Reports from the Department of the Exterior; anything and everything we post about work projects, horticulture, agriculture, and property management.
Rosemary is a delightful herb best suited to warm dry climates and sandy soil. Our family has been impressed with the world of difference a little rosemary makes in our stew recipe. I know that there are many people who would like to grow rosemary but their climate is not favorable. Being on the edge […]
"For as the earth bringeth forth her bud, and as the garden causeth the things that are sown in it to spring forth; so the LORD God will cause righteousness and praise to spring forth before all the nations." Is. 61:11 This has been a fascinating verse to think about at this time of year […]
I witnessed something new during hunting season this year. The tree stand I was hunting in one particular evening happened to be located in a stand of Bigtooth Aspen, also known as Large-toothed Poplar. A rather common tree on our land, Bigtooth Aspen is one tree that had me “wondering as I wander out under […]
I had been hunting in ideal weather conditions but without success for six days. For three of these days there was not even a sighting of a deer. The strangest things seemed to happen on the days deer were in the area. On several occasions I had a deer in my sights, but it would have been […]
The finishing of a project always takes longer than its basic construction. To help put up the soffet and facia Uncle Alan came again on July 12, and the same day we were also able to put up the plastic wrap and install the doors and windows. This went smoothly because we had bought the […]
With our work on the fence coming to a close around mid June, we realized that we needed to begin in earnest on the new 360 square foot storage building. If we would be able to use Dad’s time off work around the 4th of July to put the structure under roof, we now had […]
Have you ever never mowed your lawn? Well, this year was the first time for us. No, it wasn’t intentional; it was just that our lawn mower kept breaking down and has thus been in the shop all summer. Of course we keep the grass around our house cut really nice (that is Jonathan’s job!) […]
For the past two years the orchard has been expanding. It expanded so much, in fact, that half of it was located outside the original orchard fence! We had no choice but to also expand the electric fence, or face the possibility of being decimated by the ravages of wild beasts (deer). The whole project […]
It seems that every year the Lord has plenty of new things to teach me about beekeeping. This year it has been so dry that I could not see how anything could be putting out nectar. No nectar is bad news for bees. Scouting around the hills three weeks ago I noticed honeybees working […]
This is not really the time of year to be thinking about maple sap; that is what we did in February and March. But actually, now that time has passed, we can examine the results of the experiments we made during sap season. On a previous post, I said that sap was great for drinking straight […]