Shreddin' It

Part of my inheritance from my Dad was a chipper-shredder. That may seem odd to some, but I was delighted to receive it. I like to add a layer of mulch around my plants to build up the health of the soil.

Mulch around a Bergenia

Since I lived on a sailboat in Puerto Rico when I received the chipper-shredder, I had nowhere to put it. My sister came to the rescue and took it to her house for a few years.

My Inheritance

She recently brought it back to me.

In the course of fixing up this old house we are renovating the landscape which requires the removal of lots of overgrown and/or dead plants. I told you about all the trees recently and now we are tackling the shrubs.

We got the chipper-shredder out the other day to help with shrub disposal and tried to start it after its five year vacation. First we needed to go buy gas, then we needed to clean the carburetor, then we checked the spark plug, but still it would not run. Looks like we need a new carburetor, presently on order from Amazon.

(The carburetor arrived today and it runs fine now.)

If only we had one of these bad boys!

We would really be shreddin' it.

Getting Ready for Winter

We've been spending a lot of time in the attic lately installing the heating system. It's miserable work: confined spaces, spiderwebs, darkness, nails sticking down through the roof, and often too hot. Oh, and the HVAC engineer wants all the outlets to "wash the walls" so that means they must be placed right under the shallowest parts of the roof.

But we are eventually winning this battle. The unit is in place, most of the supply ducts are in place, and all the holes are cut through to the various rooms. We still need the big return air plenum, but most of the return lines are in place too.

Down in the new kitchen/breakfast room/laundry/bathroom area we have installed all our wall insulation and it's been signed off, so we can start hanging drywall when we're done with the HVAC.

With the insulation in, we notice that the house is a little warmer in the mornings, but it sure will be nice to turn that heater on!

October Garden Report

Not surprisingly, the Sasanqua camellias are starting to bloom. Even after a brutal pruning in the spring, they are loaded with blooms. Tough plants.

The azaleas are blooming again; perhaps it's the cooler weather, or perhaps it's the watering I've been doing. Either way, I'm happy to see them again.

The really big news is the tree work we're doing. We love trees and hate to cut them down, but we had several that were dead, diseased, or sick. So, in the last three weeks the tree surgeons have removed three dead Birch trees, two sick Modesto Ashes, two sick Elms, and an ill-placed, messy Mimosa.

Diseased Elm

(At the base of this elm were five azaleas that we transplanted. I'm happy to report that they are doing fine in their new locations.)

Diseased area

Big Bare Spot!

Don't dispare, we still have a Gingko, a Mayten, a Liquidamber, and a Flowering Plum out front. In the Jungle we have a Valley Oak, a Flowering Cherry, and a huge Philadelphus that's almost a tree.

In the back yard we have three huge Valley Oaks, two smaller Valley Oaks, a huge Magnolia, a Hackberry, a Cocculus, two Sweet Bays, two Japanese Maples, a Chinese Evergreen Elm, a Dogwood, and four Redwoods.

Chinese Elm

Chinese Elm Bark

The good news is that we now have more sun on the pool, plenty of firewood, and lots of compost, so we've been splitting, stacking, shoveling, and raking a lot lately.

One of the transplanted azaleas