Cutting Down Dead Branches

March 22, 2025

On March 19 ( Wednesday), the weather was lovely. I planted more seeds in my raised beds, spinach, lettuce, carrots, turnips and Japanese mustard. While I was busy planting, Bruce decided to cut down some dead branches from our row of pine trees in the back pasture.

It was a lot of work!

We’ve had a lot of wind lately. Here’s the rhubarb bed after the wind storm.

It had been nicely mulched bed. The wind blew the mulch right off the bed! The rhubarb plant appears to be growing well.

I’ve been bring my herb plants inside at night while I’ve been hardening them off. I am glad since we got a hard freeze (28 degrees F) overnight on Wednesday.

On Thursday, (March 20), we started putting legs back onto my dresser. One of the dresser legs broke when we bought it into the house. In looking at the dresser legs, we discovered two of the legs had been badly broken before and glued back together. They weren’t something within my or Bruce’s skill set to repair. Replacement was our decision. I was able to find new legs on Amazon.

The drawers had been out of the dresser for a while now. I wasn’t able to get to clothes in the stacked drawers. I started feeling like I was living as a hoarder. I really want to be able to get to my clothes and my closet. Living out of a laundry basket made me feel annoyed.

We had started the dresser legs replacement project and expected to have it done much sooner. Bruce having to leave right as the project was started didn’t help.

With the glue drying for the new support boards, there was nothing left to do on the dresser until the glue dried.

It was time for me to enjoy being outside. The ground on top of hill (back pasture) had dried out enough for me to start digging holes to plant fruit trees. Bruce helped me measure out the tree locations.

I got one hole dug and started on another one. Digging holes is harder than I remembered. I want to get the holes dug before bringing the trees out to plant them.

We started putting up another of our four panel DeRubeis artworks. It is part of his Platinum series, #05. The wood boxes used to hang the artwork is affixed to the back. On the artwork, the box depth is an inch on two panels and 1/2 inch or less on two other panels. This causes the panels to have a ripped effect. With the light shining on it, the metal shimmers, shines and glows.

We hung these two panels and stopped.

Yesterday, Bruce had his first appointment with his new doctor. He asked me to come with him. We spent most the day out running errands. It took way more time than I was expecting.

We did finish putting the new legs onto my dresser.

I found some light pink hyacinths growing in the yard.

Just over the north fence had been a house that burned down. The house remains were cleared off a long time ago. The concrete driveway is still there. The flowering pear and dogwood trees were clearly planted when the house was there. Daffodils have sprouted and are blooming where someone thought they’d look beautiful. They are lovely to see. I wonder what other plants were growing in this past garden?

We’ve got a couple of friends coming over to see Blackberry Homestead today. We are going to have Mitchell’s Smoked Meats: brisket and pulled chicken. I am planning on making a hummingbird cake, guacamole and buns. Last night, I made caramelized onion dip for potato chips. I am considering making roasted potatoes since I’ll have the oven on anyway.