Ouch, My Aching Back

[simple life]

Well we are just about done with all the major gardening for the year and I have the major backache to prove it.
I cleaned out all the vegetable beds that were done for the year and added amendments to break down over winter.
Pruned, raked and mulched.
I added more loam to all the garden beds as well.

Putting the garden to bed is usually a non issue but we decided to do some yard renovations this month.
We brought in another ten yards of loam yesterday, bringing the total this year to 50 yards.

After the last of the loam is moved out of the way we are having 4 tons of tumbled stone delivered for the driveway.
Gonna do that one when my oldest son is home to help though.
I was hoping to get the stump grinding done this weekend but the forecast calls for rain.

We used most of the loam that was delivered this year for new gardens but the last two days we have been filling in a low spot in the back yard that turns into a pond when it rains.
This year I created several new perrenial gardens, an herb garden and enlarged the vegetable garden which required lots of soil and compost.

We tore out the front and side lawn this past week to reseed it and I decided to leave one side of the yard for me to build out the garden I have there now.

That side of the yard has a big boulder in the middle and I planted some flowers around it but the rest was grass so I am going to turn the whole area into a garden now.
He tilled it when he took out that old grass and at least now its workable.
That area always had thick matted roots all through it that made it very hard to plant.
I am going to put in a gate and arbor that will lead to that part of the yard from the backyard and tie everything in.

This old house and yard was neglected for many years.
When we moved in there was not one single plant in the yard and just 5 very over grown shrubs.
On top of the fact that it was empty for two years before I bought it and no one raked the leaves the neighbors were dumping all their leaves and brush over the fence.
I singlehandedly raked up 240 bags of leaves the month I moved in and cut up all the brush.
The leaves were up to my knees all the way around the yard.
Built in 1768, last raked 1868
While I was out there raking a neighbor threw their leaves and branches over the fence, I picked it up and threw it back and yelled somebody lives here now!

We ripped out those overgrown shrubs and have now planted 62 new ones and planted several trees, several more are on order which I think brings the total trees we planted or will plant to 20.
So anyway, I had a clean slate to work with and am nearing the home stretch on my design plans and am cramming as much as I can in this month.
I am really excited for next year when I pretty much finish what I have planned.
I am taking a break from yardwork today though, my back needs it.
Going to go make some apple pies now, went apple picking this weekend and the family is screaming for pies.
After the kids go to bed I am going to read Mother Earth News.
Oh the exciting life I lead.

 

[Greensage45]

OK...

I do protest! No Pictures?????

A house that old and you are holding out on us?

For the imaginative-impaired, we require drawings or pictures! LOL

Don't hold out on us now!

Ron :bouquet

 

[injunjoe]

A house that old and you are holding out on us?

For the imaginative-impaired, we require drawings or pictures! LOL



Ron :bouquet

Again I resemble that remark!

 

[simple life]

Okay, let me see what I can do.
I know I have some pictures on photobucket of the yard and house exterior already but I will have to load some pictures I have of when the newspaper did a story on my house.

It use to be a stagecoach stop, the carriage house is attached to the kitchen and its been used for storage for years but I want to make it into a family room or guest room.
It also use to be farm around the same time and the house next door was owned by the orginal family here but used as a shoe factory.
According to the town historians Daniel Webster use to come here to have his congressman's boots made and to take the coach into Boston.

Its a great house, it needed alot of tlc but I have spent years restoring it and fixing some of the things previous owners did.
I redid the kitchen but didn't put in a dishwasher or garbage disposal so it would stay true to its era.
I never had them in my life before so it didn't make a difference to me, I guess I don't know what I am missing so it doesn't matter.
I also didn't put in upper cabinets since they didn't have them then.
The kitchen didn't have them when I moved in either.
There are lower cabinets under the sink area because we just stayed with the same footprint the kitchen had.
I didn't add them across the room though, I use the side counter like a breakfast nook and I can watch the kids, chickens and bees right from the window there.
I wouldn't be able to sit there if I had done the lower cabinets.
I use antique pie safes for my food and dishes.
So as you can see I am trying to keep things the way they were and I am happy to live this way.
I really crave simpler times.

I have filled the house with antiques, the more primitive stuff.
Things that are real old but you can still use.
I love using an old rolling pin, cookie cutter etc. and wondering how many other women used them and what their lives were like.
I have a real old cheese table in my kitchen where others would have put an island and I have the bench from an old horse drawn carriage in the kitchen and people like to hang out there and talk while I cook.
My dining room table is made from wood from an old barn, an antique bureau stores my linen in the dining room.
This is just to try and give you guys a picture of what its like.
I will get my real pictures up shortly.

The real estate agent wasn't even going to show me the house because of the amount of work it needed but one day she called me and I wasn't home and when I talked to her she mentioned it.
I told her that I had been out antiquing and she said hmmm I didn't know you liked antiques, I have a house listed and its circa 1768 but it needs so much work I didn't think you would want to take it on so I didn't bother.
I said lets go see it right now! That was that.

The house has mostly been in the same family for all these years, I am only the second family to live here that wasn't related to the man that built the house.
I absolutely LOVE my house, the minute I walked into the kitchen with the real estate agent I knew it was home, this house had to be mine.
I hadn't even seen the rest of it but it just felt right, like I knew I was home.

The funny thing is that I grew up a mile from here and had to have ridden by thousands of times.
I went to the high school at the end of the road and I never ever noticed this place.
I am assuming because it was kind of bland as far as the color and lack of landscaping on the house but now its alot different.
People actually knock on my door to ask me things about the house, like where I got the front door and shutters (they were made by my husband and dad) the color of the paint etc.
Several people have stopped by to just say thank you for fixing the old place up and making the neighborhood look nicer.
Its really nice of people to take notice but I do it because I really love restoring it.

Next year when I have the yard finished it will look really nice.
I wish I had taken more pictures of the yard this year before fall came but I have some at least and spring is not that far off before I am back to planting. It gives me all winter to plant my next projects.

 

[injunjoe]

Sounds like you did a lot of work!

I did a search and if this is what you had to start with wow!
Swansea stagecoach stop

Sounds nice would love to see it.
Hope you don't mind the joke.

Joe