Spring Chores are here

Well trying to get spring chores done on top of the damage from the mini ice storm.

Last week right after the ice storm I cut up the large branches on 3 different properties, but could not do my own as I had a pond 100 ft by 50 ft in the back, I just did that yesterday. Go almost 2 face cords between all. I still have on the fence line another face to cut but need to check with the owner.

I also cleaned out the chicken coop to get ready to add my new chickens, hopefully they can move out of the garage in one maybe 2 more weeks at max.

My son is doing some of the Spring cleaning in the house, wife is away sent her to Germany (See I am nice).

During the Summer I will stack all the firewood I have outside into the barn.

Think I will also hire someone to clean the windows this year as it feels like I am already running out of time.

Same here. Busy busy. Cleaning up the yard. Getting the garden ready. Getting ready for a Reno. A/C blew over the weekend so getting that looked at. Rabbits destroyed a few young fruit trees so need to replace those. But I’m happy to be busy.

Yup, forgot about gardening, I need 100 large boulders to go around flower gardens,
a pickup load and trailer of wood chips and need to go get 12-15 bales of straw. Want to do straw bale gardening.

I also need to get 2 dwarf apple trees. I did plant 3 Haskap plants (going to buy 2 more) and 5 blueberry last spring, should start producing in 2024.

Need to be all done by May long weekend, then get my firewood in the barn so I can make room for more outside.

The straw bale gardening sounds interesting, let us know how it works out.

I think I’ll plant a couple of service berries this year. A friend of mine made some jam with his berries and it was incredible.

I thought I was ahead of the game, but daughter just moved two houses beside us and she has a good long list. :sad:;)

I'm off the hook for the spring chores this year, moving in July so just the bare minimum until then.

I've been at it for the past two weeks and working on 5 different projects. Instead of working on one then moving on to the next I'm trying to work on 5 at the same time, moving from one to the other and it doesn't look like I'm making any headway. Forgot about the windows, like you might hire someone to do it this year... One nice thing though the weather here has been perfect for working outside... The next two weeks suck according to the long range forecast...

Cleaned the yard last week with the new blower works great. Never worked on the gardens yet ,this weather is just a tease besides the garlic, onion and asparagus bed is de weeded. Had 1 small tree to clean that fell during the winter gave a bit wood enough for a few fires. Just building a bearded dragon enclosure this past weekend it's looking awesome had 1 minor issue when I stuck my head to wet pile of expansion foam lol. Just have doors, lights , grout and finish the feed bowl.

Sill no pics

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My wife and I are busy staging my neighbors house next door to help them out one is gravely ill and wife is going to move in with her daughter, so for them a three house move all told.

A whole life time of "stuff" to be moved, place painted and so forth. My wife is getting a surgery on Thursday that has taken two years to get, pretty major one.

I was up at the camp Wednesday last, still a few places with 8 inches of snow. I have at least 5 tree's down, mostly pin cherry, a Maple and half a real snarly pine tree.

I helped my son strip a cab for his Ram on the weekend and got is re painted, at least its not sitting at the side of the house any more.

I will probably be delayed getting in my garden up north because of all this, so I will be donating a few pints of blood to the local fly population.

Tried to get in one last weekend working in the bush with the tractor. Most places okay - packed snow or frozen ground - but a couple of spots turned into bottomless mud holes after a couple of trips over them with the tractor. Next weekend is work weekend at the cottage - that's usually a pretty busy day - raking pine needles, picking up fallen branches and hooking up the water. Not much to do around the house in suburbia.

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Originally Posted by Gilroy

My wife and I are busy staging my neighbors house next door to help them out one is gravely ill and wife is going to move in with her daughter, so for them a three house move all told.

A whole life time of "stuff" to be moved, place painted and so forth. My wife is getting a surgery on Thursday that has taken two years to get, pretty major one.

I was up at the camp Wednesday last, still a few places with 8 inches of snow. I have at least 5 tree's down, mostly pin cherry, a Maple and half a real snarly pine tree.

I helped my son strip a cab for his Ram on the weekend and got is re painted, at least its not sitting at the side of the house any more.

I will probably be delayed getting in my garden up north because of all this, so I will be donating a few pints of blood to the local fly population.

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Have you tried a thermacell - they have a belt-hung one that I use. Works pretty good.

Right now is about that time of year where i've let the woodstove go out (mostly) and can start refilling the mostly empty shed with the logs i'd piled back when the ground was frozen. Finished last week. Right around 4 bush cord of ash ready for next winter. This little Fiskars 36" sure takes a beating and has gone thru a lot of wood.
Oh, and, finished off with another, new to me, old Stihl 026. Picked this one up a month ago for $65, not running. Clean piston/cylinder. No leaks(i pressure tested it). All she needed was a $12 chinesium carb kit. Love these old saws ;)

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The past week was spent shoveling a trench thru the lowest area in my yard and adding stone, pipe, and a catch basin to hopefully get things to drain a little quicker behind the house. We'll see

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(no idea why pics are loading sideways and upside down)

Next up is preparing for planting trees. Have 200 spruce/cedar/pine seedlings coming in a couple weeks. Looking to add some permanent conifer screening on a couple of my deer woods

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Originally Posted by werner.reiche

Have you tried a thermacell - they have a belt-hung one that I use. Works pretty good.

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Yeh Werner I have one up north and probably forget to us it because I get so carried away with the chores, if I leave the potato patch until late May to turn it over I will get eaten alive.

But I will probably try it out between that and the engine exhaust from the cultivator I should be OK. LOL

Still living in a 5 bedroom house. Told my husband that we are getting too old to take care of this place and should sell. . However, no luck. :( He's been here since 1967, so this place has wonderful family memories for him.
Have started the gardening cleanup and the lawns got fertilized this weekend. Daffodils, narcissus, and
impatiens look great.

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Originally Posted by Gilroy

Yeh Werner I have one up north and probably forget to us it because I get so carried away with the chores, if I leave the potato patch until late May to turn it over I will get eaten alive.

But I will probably try it out between that and the engine exhaust from the cultivator I should be OK. LOL

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Nothing like small engine exhaust to keep the bugs away.

I have a bugscreen hat/jacket combo I bought a few years ago after an early season laker trip with clouds of blackflies but have not tried it yet. They could be a life saver in these situations or are they too warm to work in?
John

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Originally Posted by johnjyb

I have a bugscreen hat/jacket combo I bought a few years ago after an early season laker trip with clouds of blackflies but have not tried it yet. They could be a life saver in these situations or are they too warm to work in?
John

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They are pretty warm to work in, they really hold the heat in. I wear overalls all day when I am up at the cabin and find them hot but they are good at keeping the bugs at bay and save a lot of clothes getting ruined.

Trying to finish up a reno from last year. While the machinery (excavator and dozer) was here for that, I started 3 new projects lol. So, working on them, fencing, cleaning the coop, starting the garden. Want to try the straw bale method for some pumpkins this year.

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Originally Posted by Sharon

Still living in a 5 bedroom house. Told my husband that we are getting too old to take care of this place and should sell. . However, no luck. :( He's been here since 1967, so this place has wonderful family memories for him.
Have started the gardening cleanup and the lawns got fertilized this weekend. Daffodils, narcissus, and
impatiens look great.

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Sharon,
How do you stop a beagle from digging up your garden when letting them outside?

I don't have a beagle now , but when I did they were kenneled unless being used to hunt. They never had the run of the back yard. Terriers and beagles are keen to dig up here and there to look for rabbits etc. Not much you can do about that. How about fencing off the garden?

Shouldn't this be in the Sporting Dog section? :)

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Originally Posted by Sharon

I don't have a beagle now , but when I did they were kenneled unless being used to hunt. They never had the run of the back yard. Terriers and beagles are keen to dig up here and there to look for rabbits etc. Not much you can do about that. How about fencing off the garden?

Shouldn't this be in the Sporting Dog section? :)

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You know my dog ain't the sportin' type. ;)
I'll figure it out, not to worry.

Now that everybody is out and about make sure you do a thorough check for ticks. My buddy had one lodged in his shoulder last week and his wife made a mess trying to pull it out. Emergency visit and a dose of antibiotics hopefully he'll be ok. Looks like it'll be another bad year.

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Originally Posted by Sharon

I don't have a beagle now , but when I did they were kenneled unless being used to hunt. They never had the run of the back yard. Terriers and beagles are keen to dig up here and there to look for rabbits etc. Not much you can do about that. How about fencing off the garden?

Shouldn't this be in the Sporting Dog section? :)

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The trick with beagles digging - or any negative behaviour in any breed - is don't let it start... It's as simple as that.
And that means for the first 18-24 months of your dog's life it is never left unattended outside of it's crate or kennel - somewhere where it simply cannot start a bad habit.

Once you've got a digger problem - well fence the garden and it will likely find another place to dig.

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Originally Posted by warpipe

Now that everybody is out and about make sure you do a thorough check for ticks. My buddy had one lodged in his shoulder last week and his wife made a mess trying to pull it out. Emergency visit and a dose of antibiotics hopefully he'll be ok. Looks like it'll be another bad year.

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Last year was a bugger for ticks for me. Partly because they were worse than usual (I think), but more so to me spending a lot more time in the bush working with a new dog. I got 6 tick bytes last fall and found *lots* of other ticks on my clothes. Was into ER twice for the double dose of doxycycline, but still got lyme - two weeks of doxycycline fixed it. Second time for me - also had it in 2017.

I already found one tick on my clothes last week. Looking at using permetherin and taping my cuffs to my boots for this year.

Finished up syrup, so now I’m going hard at the firewood. Will be lots of brush to burn. This year we’re double the garden here so I have 3 raised beds to build. Hoping to also put up a chicken coup, and maybe a pig pen depending on how fast I get the other choirs done.

Went down and looked at my raise beds this afternoon after feeding my mutts... Seems like all the frost is out of them and my garlic has started popping up through the straw bed that's covering them... I might start putting in some scallions this weekend... From what they are saying we could be in for a real hot summer...