Author: Julia

I am a retired software solutions architect. I have been married to my husband, Bruce, for over forty years. We went full-time RVing for 3.5 years and saw much of the United States. After deciding to stop RVing, we bought a ranch house halfway up a hill on five acres. After Bruce and I talked about names for our five acres, we settled on Blackberry Homestead as a homage to the wild blackberries on the hill. We are working on creating our homestead. I love cooking and enjoy sharing recipes. I am also an artist, and I’ll share my current projects. Gardening and reading are my favorite hobbies.

Pictures of the Yard

December 21, 2024 Here are some random pictures of the yard. The half plastic barrels are great for holding large yard bags open so we can safely put poison ivy in the bags.

Putting Together the Birdies Metal Garden Beds

December 21, 2024 With the disappointing results from the soil tests, we decided to use raised garden beds with premium topsoil and compost. We are going to purchase topsoil and compost to fill the beds. Yesterday, the boxes for the short beds arrived from Amazon. We bought Birdies metal garden beds from Epic Gardening’s store […]

Using New Yard Tools

December 20, 2024 Today was cold; it only got up to 45 degrees F. It was windy, eight miles an hour with gusts up to 20 miles an hour. The wind and humidity made if feel a lot colder. The high of the day was early, around 9:00 AM. The wind blew in colder weather. […]

An Unusual Christmas Tree (More of a Bush, Really)

December 19, 2024 I was feeling a bit festive, having gotten the gift I really wanted for Christmas, which was a new roof. I found some of the yaupan holly Bruce had cut out of the fence row. It is very Christmasy looking with its red berries. I brought some in, trimmed the ends, and […]

The Roof Is Complete!

December 19, 2024 As 4 o’clock rolled around, we noticed the roofers were starting to put away their tools. Please excuse the blurriness of the picture below. The picture window had some light reflection from somewhere. We no longer heard hammering or other work on the roof. Several men focused on getting their tools loaded […]

The Roof Is Almost Finished

December 19, 2024 With the shadows starting to get long, we took a walk around the house to see the progress of the new roof. After we went inside, I noticed two of the men using magnets to sweep for nails. They’ve been keeping up with the clean up as they go. I can see […]

The Old Roof Removed from Front

December 19, 2024 The roof on the front of the house was completely removed before lunch. The roofers had even started putting down the RhinoRoof underlayment. They had started stripping the shingles and tarpaper from the back. We could hear them cutting in the roof vents with saws. They took a 30 minute break for […]

Removing the Tarpaper from the Roof

December 19, 2024 The roofers are tearing off the tarpaper now. They’ve made it down to the decking! These pictures were taken at 10:38 AM. This team of guys is fast! Read the next post on the roof replacement by clicking on the link here.

The Roofers Have Started!

December 19, 2024 Today, at 9:40 am, one team of roofers arrived. This team removes shingles. The team lead knocked and Bruce spoke with him. The boss man is going to come with a dump truck after the other roof is they are working on is completed. They took out this machine from their trailer. […]

Shingles Arrived! New Roof Today?

December 19, 2024 All I want for Christmas is my new roof My new roof, my new roof Gee, if I could only have a new roof Then I could wish you a Merry Christmas! Yesterday, I got a call from the roofers’ office. Our shingles had arrived! Even more exciting, they can start work […]