There's only one channel!

OK, this one's got nothing to do with Greene View Springs, but I just had to post it. One of our grandsons was fascinated with our front loading washing machine and sat down to watch it for almost 10 minutes.

The return of the tree frogs

The frogs have been making a racket for the past week. Yesterday Sandy was working next to our large trough which I have lined with billboard tarp and this little frog showed up. We think he or she is checking it out for a place to deposit eggs as they did last year.

There are a four "pond" choices this year up here near the barn, though only two of them are "safe" right now - the pictured trough and the plastic pond above the driveway. One of the down spouts on the barn goes into a smaller trough, but it overflows heavily during a rainfall. The fourth is the larger pond I am digging but I can't work on it when it's wet, and it's been wet for the last three weeks! Until it is finished and lined, water seeps completely out of it in less time than a tadpole can mature.

Stand by for egg and tadpole pictures if I'm home to take them.

The garden so far

I took a few shots of the raised garden we've been building. All of the sides have been made from used lumber scavenged from an old barn that was being torn down within two miles of us. The first picture is taken from below the archway we were given.

Just below the satellite dish you can see the large plastic "tote" in a metal cage I got at an auction for $30. I added about $6 worth of fittings and connected it to a garden hose. It holds over 350 gallons of rain water that drops in from the south side gutter. Now we get water on demand by just squeezing the hose's nozzle. The pressure is low, just whatever gravity provides, but one doesn't have to run to the outlet to turn it off when done with it.

Last week I found a source for more totes and bought two for only $10 each. They need to be cleaned out and I need to buy more fittings to make them useful. Then they will be "installed" on the north side of the barn as high on the hillside as possible so they will provide a lot more water pressure.

The pathway between the upper and lower beds is slanted to the east and to the south and dries off quickly after a rainfall. The upper beds themselves slant a bit to the south and a bit more to the east so water that comes off the gravel and large rocks above gets distributed without help from us.

The lower beds are a bit more level, though that was more by accident than by plan.

The second picture is the same hillside but from more toward the west end. In the middle, next to the archway, are two persimmon trees that fruited last year. Also in the center are two metal grates with peas climbing them. Our hummingbirds are back and we can't keep the two feeders filled. I'm trying to find a large jar that will screw into the feeder openings so we could put out two or three days' worth of sugar water.