The Craftiest Workshop

I feel like we have gotten so much outdoor work done in the last couple weeks. The weather has been sunny with moderate temperatures. Aside from the regularly gusty winds, perfect conditions for working outside. We have been spending 4-6 hours outside most days moving dirt, moving wood chips, building more garden boxes, starting plants and clearing up deadfall.

Here is my new watering stand station. Nothing fancy and put together quickly but it will be so much easier on the back when filling watering cans. Now all we need is some rain to fill the tank.

Much of the woodchips that we got from Chip Drop in the fall have been moved and placed around trees and bushes plus in between some of the garden boxes. Already the grass and weeds are pushing through but we are simply trying to help retain water and keep the soil from blowing away.

We moved part of the trellis so that I can plant peas in the next box over. We added a flower box in front. I am hoping that the gourds I started decide to sprout so I can plant them on the other trellis.

The other thing I have been doing is starting vegetable and flower seeds in the house.
Good thing we don’t usually eat at the table.

The greenhouse has been great for potting all these things and I can make as much mess as I want. I find it still too cold at night to leave much in there but I do have a rhubarb plant, 25 sunflower seedlings and some multiplier onions in there. I got my peas, carrots and lettuce planted this week. With the strong winds all week, I am not sure the carrots are staying wet enough to germinate.

We have two new species of visitors to our property. First is this tri-coloured bumblebee. There has been a few buzzing around us and we assume they are queens searching for good nesting spots. Hope that means many bee babies come July. The second are two snowshoe hares that have take up residence near our big shed. Hopefully we DO NOT have many hare babies come July.

All of our outdoor tasks have gotten done quicker than we needed to. I fully expect a wildfire to get out of hand sometime in the next week. Yesterday there was a fire to the north of us and it sent up big smoke for a few hours. It is now under control. A few others have popped up today as I write this and with the winds gusting to 50km/hr, a fire can easily get going.

As soon as there are evacuations needed anywhere in the north-west, Chris will have to go to help out. The last few years I didn’t see him much in the month of May.
The other thing that happens, once the fires start, is that most days become so smoky that working outside without a mask is difficult. Working outside WITH a mask is also difficult. So, I end up spending more time indoors.

As a result, we push ourselves harder the last week of April/first week of May to get as much done as we can.