Pruning, Cleaning, Pruning

 

 My home, inside and out is going through a transformation. It's a slow process that sometimes gets bogged down by real life (ie. my depression, the kids health issues, etc). Sometimes it provides a distraction, or just a good way to exhaust negative feelings.

It is a process; mentally, physically and emotionally.

We are "eating our Elephant one bite at a time", a saying our old therapist used to tell us (we MISS you Connie!!).

OK onto the real guts of this post.

One side of our home has been used for storage for quite some time. Not organized storage but a throw it there and worry about it later storage. Once upon a time we had rabbits.

The built in cages have been empty for years.

Vines have been left to cover and hide the forgotten.

The whole side was an eyesore which the Raccoons loved.

Hence the start of the clean up process.

At the entrance there was an archway covered in Honeysuckle which the Humming Birds loved. But it had died back and was very not a happy camper.

You can see it partially in this photo.

Which by the way had already been partially cleaned up and some debris removed.

Under those Honeysuckle vines are rabbit cages...somewhere.

A pile of prunings that will hopefully someday turn into compost...;)

 Pile of raked leaves and more prunings....good mulch

Cleared of vines you can see the rabbit cages!

Commence destruction of cages!

Sorry no photos, we worked slowly and carefully.

None of us are 100% so bit by bit they came down.

As did all the wood and other items that had been stored over there

Rabbit cages in trash bags ready to be added to toter as able.

It took about a month to get rid of all those bags

but they are finally gone! 



 

All cages, old saved wood that was starting to rot, some garden tools, and just plain crap.

Storage locker moved down toward lean to,

where garden items are now neatly organized.

Milk crates hold wood for my signs.

Trash can holds recycles which were on the other side of the house in trash bags blocking the walkway to the gate.

Plan on getting a couple more cans so sorting will be easier. 

Easier wheel barrow access.

Stakes for plants need to be gone through to decide what needs keeping and what doesn't.

All the bricks you see around my home were salvaged from my parents farm. I grabbed each and every one they had and used them throughout my gardens for paths, flooring, edging, etc.

Dad was a carpenter so whatever was discarded on the job he brought home, but most of these bricks are from their garden boxes  Dad had made for Mom when they first bought their home. Living on a Frontage Road had some disadvantages. When I was in 6th grade the County decided to widen Hwy 580. It was going to go right through our living room.

As the saying goes " You can't fight City Hall" which my parents did and of course lost. They had the choice of selling and moving, not accepting the Counties offer (if you could call it that) for that section of property, but if they didn't accept it the County would declare it ''eminent domain'' and take it anyway. So they decided to accept the offer and move the house back. Luckily there was enough room to follow the ordinance to be X amount of feet away from the back fence. We lived in a trailer that year while the house was being moved back, then repaired.

Dad has the whole thing on home movies.

Anyway what I was getting to, was all the brick boxes Dad had built were bulldozed, but he saved all the bricks. When he rebuilt the new ones he used new brick. Those old bricks and brick pieces had been sitting there for, oh 25 years just waiting for me to find a new lease on life for them :) 



The Sunflowers are ending there season,

the birds will miss them.



As soon as the petals fall they are

picked clean of their seeds.

I managed to pick the last wonderful bouquet

of the season as I cut them down a couple weeks ago

The weather has been crazy here.

Just last week we were in the 70's

This week we are down to freezing at night

and highs in the 40's during the day.

The first frost means it's time to prune the Roses

and collect the hips.

My last Rose bouquet for the season.

Yes, it's tiny, but very sweet ♥

You can also see the extent of my Christmas decorating so far.....

Pretty pink Roses to end the season.