A New Project.....Guess What It Is

Okay, it's kind of that time for me to ask the question.....what is it?  I have a picture of the parts that I will be using as I believe I have everything precut.  Now I need to detail them to size and shape as needed, the hard part.  So, with patience on everyones part, I will post a little as I go along.  Two people already know but they won't say anything.  I've never done anything like this before so here's hoping.

On A Misty Morning

Looking for breakfast in the early morning hours this Heron paitiently watches for a ripple on the water.  A sign that a meal might be at hand.

After The Rains The Sun Will Shine

It was a gloomy day Saturday as some much needed rain showed up as forecasted.  Not as much as it could have been  or was forecasted to be.  In this area and on this weekend there is a Strawberry Festival in Troy, OH that runs the whole weekend.  It was suppose to start raining around noon but it didn't start until much later which was good for the people, the tents that were up everywhere and the shortcakes and donuts that were made.  When it did rain it was steady and quite hard at some points in time.

And then it stopped and presented a sky that had clouds, color and a still very bright sun.

Cacti In A Log

If a tree or bush gets out of control or unmanageable what do you do?  We had one in a front bed, a Weeping Cherry that had to be trimmed at least twice a year.  The top was growing and the branches just kept getting longer and longer to the point that it was interfering with the plants below.  So, what do you do but have it removed and a very slow growing pine put in its place.

What I did do however was to have the head or branching part and the roots cut off, saving the center trunk section.  Wasn't sure what I was going to do with it until I figured I could cut it down, cut part of it out and make a planter out of it.  It could become the center piece of a table on the deck.

I let the thing dry out in the basement, soaping the ends so that they wouldn't split too much as they dried.  They split and it wasn't dried out much almost 8 months later.  I cut it down to a 24" piece then I placed it on my drill press and used my largest Forstner bit to drill over lapping holes.  I used a tool that has a cutter that oscillates to put deep straight cuts where I had market it for the rectangular hole. The bit got hot creating steam that was actually very hot momentarily as it cut.  The wood was still very moist and would clog the bit sometimes if I tried to go too fast.  I ended up doing this procedure twice to get the depth I wanted.  I may take one more cut this winter to get more dirt space.

After getting the bottom flat I brushed on some stain to try to seal the wood and I used a paste wax on the ends and the bark to just give it some protection. We went to Lowe's and bought 4 cacti, something I had no experience with other than hens and chickens of which I really had no experience with in reality.  Oh, and the feet are a 1" piece cut in 1/2 and notched into the underside of the log.

The end result is this.  Finished this about 2 weeks ago and so far they seem to be doing okay.  The red bloom is new and it looks like there may be more coming.

Planting Time

It doesn't matter what day it is to a farmer.  If work needs done, a field plowed or a crop planted that's the priority.  So on Mother's Day this field that sits not 600 feet from us had several tractors come through it.  The first tractor came through with a harrow on it then another tractor came in with a disc harrow behind it.  The first was to break the ground and weeds that had started and the next was to pulverize the soil and weeds to a more fine texture.  These two rigs were followed by a tractor pulling the planters.  They carry the seed and fertilizer.  In this picture he's pulling the disc harrow through the field.

Here he is planting corn for this year.  Last year was soybeans.

You can't really tell here but the guy in the black shirt is old enough to drive on the road, i.e.. the pickup truck and the other two individuals are very young, maybe his brothers.  They drove the rigs here, did the work and I assume the older brother brought them something to eat.  He runs along in-front of them as they traverse the roads in the area.  The planter rig was over the hill in another field at this point. They were done so they ate and moved on to the next field.  All this on Mother's Day.  It rained right after they left giving their seed a starting chance.

The New Generation Is Arriving

Do we call these newbies Millennials since they were born after the year 2000 and they will reach adulthood within a few months?  Naw, we'll just call them ducks. They started out with 10 but are now down to 4.  Not sure if the local hawk is getting them or a turtle that makes the pond its home.  I only say that because someone told me that a snapping turtle was found in the road and placed in the pond and I've heard that they will pull small ducks or geese under.  I've never looked into that story.  At any rate, here they are and I'm pretty sure the last 4 will make it as they have tripled in size.

New Family Moved In

Well, it's spring and we officially have a new family that has moved in.  With mother there are 11 but that soon changes.  Maybe it's the hawk that is visiting on a regular basis or maybe it's the turtle.  I believe the turtle is a box turtle but a neighbor told me she found a snapping turtle so she put it in the pond.  At any rate, as of today we only have 4 ducklings.