Let's get caught up

It's been over 4 months since my last entry. If you've been checking back from time to time and you're still here, thanks for you persistence.

We have been busy...

We got the downstairs room finished. Since then, though, sadly, after a series of episodes - numerous diagnoses, treatments, doctor and hospital visits - Sandy's dad passed away. We were with him and all of his closest family had been to visit him within his last two weeks.

We have been working outside, cutting paths through the fields, clearing potential house sites, cutting grapevines, multiflora roses, autumn olive trees, Japanese honeysuckle, and a nasty sticker-covered vine that can grow to be a terrible nuisance. All of these are "exotic" and "invasive," meaning they are not native to Indiana and they take over large areas with a smothering effect on our native plants. I'll post something about each (or most) of these soon.

We finally installed the last sheets of siding, the angular sheets above the second floor, under the roof overhang, on the ends of the building. And, with help from my sister Judy, we painted the entire outside except for corner and window trim that will be installed before cold weather sets in. Then I installed the hex sign Judy had bought us last Christmas near the top of the west wall.

We purchased a trailer and a heavy duty weed whacker with large wheels. We may have already paid for the trailer in rental savings, using it for material, straw, wood chips, stump grindings (very fine wood chips mixed with soil) and a few things purchased at Dinky's Auction like 20 11-foot trusses from a house trailer that will make a great carport.

We are beginning to improve the paths by covering them with cardboard and then with wood chips. I doubt all the paths will get the full treatment. There are just too many feet of path to cover. I won't be surprised if we eventually have 2 to 3 miles of trail/path on the property. The wood chips are free from the town of Bloomfield, and the guys at their site load them into the trailer for me. There is no practical limit to how much I can get. The limit is how much I can unload, distribute and spread. Trail pictures will be posted soon.

Just outside the large sliding barn door, almost under the kitchen area and bathroom windows, we have been encouraging native plants, moving some from other places on the property, and adding a few that we like that we haven't found here yet. When the driveway was improved earlier in the year, I had a small swale cut above the (then yet to be improved) area to impede the flow of water off the upper hill and across the driveway. The swale holds the water allowing it to seep into the hillside and keep the plot moist as along as possible. Through a FreeCycle offer we got a small formed plastic pond which I have sunk into the middle of the swale. I hope this will encourage some of the toads and tree frogs to stick around.

Tree frogs are the source of another little adventure we've had this spring and summer. I'll add an entry about them, too. The upshot of it is that we have had over 500 tree frog tadpoles living outside the building since mating season.

The second most recent post before this one showed the south side of the building just after the large rocks were moved and covered over with stone. I'll show a current view of this area, complete with flowering plants, sunflowers from the bird feeder seed, bindweed that is taking over everything it can climb, and the home of the last 50 or so tadpoles that I didn't move to the pond, a step I took reluctantly since we have a very healthy snapping turtle in the pond.

Finally, I have been trying to identify all the wildflowers that grow here. I'll take my own pictures over time, but I have links to dozens of them so far from public sites. I hope to put them together on a fixed web page.

Keep tuned in.