The busy time of Year

Warm weather, new growth, and good fortune, all add up to lots to do.  Our neighbor had some trees taken down that were over the power lines.  With the weather these days, any trees that can fall onto things you don't want smashed are a real threat.  The trees also threatened her home.  The sad thing was that one of the trees was a big, old and beautiful Spruce.
The up side to all of this is that the crews doing the tree work gladly agreed to give me all the wood and all the chips.  The wood, most of it, will be heating the house next winter, and possibly the one after that.  The guys used their big machines to stack it all in the upper drive where I can still get around it but where I can get at it and work it in the shade (bonus).  The spruce may become spars for some small boats to be built in the future!
The chips are being used in a few different ways.  We are using them to line walkways in the garden.

Well trodden path to the chicken coop now
covered in wood chips

 They will help reduce the amount of weeds that come up, and increase the amount of moisture in the garden.  It is impressive how the chips can be dry on the top layer and very moist just below.  It is forecast to be a hot and dry summer, and it seems that we might be due this unpleasantness.  The other measure we are putting in place to deal with the moisture issue is using the chips to create a swale.  In this case a swale is a small ditch where runoff will travel and hopefully stay for a while.  The ditch is filled with the chips, which are porous enough to let the water flow but will help to keep the ground from eroding.

The main garden now has paths covered in wood chips
and the swale borders it's uphill side to hold moisture and prevent erosion
from runoff.

We also have chips around the base of the fruit trees.  Even if the season is not as bad as forecast, these chips look nice, reduce the amount of weed pulling, and will relieve some of the pressure to water.  They also smell great!  The perfume of a dead, ground up evergreen.
Momma sneaky snake just shed her skin and is looking really great.  We saw junior yesterday.  These are the garter snakes that are here each year.  It took us a minute to get used to them but now they are like family, and have even become a bit complacent about us being around them.

Momma snake warming up in the sun on a cloudy day.
The dog is sleeping next to her just off camera frame.

Two new additions to the place and family this year are plum trees.  They are young but someday we might have some sweet tasting fruit and a lovely tall tree.

Kind of spindly now but give her a few years
and we may have a nice tree to sit under and plums!

The arbor for the grape has turned out to be a great visual improvement and hopefully a practical one for the grape.

The grape arbor in the distance.  this makes for a
nice place for morning breakfast.

I have really been enjoying the "sunrise deck" that I put up.  Each morning I take my cup of coffee up there and set it aside while I to a bit of meditation.  It is a really great way to start the day.

sunrise deck from the cafe table on the porch

sunrise deck from the peach/plum tree terrace
That's the grape arbor on the right.

I now have the summer to get the wood cut, split and stacked.  It is really a lot of wood and that makes me feel two ways at once.  The first is that I feel comfort in knowing that the little house will be toasty warm this winter.  The second way is that I have a bit of time ahead having to hear the drone of that chainsaw and smell it's fumes.  I may try and move logs a piece at a time with in range of the electric chainsaw, which isn't so unpleasant to use.

It's a busy time of year.

Lots of little plants have sprung up from the seeds we planted.  Now the thing is to keep them alive!