Well folks, it’s that time of year again. The time of year that I start thinking about Spring.
I know I have explained my obsession with trees in the past. It’s not such a bad obsession to have I guess. I mean, I am planting trees and that’s good for the air. It’s good for a bunch of other things too.
This year, I decided that adding a little green to the property would be nice. I am getting a little tired of looking at all the boring brown of the deciduous trees we have. There are tons of them and sprinkling some evergreens around would really make me smile.
I have been looking at places to buy bare root evergreens online for a while. In the past, I got all my trees from Arbor Day, but they are getting a little pricey and the trees are really small. I knew there were some better alternatives out there.
After going back and forth between two websites, I settled on NurseryMan.com. Why? I don’t know…I like the guy. Also, he includes shipping and all that right in the price. I hate being nickeled and dimed with shipping fees.
Evergreen trees - Screenshot courtesy of NurseryMan.com
I got 100 Norway Spruce trees for $190. That’s not bad considering they are not those tiny little 6 inch seedlings. They are a few years old and between 10 and 16 inches tall. They actually seem larger in his instructional tree planting videos. Check them out here. Also, just look at those fields. I would be in heaven if I ran that place. I think I would go out and pet all those trees every day.
so, you might be asking yourself, “What in the world are you going to do with 100 Norway Spruce trees you crazy fool?” Well, 100 trees may seem like a lot, but I am sure I can find places to put them. Also, we are sitting on over 4 acres here, so any extras can find homes in the woods. I won’t have any extras though.
Today is January 21. I am guessing that most of the world has already taken down their Christmas trees. This year, we are running a little late in the Christmas tree removal department.
We did remove all the ornaments though. Well, I didn’t. It was done one day behind my back. All that’s left are the lights. I actually like it like this. It’s kind of tranquil keeping an evergreen tree indoors.
While we were watering the Christmas tree this afternoon, we were greeted by a whole bunch of fresh green pine tree buds. At first, I thought there were only a few. Then, I looked more closely at the tree and discovered that the entire thing is covered with buds. Yes, that’s right. Our Christmas tree is growing.
Christmas tree growing buds
Of course you know what I did. I jumped on the computer to see if a cut Christmas tree can actually start growing roots. If it can, my plan was to keep it growing inside until Spring. Then, I would plant it outside and hold it up with a bunch of stakes.
Unfortunately, I didn’t find one resource that told me a cut Christmas tree can grow roots. Everyone was pretty much against it. Oh well. I guess it’s just not going to work out this year.
Next year, I think I am going to really make an effort to get a balled Christmas tree. Either that or a potted one. We’ll see how that goes. It’s just such a waste tossing these big beautiful trees out into never never land.
If you live anywhere in Connecticut that is North of the Southern edge, you probably got snow on Saturday night. Oh yay.
Yeah, it’s back. I thought it would just fall and melt really fast like it normally does this time of year. Whelp, it’s not gone yet and it’s Monday. I do see some dripping off the roof though, which is a good sign. The grass is peeking through too.
We only got about an inch and a half. My sister down in Maryland got about three inches. See, that’s why I try to stay up North…less snow. haha.
Hey, have a nice Winter. I’ll call you in Spring.
Night time snow on Arborvitae
First snow of 2009/2010
If you think this is any different than what went down last year, check out my “Orange Winter Sunset” post that I wrote on December 7, 2008.
Isn’t November the perfect month? I mean, if you live in the New England area, you’ll surely agree that we have had the most spectacular weather.
I think Mother Nature is making up for giving us a lousy Spring. Oh yeah, I remember that. Rain, rain and then more rain. About half way through July it finally stopped raining. After that, I don’t think we got enough rain.
I’m actually kind of surprised that it hasn’t been raining all that much this Autumn. There has been a few rainy days mixed in here and there, but we have generally had perfect weather. When I say perfect, I mean 50s – 60s throughout the day and 40s overnight. It’s great walking weather.
For Thanksgiving, we are heading down to a restaurant near the water. I want to get down there early so we can visit a few beaches. I like going to visit places on the shore while no one else is there. It’s easier to breathe the fresh air.
Do you want to see what the forecast for this week?
This is a simple post. There are two things I want to show you.
1. A Kentucky Bluegrass seed germinating
2. The new Pennington Smart Seed sun and shade mix grass seed popping up through the compost I put down last week
Boy, they aren’t kidding when they say that Bluegrass seed takes over four weeks to germinate. I planted most of the seed near the beginning of September and a lot of it is just coming up now. That’s just crazy, but I do enjoy it when I look outside every day and the grass looks slightly more green and full each time. I over seeded the entire property and it really is showing. I can’t wait for Spring to come so I can give it another layer of seed. I am going to give this a shot because I don’t want to put down any weed and feed. From now on, nothing but fertilizer. No herbicides or pesticides. We’ll see if the saying is true…”a nice thick lawn will crowd out weeds.”
Also, it didn’t take long for the Pennington Smart Seed to start growing. I watered it a few days ago and it got drenched last night. I woke up this morning to find parts of the compost actually lifted off the ground. It was like someone poured soil on a shag carpet. The new grass growing underneath the top layer of compost was lifting the whole thing up. When I put my hand on top of it, it felt like I was pushing down on a sponge.
Here are some pictures.
Kentucky Bluegrass grass seed germinating
Pennington Smart Seed sun and shade mix early growth – germination
If a picture is worth a thousand words, this post is worth over 38,000 of them. I apologize. I deleted about half of the photos I took yesterday, but so many of them were good that I didn’t have the heart to cut any further. You’ll just have to look at them.
I think I’ve been to Block Island, RI once before. It seems like more than that because I think about the place quite often. It’s one of those little gems that most of the area hasn’t visited. Don’t get me wrong, Block Island is jumping throughout the Summer, but the crowds disappear in the off season. Ahhh, the perfect time to visit.
The plan was to travel out to Block Island to have lunch at the Spring House Hotel. For my birthday last year, Laura got me a gift certificate just for this. I thought it was a great idea and was excited to go out and use it. We would take the 11AM ferry from Point Judith, arrive at Block Island at noon, eat lunch and leave at 3PM. Well, that was the plan.
When we arrived at Point Judith, we were a little early. I made a big fuss about getting out of the house at 8AM. I totally forgot how long it took to get to Point Judith, so yeah, as I said, we were a little early. Like about an hour. Good thing there was a high speed ferry that left at 10:30AM and only took a half hour to get to Block Island. By taking the high speed ferry, we arrived on Block Island an hour early (11AM).
When we got off the ferry, we walked straight up to the Spring House Hotel. I wanted to go up there just to let them know we were going to walk around a little bit and then come back for lunch. Hey, guess what? When we got to the hotel, we discovered that they don’t serve lunch after Labor Day. Oh well. We left.
On the way back down the road, I explained to Laura that it was actually a good thing that I didn’t call first to find that out. If I had, we wouldn’t have gone there for the day and would have just sat around doing other things. I was glad we made the trip. We just went and ate somewhere else.
Here’s the really cool part. Since we had a few hours to use up before the next ferry would bring us back to Point Judith, we decided to rent a scooter (or moped) to cruise around the island on. That was worth it because scooters are awesome to drive around on and you get to see the whole area. We drove from the most Northern tip of the island to the most Southern and made a bunch of stops in between. We looked hot on the scooter and all the other scooter drivers were envious of us because we could drive 28MPH. That’s a full MPH faster than most scooters on the island. Nobody had the guts to go that fast besides us. We were a gang of two.
At around 2:30PM, we gave the scooter back and did our thing to get on the ferry. During the ride back, I actually fell asleep on the bench. This was the slow ferry, so I had the time. Laura was busy talking with some old ladies who smoke and drank too much. I’ll tell ya, those ladies knew how to party.
Here are those 38 pictures I was talking about above. Enjoy.
Old fishing boat at Point Judith, RI
Point Judith – Block Island high speed ferry
Arriving at Old Harbor, Block Island on the high speed ferry
Small garden at the Hotel Manisses
Hotel Manisses, Block Island, Rhode Island
Spring House Hotel sign
Spring House Hotel, Block Island
Small airplane on final approach to Block Island Airport
Path leading down to Hotel Manisses
Front lawn of the Island Free Libray, Block Island
Large inn and restaurant on Block Island
Surf Hotel, Block Island
Scooter (moped) rental on Block Island
Looking South on Corn Neck Road, Block Island
Path leading to ocean
Lonely house on Block Island
Rock pile on beach
North Lighthouse, Block Island, RI
The scooter we rented on Block Island
The rock pile I made on the beach – bigger than the rest
Pretty shell from Block Island beach
Bird house in Block Island National Wildlife Refuge
More rock piles on a different beach – a whole bunch of them
Block Island National Wildlife Refuge sign
North Light Interpretive Center rock
West Beach Rd., Block Island – heading towards West shore
West Beach Rd. sign
Sandy entrance to Mansion Beach, Block Island
Looking North on Mansion Beach, Block Island
Looking toward Clay Head Beach, Block Island
Looking back at Old Harbor from Mansion Beach, Block Island
Block Island State Airport sign
Block Island State Airport
Southeast Lighthouse sign
Southeast Lighthouse on Block Island
Mohegan Bluffs on Block Island
Standing on small dock in Old Harbor, looking East
Standing on same small dock in Old Harbar, looking at boats back in harbor
This is not good. I don’t like the hot, sticky heat, but it feels like I was complaining about the cold just a few days ago. Is it me, or was this the shortest Summer ever?
All I am saying is that I can’t do this again…for another year of my life. Freezing cold and then humid hot hot hot. I don’t know.
The reason I am all bent out of shape is because Laura went over to her parent’s house today to swim. After she was done, they closed the pool. I swear they just opened it. What’s that about?
Of course we have Spring and Fall, but all I do during those times is worry about what’s ahead. Either it’s 40 degrees on one Spring day and then 95 degrees the next or it’s 95 degrees one Summer day and then 60 the next. I think there used to be some sort of a transition.
Maybe my mother is right, maybe we need to become snowbirds. I’ll keep you posted.
I keep thinking…if people mow their lawns, bag the clippings and rake up all the leaves, where does the lawn soil get any organic material from? It’s an interesting question and one that I haven’t found the answer to yet.
I used to bag the lawn clippings. I was having fun doing it too. Then, I read that I could just mow the lawn and let the clipping stay. Of course the article was written by one of those freaky granola people with a dirt lawn. You know the type, the guy who tries to eat the lawn weeds. I always try to take advice from people I want to be like, not some weirdo who jumped on the “green” train. So, I kept on reading articles from a variety of authors. I came to the conclusion that leaving the grass clippings on the lawn is okay if you mow frequently. If you mow infrequently, you will get big grass clumps that will kill the grass underneath. I think I can handle mowing regularly. About half way through this last Summer, I stopped bagging and the lawn looked the same thereafter.
The whole reason I did that research is because every time I bagged the clippings, I felt like I was taking a little bit of love away from the soil. For the life of me, I couldn’t figure out how that soil was going to get the organic material back. I mean, was it from the leaves I pick up every Autumn? No, because they obviously aren’t there anymore (I picked them up, duh).
I had a vision in my head…I visualized the lawn in five years. It was horrible. Everything was in black and white and looked barren like the moon’s surface. You can even use Mars as an example. I didn’t like having a lawn with no nutrients and dark soil. I decided to keep reading and to research what would happen if I just mulched up the leaves that fall from the trees every year and kept them right there on the grass. Well, wouldn’t you just know it, other people were having the same thoughts and a group up at Michigan State University did a study on this exact topic.
I am going to jump right to the conclusion of their study. They said that it is okay to mulch your leaves into the grass and it’s actually better for the soil. It helps out all those microbes and the worms as well. I know about the worms because my compost pile is FULL of them. Worms like organic material. If the lawn had more organic material, I could imagine that the worms would find their way there.
I’m going to do it. This year, I am going to mulch the leaves and leave them on the lawn. I am going to have to do a really thorough job though because there are a lot of leaves. That’s good because there are some areas of this lawn where the soil is just stripped of any nutrients. I wouldn’t even call it soil anymore. It’s like dust when it gets dry.
I suppose I could always just spread peat moss or compost over the grass every Autumn. That wouldn’t really be fun. Besides, where would I get my compost? From the big pile of leaves and grass clippings I raked up and bagged the year before?
This year will be the experiment. I will let you know how it goes. If things look good in the Spring, I will tell you. Actually, I will tell you either way. It can’t get any worse than it is now. Although, I am looking at the grass after a three week spell of no rain and a thorough dethatching job. Things ain’t looking so great.
I am eagerly awaiting September 1, so I can overseed the lawn. I know I have mentioned this on more than one occasion, but I guess I’m just excited.
I went over to the Depot today to look for a new lawn spreader. Actually, I went to Sears first. No luck at either place. They are all plastic garbage. I already have one of those green seed / fertilizer spreaders, but the reach isn’t as far as I would like it to be. I have been considering a tow behind spreader, but all the reviews I have read practically everywhere tell me they are junk too. Apparently, the little doo-hicky that opens and closes the area that the seed comes out of is made of plastic and doesn’t do its job very well. I am looking for a nice quality spreader, so if anyone has any advice, I’m listening. I am also willing to give up my current spreader after I get a new one, so you just stay tuned.
While I was at Home Depot, I thought I would stock up on some grass seed for my upcoming overseeding event. I did all my research and decided upon Kentucky Bluegrass. This type of grass spreads and fills in bare spots and thin grass, so that’s what we need. Also, it has that nice dark green color that everyone loves so much.
It’s amazing, I created a few bare spots in the lawn early on in the Spring and they haven’t filled in yet. I guess the current grass doesn’t spread on its own at all. I really like the spreading quality of some grass, so that’s what I had my heart set on.
Scotts Kentucky Bluegrass grass seed mixture
Scotts Kentucky Bluegrass grass seed
I opened one of the bags this afternoon because I couldn’t wait anymore. I was surprised to see such tiny little grass seed. This is the stuff with that “water technology” something or other. My goal was to sprinkle a little on some bare spots that are close to the garage. I want to see if anything happens before I go all out and do the whole lawn.
I roughed up the bare spots with a pitch fork and put a really small amount on each area. Then, I roughed each spot up again. I’ll give it a few weeks and report back what happens. From what I have been reading, it takes a good long time for this grass seed to germinate. With the cooler Summer and all the rain we have been having, I’m not concerned with the Summer heat doing a number on this seed. Also, the reason I only put a small amount of seed on each spot is because this seed was crazy expensive. I am going to use it very sparingly so it will cover the entire lawn.
This is terrible, just terrible. I think I have found myself walking down a very bad path.
Okay, so I already told you that I am taking some trees down in the woods next to the house. This is a good thing and it’s really starting to look nice over there. I actually took two more trees down today. I don’t like to do too many at a time because I would rather get used to the small changes I make and think about what I am doing before I go ahead and take down some more. Either way, I am building up next year’s supply of firewood.
This is where the problem starts. I still have about a cord of wood from the trees I cut down last summer. It’s is seasoning quite nicely and will make for some splendid firewood come this winter.
Now, I am almost positive that I have complained about the miserable (in)efficiency of a regular fireplace. We have one here and it does a really great job of sucking up what ever heat you already have in the house, out the chimney. Sure, the living room is warm, but you have to wear a snow suit in all the other rooms. Really, I don’t even use it much…just on those chilly spring or autumn evening when the pellet stove isn’t running.
So here I am, sitting on a cord of seasoned firewood and building up next year’s supply. What to do?
I am very happy with the pellet stove we got last year. It kicks butt when it comes to heating up about 3/4 of the house. To get that much heat, I need to keep it humming all winter. Last winter, I used four tons of pellets. I wouldn’t mind having a heat supplement helping out the pellet stove.
I am going to make a long whiny story short here. I really want a Hampton HI300 Wood Insert for the fireplace in the living room. Take a look at it:
I called the fellas down at the fireplace store today and told them what I wanted. He wrote up a quote and faxed it over to me. The thing is, it’s pricey. I know I’m not going to save any money by getting this little toy, so I’m iffy about the whole thing. To make matters worse, there is a tax credit that’s available called the “The U.S. Biomass Tax Credit.” It gives you back 30% of your purchase and installation price, up to $1500. That is just driving me crazy. You can learn about the tax credit here.
I know I am going to find myself in the car tomorrow or the next day driving down to the fireplace store. It’s bad, but I just want to feel that heat cranking out of that stove this winter. It even has a blower.
