New Cedars

Well, we were really busy this weekend and I'm surprised I'm sitting down to type this. Friday, Jeremy and I came home a little bit early. We got the top off the back of the truck, then took it to Margo's (I car pool with her), since she said we could borrow their trailer. We picked it up and headed towards town to a little garden center on Forest Lea Road. I had ordered 30 six foot cedars and they had come in for us to pick up. We filled the back of the truck and the trailer and headed home. We unloaded the cedars and arranged them along the property line by the ones that were cut. Ummm....we were a few short. I suggested we go pick up some dirt while we had the trailer and then realized we may as well pick up 5 more cedars from the nursery down the road. We had originally stopped there to get ideas and we looked at some cedars she had, but I had gotten a better price at the other place. So, we got a trailer load and truck load of top soil and five more cedars (4 four foot and 1 three foot). We got home and Jeremy dug as deep of holes as he could for all the cedars. Meanwhile, I worked on cutting several of the dead limbs off the two mostly dead pines by the road. It's getting dark now by 8:30pm so we're loosing all the extra time we used to have to work outside.

Saturday we got up and went back outside. Unfortunately, it was a rainy day and we got stuck in a good rain unloading all the dirt from the truck and trailer. We got all the cedars covered and had a little bit extra I'll probably use on some of the other gardens. Jeremy also trimmed the big cedar behind the house and in front of the shed doors and the pine at the edge of the driveway (so the command center has room to get into the driveway!). It was raining pretty good at that point so I came inside to start cleaning. Eventually, Jeremy came to get me since he had filled the truck and trailer up with branches. We headed off to the dump - about a 1/2 hour south between Petawawa and Pembroke. It cost $15 to drop off the branches. We headed home hoping to have just enough time to load and make one more trip to the dump. We loaded all the raked dirt and needles, etc from cleaning under the cedar branches. That filled the truck and trailer! That was some good work loading it and then unloading it. This was free at the dump as it's regular pick-up stuff.(We still have a pile of branches we didn't get to the dump, but otherwise, it's finally cleaned up!)
You can see how far the old branches stuck out and killed any grass trying to grow. We also took out the big bushy bush in front of the maple. It was VERY overgrown and didn't do anything special. I hope to find something (if not the hydrangea in the above picture) to plant in it's place.

We got back from the dump with less than 5 minutes before Marnie and Jason arrived. They had some time and wanted to stop by with the dogs so they could run around free. We ended up starting a fire, but it soon started raining so we had to go inside. Cooper, ~1 yr old golden retriever, is in need of some one-on-one training and is starting to frustrate Marnie. He figured out how to escape thru our fence by going underneath. So, we put Hayde's shock collar on him and the next time he ventured towards the fence, Marnie zapped him and he did a half somersault into the fence! It was pretty humorous. She tried Bean's shock collar on him, but I think he's too big for it and it did nothing. I had turned Hayde's up just a bit and it work this time! Marnie's usually home alone as Jason has a job that takes him elsewhere for two weeks at a time.

An overview of the "new" extended yard as of today! Today, I did one more rake job to grab all the extra smaller branches we missed yesterday. We still have more work to do, but that will have to happen later.

Jeremy is also working on putting in a cement pad under the oil tank. We got 1/2 the pad cemented and today he built the other frame and he was able to lift the other end up and we got it set on blocks. He did get the rest poured today too and of course, it's wet and rainy out so we've got it covered.

I also managed to get my 16 mile run in this morning. Once again, Jodi was super nice and got up and met me here at 8am with her bike. We headed out and I figured we'd get wet, but we managed to get back with a little time to spare before the rain came. I started pretty slow (my right hamstring is bothering me and I've gotten really tight this last week doing lunges), but eventually I got warmed up a bit and was able to pick up my pace. I was a bit nervous and I didn't really eat much yesterday and certainly didn't get any fluids in yesterday either. But, I was lucky and by 1/2 way was feeling well enough I was able to cruise to the end.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/45640390

Well, Jeremy's baking cookies and I'm working on the laundry and will try to work on cleaning up the place some more before I head to bed (hopefully early!). I just talked to Marilynne and hopefully all goes well with them and they'll arrive Tuesday evening, and Carol will be flying in Wednesday. Until later when I can fill in with visiting news!