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Fall harvest
Seems lately every Wednesday as I make the trip to the road side with the garbage bags, I come back with a handful of some delicious treat. This time its blackberries. A wee bit on the sour side. I think this would qualify for the 100 mile diet đ
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Homemade Soil Screener
I’m in need of some rock to fill in some wet spots on the road that runs through our property. I also want some soil to mix into the compost pile of mulch we made earlier this year. And I want to make use of a lot of the topsoil that I am digging up from the forested area behind the garage.
A ready-made soil screener would be nice to have, but I don’t have $6,000 to spend on one. So after scrounging for a year I managed to get my hands on some used screens from a crusher plant. I have a few different sizes to use. This one I have on the rack is 5/8 x 5/8 so it will sort about anything smaller than 1/2 inch.
Its certainly is not a “production level” piece of equipment but it will serve the purpose. Best of all, it cost $0 to make.
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opportunities along the way
Sometimes a chore, like taking out the garbage to the road, can have its blessings. Today we retrieved a mitt full of wild raspberries! And of course, we shared with our feathered friends. They sure were curious about the red bump on the end of their perch!
wild raspberries -
blaze your own trail
Looking for a better path, sometimes its better to blaze your own trail. đ Yesterday I dug out a large rock and put it in the garden. Today is time to work on the road through the woods.
blaze your own trail Turn 180 and here’s a a couple looks as I walk back towards the workshop. Its 28C today and humidity makes it feel like 38C. It’s going to be hot irregardless of what I am doing, or even if I’m doing nothing, so might as well be a little bit productive.
click image or larger view 
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big rock, no roll
While digging out behind the workshop I ran into this beast. We’ve been debating the removal of a shrub in the garden, so this rock would make a good replacement.
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After the rain
wild flowers A few pictures from the garden after a day time shower. I always liked trying to capture natural scenes after a rain, everything seems a bit brighter and cleaner.
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Tree stump experiment
time to clean Saturday is a day to get some things off the To-Do list; clean and vacuum the house HVAC, change the furnace filter, maintenance on the water pressure tank for the well (test shut off valves, clean rust off handles and treat with RustCheck), leveled and re-tied the apple trees, unseat a tire, mow the lawn, do maintenance on the mowers, trim some branches, remove some saplings from the wild rose bushes, work on a pallet woodworking project, move a flag pole to another spot in the garden, cleaned and did maintenance on the MTL and while the pressure washer was out, worked on a tree stump.
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Planted a couple apple trees
Red Gravenstein and Red Gala apple trees July 12 2015 (updated Jul 15 2015)
We spent Sunday morning preparing the beds for two apples trees. I have always wanted apple trees, and finally have the time to get some and plant them. The root ball on the Gala is a bit concerning, as we had to cut it out of the bucket. Not because it was root bound, it looks more like the main root has broken away from the root ball.
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plant in the forest, what is it?
unknown plant Found this today a cleared area near the house. I thought it was a tree plant at first but pretty sure its not. Anybody have an idea as to what it is?
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The Earth continues its bounty
wild strawberries With a little bit of TLC on  patch of wild strawberry last year (basically let them grow, weeds and all) and did not mow over them which (I usually did).  This year the plants grew very well, like 6-7 inches tall with full leaves. This year I pulled weeds occasionally. The result is we have been picking sweet strawberries since early June. …
