Monday

Well, for an old gal who didn't feel so great I accomplished a bit. This is one of the chestnut trees that a friend gave me yesterday.

Then I moved over and planted the second one. This is on a stupid hill that I have trouble standing up on and mowing has become such a big problem here, so I am trying this.

This was my third biggie - a goji berry that I had treated myself too over a month ago and have been keeping it in the house to protect it from the frost. Now with this cage I am hoping to protect it from the deer. You just cannot have anything here unless it is protected somehow. I want to cover the two chestnut trees but could not find my other two Old cages I had and I was way too tired to walk way in the back to where hubby had a junk pile to see if there were any there.

I also wanted to go ahead and mulch these guys but was too tired to make the extra trips up and down the hill that it would have required. But, it is calling for thunderstorms the next 3 days so maybe we will get some rain on them instead and then I will attempt to complete them??????

Yesterday I attended my very first "Plant Swap" at a local library. It was a really neat experience and I wish I could do it again but we all know I do not know how long I will continue to have my eyesight so I am grateful for this experience.

People took any kind of plant or seed and then for as many as you brought you could go pick anything you wanted. After that round it was a free for all -anything left over anybody could have. I was amazed at the variety of plants available.

I took a Mother-in-law's Tongue and a Spider plant and picked out a oregano plant and two packs of seeds. Then my friend that took me gave me more plants.

This is the artichokes that I got planted and watered. Poor little babies .

This is the comfrey. I used to have it years ago.

These two little things are thornless blasckberries. There were also two Wineberries  and some mints.

O , this was a amaryllis that was at the swap. I have wanted one for years. I hope I can nurture it until Christmas??????? There were also some garlic chives that I just planted.

I still have to plant the oregano plant and I had found 3 cabbage plants and a flower called tickseed. I have drooled over tickseed at the garden stores before and not had the big bucks to purchase them These are babies so I am really hoping to get to see them do their beautiful thing.

This was another one of my projects for the day. Last year I had a little porch up there. But a friend volunteered to build me a small sunroom. I paid for the lumber and it is on the ground . That is where that board came from. Well, they came and tore down my little porch and then you know how good intentions are-they never came back.

So, yesterday I had asked my daughter and her boyfriend if next weekend when they come to mow would they take a day and help me put up a board to hang my bird-feeders on and maybe even erect a new roof over half of the porch. They said yes -But-  today my little hummingbirds showed UP! OOOO - I was frantic. So I gathered up the supplies and fought with this ladder that hates my guts. He even tried to break my wrist-can you imagine the nerve of a ladder being so unruly???????

But I finally got the ladder up and the board up and the screws and the drill . It took me a minute to realize I should put the screws in the board to start with and that really helped. I hung on to the ladder for dear life and the board and the drill and went at it. First the ladder tried to scoot sideways with me. DARN LADDER. Then the board tired to flip out of my hands -but finally I got it attached - only to discover it was SO crooked that even I could not stand it. So, I unscrewed two screws and then straightened it up as good as I could with the one screw still in it and drilled the other screws back in it.

I am hoping that this will defeat the cats. I went and found an old metal arm that I could hang the feeder on and mounted it all the way up at the top of the board. Now I need another flower hanger for the other side but that will require a trip to town.

I would have liked to got it all the way up even with the porch board but I was not strong enough to hold it by myself. This way it seems to have the strength to do the job. I will find out. Now , if only my back will quit hurting. ~smile~