ve been working out in the yard quite a bit while the weather is still nice. We tamed back the wild grasses in the garden and cut back blackberry brambles, mow the yard regularly now and built a compost bin out of scrap wood we found in our wood shed/shop.

But today, on talk like a pirate day, Josh and I started to chip away at the what must be decades-old layer of chicken manure in the coop. At first it was easy going, but then we got to the gooey center which had an odorific smell of ammonia and shit. We pulled out the nest boxes and got all of it. We also tore down the sorry excuse for a broken down chicken run so we can put up a couple of new runs when we get chickens.

We plan on getting a bunch of chickens next spring so we can have fresh eggs, manure for compost and perhaps some meat. I also think it would be fun to have some chickens roaming around the garden eating snails and slugs and other insects that are damaging to the garden.

Future outdoor projects:

• get a pair of goats
• clean out the greenhouse to make it usable
• build a bat house this winter (help control the mosquito population)
• get a dog (because I’ve wanted a dog since I can remember)