Well, here it is, Memorial Day, 2010. Mary and Lucy were in town briefly on the 27th to attend Russell Mattson's funeral. They brought a potted plant to put in the Ogema cemetery at the family plot.
Saturday we were at Peg's mother's house for the annual "Donna's birthday, spring house and yard cleaning" event. On the way home I stopped at an outlet of Larry's Greenhouse and picked up some plants for the cemetery box. It looks like I will need to get a plan together to clean a few of those marker stones. Anyone have any clues on how to do that? You can see the dark stains in this photo.
Anyway, here is the current view. I got some Geraniums and some dahlias. I like the yellow and red together and in the past we put marigolds in there but they did not have marigolds at the greenhouse outlet. So, dahlias it is and actually rather fitting, considering the etymology......
Peggy and I have been talking about getting a garden going. Starting from scratch in a plot that is now all grass and weeds seemed too much for this year, so Peg is doing some experimenting on the edge of the deck. If this works out O.K., it will be a good place to grow small plant crops.
Some things are coming up, beets and beans, scallions so far. I will be putting down some flat belts to kill the grass on the proposed garden spot. These belts are around 100" wide and varying lengths, some about 16' long. They are used belts taken off any used machines we take in at work. There is a waiting list for these items as they are a popular item for instant parking areas for trailers or whatever, woodpile covers, etc..
Hey, the wood is all sawed and split, now to stack it near the stove for next winter.
It certainly is looking green around here now!! Soon the peonies will be blossoming.
This is the summer for some maintenance and repair around the old house. I inquired about where to buy or rent scaffolding, and nephew Paul gave me some on loan for the summer!! He was picking up fire brick from the Anderson homestead in Ogema so was able to drop the scaffolding right in my yard. I can't thank him enough for doing this!!
It's now set up on the south side of the house so I can fix (probably just remove) the old window in the closet just off the west room. It's in really bad shape and due for replacing (like most of the rest of the original windows, but this one is worse....)
Next project will be to fix up the wood at the eaves of the house in preparation for putting new shingles on the roof. Also want to do something about putting a waterproof membrane at the lower edge of the roof to prevent water infiltration at those pesky ice dams that occur on these old houses.
I'll try to keep you up to date on the goings-on around the Ottertail. I'm working on a few "fun" projects as well, and will see what time I have to devote to them.
I gotta go, Carlo
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