Category: Montana

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Herb Garden, part 1 aka “stopping to smell the roses” or whatever

Yesterday afternoon I needed a break from programming and was thinking on a little strength training session. But, it was beautiful outdoors – not too hot, nice breeze…so I combined a bit of strength work with the start of my herb garden project.

The “plan” for the herb garden is to smooth out the pile of dirt – topsoil pile left by the last owner and somewhat commandeered by Karl. (see King of the Hill )

The weeds and grass need to be removed. I am going to mow around the pile a bit and surround it with a rock border. I’m not sure what herbs or other things I will plant – I will wait and see what the nursery has when I’m ready. I hope to be ready to go to the nursery by mid-August when they put all perrenials, including herbs on sale. This should work well as I don’t plan on killing myself to get the dirt ready for planting.

This not killing myself to get it all done RIGHT NOW – this is a recently acquired “skill”. In my youth and not so distant past I would have decided it all needed to be done immediately. Yesterday, as I approached the dirt pile with my first wheelbarrow full of rocks and looked at the grass and weeds that needed to be pulled – and I was already hot from picking up rocks – I said to myself…”Hmmm, think I’ll just clean up this one little corner for today”. That’s when it struck me that I’d changed – and the thing is, it is a good change and a change that makes the project more fun than work! I don’t NEED to do it all RIGHT NOW. I can do a bit at a time – taking breaks in my work day to get outside and do something active. And I find myself looking forward to what little bit I might get done today – and enjoying thinking about how I might arrange rocks and what plants I might get…some day…

This change to doing projects a bit at a time – yes, partly due to the fact that it is not as easy at 52, almost 53 to work physically hard for hours, but it is driven more by an appreciation for enjoying the moment and the task versus a “just get it done” attitude.

I cleaned up the little corner of the dirt pile, dumped my first load of small rocks and took a moment to look at the progress. The sun warmed dirt and just pulled weeds and grass had that “working in the garden” smell. Karl was working on a stick nearby. It was a simple, joyful, moment – one I might have missed if all I had in mind was getting it done.

I’ve got plenty of rocks to choose from…

Enjoying the moment, smelling the dirt, feeling the sunshine…Herb Garden, part 1.

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Almost back to Spring

Yesterday morning started out about 35 and drippy with a lot of snow still on the ground. But the sun came out, the temperature rose to nearly 60 and by 8:30 at night, the snow was finally gone!

The midday walk was a lot different yesterday than the day before.

Night before last, Karl, Bob and I were on the front porch when I heard what I thought was a gunshot. Karl barked instead of heading for the house. Gunshots send Karl for his closet hidey-hole. There were 2 more “shots”/cracks… Today I found 3 broken trees from the direction of the sound.

This tree fell and/or broke at the root.

This poor tree just broke…you can see the part that stayed in the ground to the right – it is about 5 feet high.

This is the very sad part of a June snow storm. I’m sure my damage was minimal compared to parts of town that have oak and other old deciduous trees. I lost the coleus that I planted in the tree root, but the alysum and lobelia seem to be ok.

The brief Winter wonderland is almost back to Spring.

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Snow Day 2

The evening of June 10…night before last – after the snow event…nearly mid-June, nearly the summer solstice – within 11 days of the longest day of the year – sunset is shortly after 9:30 p.m. The photo below was taken shortly after 9:00 p.m.

Maybe hard to believe, but the temperatures did not go below freezing. Yesterday morning at 5:00 a.m. it was nearly 33 and stayed there until late afternoon when it was almost 40. The snow is still around but melting and slushy and just a damp mess – not a snow that is fun to play in. Still, a dog needs to be walked and so we went…

Sad Lupins… (that’s NOT a lupin below…I realized Thursday afternoon when I walked that I was calling these wrong – they are actually a noxious weed and I’m not sure of the name. Those are lupins in the grass under the tree….)

Above – in the grass – is how they should look now.

the walk path – see the stump to the right?

see how much snow is on the stump???

Towards the end of the walk – the top of the mountains are fogged in, but still – the most of them we have seen in two days.

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June Snow

First, the lake – Flathead Lake…the view as I approach Bigfork Village and the north end of the lake – about 5 miles from my home – I love coming around the curve and over the hill and having this view of the lake appear. It is always different – different colors of the water, the clouds, the trees, the mountains…yesterday noon, with the clear air, rain and snow approaching, the sun on the water showed all the colors of the shallows, the sand bars and the deep…

On the road home, but towards the valley floor and the Bitteroot Range on the other side of the valley.

The road home towards my house – snowing up top – June 6.

Arriving home, I called to Karl for a quick walk before getting back to work – and to see what the new snow on the mountains looked like

We heard the rumble of thunder and the sky to the west (above) was dark. Karl laid back his ears and headed for home at a trot.

June storm and June snow in the mountains.

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King of the hill

There was a large garden with raised beds and a mini-orchard of 9 fruit trees enclosed by a 6 foot high deer fence…was… It was more work than was fun for me and the garden now lives at my neighbors. There are several posts about it under the category “Yard and Garden”…

The gist is my neighbors and I swapped – they dismantled the fencing and graded the leftover with their backhoe in return for the fencing and planter material. Before starting the grading, there was already a small pile of topsoil left by the previous owners. After the grading, the topsoil pile was a bit bigger.

I don’t know what to do with the topsoil – there is not enough to spread over some parts of the yard that need it. I decided that at the first opportunity I’ll just push it flat and spread it out right where it is. There is a bit of a track behind the pile from some of the logging work and it can fill that area.

Karl might take care of it for me..

Karl went at it so vigorously that it kind of looked like he was having fun. And not just once. He has rearranged his little cave – hidey hole – cool spot several times – always the dirt flying as he works on it with seeming enthusiasm.

But he does use it…

And it is a good spot from which to keep an eye on things…

Mr. Karl – King of the hill!

Bob likes his bit of dirt also – a good dirt bath is heaven on a sunny day!

Bob is “King of the hill” in his own way.