Tuesday, June 26, 2012

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Updates...

Well we have endured some wet weather and we have been enjoying the sunshine and dryer weather and not to hot, which is coming next the way it sounds.

The garden and sod replanting have all done pretty well, and we have not had to water at all, except potted plants close to the house. Which is good for the lectric bill, and also a lot less monkey business moving a hose around the yard.

Our kittens are growing, but not wandering around much yet, mama is keeping them close to her. She moved them once but we brought them back up on our porch deck. Their eyes are open and their ears are starting to stand up some.

We have enjoyed some family visiting the last couple of weekends and that is a nice break, especially when they invite us to dinner or fix us dinner here at Coffee Lake Farm. Which is great and a little less we have to do, on the busy weekends.

I am keeping up with the mowing of the two yards, and even have had time to mow the first llama lot to clean up the weeds and also mow down the tall grass....it just looks nicer.

I also have had numerous Wooden Nichols projects, all the way from power washing old windows and boxes and also iron wheels. I did also paint some old wood trunks with a air sprayer, that I have had for years and never used it, and it went pretty well. So I anticipate doing more items with it in the future.


So you can see that life is still busy here at Coffee Lake Farm, and the summer is just beginning!

Next week is July 4th week, and work will be a little slower due to vacations and the 4th falling on Wednesday. My plan is to do some garden weeding and feeding, along with some other yard work, and probably have some Wooden Nichol projects also...


Wednesday, June 20, 2012

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Soggy 24 hours!

Well, the last 24 hours here at Coffee lake we have had just under 6 inches of Rain!

Many other area's in northern MN, have gotten more than us, causing washed out roads and closed bridges. Duluth is almost an island, has all the roads on the south and west and east sides of town were closed, every major highway and even the interstate. The only way in and out is on hwy 53 going north to Eveleth, and down 169 through Grand Rapids.

We have water covering 2/3 of our dock, and the strong winds moved my swim raft to about 40 feet from the shoreline, closer to the dock. Needless to say everything is soft and muddy.

The next few days we hope to see some cooler dryer weather, and when ever the wind dies down, we experience the new swarms of mosquito's. But it is Minnesota, and this is a rarity as far as the rain fall goes, but the mosquto's are part of summer!

My next roadtrip back to Duluth is scheduled for late next week, if the roads cooperate!

Saturday, June 16, 2012

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I told you Smarkle could Fly!

My sister Valerie is visiting us, since our Mom and Dad, are also visiting Coffee Lake Farm.
She has some great photography skills and equipment, and she has a new paddle board, and decided to have fun photographing Smarkle fetching her ball once it is thrown in the lake.

Here is Smarkle launching her self off the dock, with her eyes fixed on the ball she is about to retrieve!

I told you could Smarkle could Fly!

Monday, June 11, 2012

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The Newest Arrivals at Coffee Lake Farm!

Here is the first arrival, right on the rug just outside our front door this morning!

Aftr that Crystalie moved Gracie and her new arrival into the basket with a nice soft blanket in it, that was located on the front porch. After that Gracie went back to work and kitten number one has 4 more to keep her company, so yes we have 5 new kittens!

We have two Calico, one gray tabby, one black and white, and also a gray and white tabby also!

So Rebekah, our guess of 3 was wrong Gracie gave us two extra!

Above is exhausted Gracie and her bunch of little furballs! This will give me some extra blogging material, as Gracie loves laying around on the front porch deck and it will be easy to watch them grow and change daily!

Sunday, June 3, 2012

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Progress on the Landscaping projects!

Well, work on the landscape project continued this last Saturday and Sunday, I was informed the skid steer loader would arrive By late Saturday or early Sunday. So it was time to rent this little sod cutter  and start the sod cutting process.

You can see below it cut about a 16 inch wide strip of sod, in each pass, about 2 inches thick. I of course had to cut the length where I wanted it. 

Sunday morning, I began rolling things up so my grass would not dry out to much while I brought in my fill and black dirt and leveled the area behind the wall. Here you can see the rolls
stacked out of the way.

I also had to dig out the sod in some extra area's and to move the shrubs we had next to the deck. Which is what you see below.

This picture is about 8:00 pm Sunday night the fill is back behind the wall the area, I started with sand, and then put about 4-5 inches of black dirt and over the top and of course leveled off and prepped for the sod go to back down on it. Which you can see below, about 1/2 of the new level area is sodded with what I rolled up in this area. I used the sod cutter to cut another large area of sod in the pasture, which is where the rest of the sod will come from, it isn't rolled up yet, but there will plenty to cover the remaining area.

So we started the watering of what we have done so far, and I will hopefully get the rest done on Monday night. 
Below you can see the new home for the shrubs, on both sides of the power pole.

Below is the smaller landscape area, I built, filled in and planted with a wide variety of Hosta plants, and the brick red mulch applied.

Needless to say, this was a big part of the weekend, but the vegetable garden and pumpkin patch, are planted also, and I also got the yard pretty much mowed on Saturday also. 
Needless to say it was a busy weekend and I am a little tired and sore!
But progress has it's rewards as you can see!