Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Gravel Happens!

All Ed wanted to do was put a ramp on the kitchen entrance to the house.  Then while digging, he discovered that the line from the house to the septic tank had been broken ever since it was installed. That added to an already large undertaking. He has been digging, removing stones, and refilling holes for some time now. As a result of this work, he had stones that would not be used to cover the sewer line. He used them to make a place to park his red truck. He decided to have some fine gravel delivered to cover his truck pad, and to use to fill the remaining hole over the septic pipe.  The young trucker, filling in for our usual highly skilled teamster, seemed not up to the task. I watched as he backed over the pile of gravel with one set of wheels spinning.  A smooth rolling dump became a truck trapping heap. Finally the  rear wheels met the grass and the truck spun free. Ed should have called the job finished with one load.



But for some time Ed has wanted to spread gravel in the driveway, especially under the huge cherry tree. This smaller truck seemed like a perfect opportunity to do that,  so more gravel was ordered.  Fortunately  Ed thought to park the car at he bottom of the hill near the road so that I can get out tomorrow.





After just one afternoon, 24 yards of gravel are piled in the driveway waiting to be spread by hand. It's interesting that days and sometimes weeks go by and no one comes up our drive. As soon as it was blocked with gravel, the propane delivery truck turned into the driveway. He'll be back next week. A friend called asking if today was convenient to return a borrowed tool. I explained our situation and tomorrow he and his tractor will join Ed moving gravel. With any kind of luck I'll be able to drive up the hill to the house when I get home. It really was a cute little red dump truck and gravel happens.

Monday, November 8, 2010

Pretty Cold Garden Pictures


The all male asparagus that we purchased a decade ago from Miller nurseries  looks so beautiful. It's such a nice shade of gold with lots of red berries. Of course the berries are female fruits. Just like the Chinese discovered, the all male thing doesn't work out.




My tricolor sage is still looking beautiful. The cold we have been experiencing has not yet had its effect on all of the plants. Many of the annuals are now dead. Some perenniels are beginning to get that blackened dead look. The big difference being that the perenniels may be back next year.

I saw my friend Susan today. She said, "I'm so thrilled with the "King Of Prussia" chrysanthemums you gave me." I can only imagine the look on my face as I searched my brain for the plant she was talking about. "What do they look like ?" I asked. "They are a beautiful, pink, and blooming now." she replied. " Finally I got it. "Those are 'Emperor of China' chrysanthemums". When we finished laughing Susan said, " Well, I knew they came from royalty. Where did I get the name 'King Of Prussia.' " We agreed it was obvious, that's a town in Pennsylvania. I've got to wonder why I didn't give her a proper label with the plant. It's not like I don't have plenty of stones to write on. I plan to do better. Of course including the Latin name would be nice, but change comes in small steps.