An amazing tree and our new garden shed
Catelpa tree
It happens not long after the leaves came out in the Spring. First there are little buds.
They grow and start to open up like pop-corn.
Then, in full bloom, for a week or so, the display on the forty foot tree is amazing.
Each flower is about two inches across with a delicate pattern in shades of maroon and bits of yellow.
After the flowers fall, some produce long bean like seed-pods.
We have started a number of young trees from seed and will be happy to provide them for anyone who has room for a big tree and who can come by in the Spring or Fall when transplanting is best.
Garden Shed
It started as a pile of dirt and rocks leftover from excavating the shop. I'd long thought that it would make a good terrace to raise a sink for washing garden produce in a way that the water and any soil would flow back into the garden. That is where this started.
A horizontal surface facing the garden with space to clean and wash vegitables.
The space will also be good for working with pots, soil and seedlings in the Spring and for storing garden supplies and tools over the non-growing season.
The next step was a frame to support a roof.
The most exciting part of the process is that, for the first time, we are making our own boards.
For the horizontal supporting beams, we collected a big log from a tree we took down because it was starting to rot and was leaning toward the house. It took three of us, using a come-along, ratchet strap and a trypod to get it onto our trailer. Here is the log just after we raised it again from the trailer and prepared to lower it onto the saw-mill.
Rafters followed, milled from logs in the pile you can see just behind the saw (or more clearly here).
We didn't have a log long enough for the supporting beam at the bottom of the back wall, so we went to the pond site where there are still some trees that have come down, cut a piece of trunk long enough, took it to the saw, milled it square and returned it to the shed for instalation. All in one morning.
Then the wall frame.
Steel roofing and more boards milled for the back wall.
Off the far end is a floor for an outdoor shower and support for a barrel that will collect hot water from black pipes that will be arranged on the south facing roof.
Enthused by the garden shed, we milled a couple more logs and built a wood shed for the yurt.
And a support for the solar panels that will power the pump for the well by the pond.
Claire is clearing the weeds between the well and the solar stand.
A lot of mushorrms in this latter part of Summer.
With the big rains of the last couple of weeks, the pond has filled to overflowing.
Here it is with the banks all grown over, showing the rock face that provides clean access into the water. We intend to expose much more of the rock as the seasons allow. It is everywhere under the ground at that end of the pond.
