Saturday, March 29, 2014

Random thoughts

The S.O. coming from the woodshed about a month ago. The snow has
since melted off the trees so pruning should be easy. 
It's Saturday morning and once again I'm considering donning snowshoes, grabbing the lopping shears, and attacking the overgrown and snarled apple trees. They're kind of a mess because they're all feral and were ignored for years. Now is the time of year to do it -- the snow is more than three feet deep so it's like having a ladder without having to actually use a ladder. Then again, it is awkward maneuvering around the trees while wearing snowshoes. Only in the U.P.

Speaking of snow and apple trees, I was also thinking I should prune the dwarf Wolf River tree I planted last year. Only one problem: the tree is totally buried except for about three inches sticking out of the snow. Perhaps dwarf trees aren't such a hot idea up here after all.

The sun is shining today so I may spend the afternoon in the Woman Cave working on quilts or doing some other puttering. Or I may go down to the museum. For some reason, I just haven't felt the urge to sew as much this winter as I have in some years. Usually I'd have two quilts in progress; this year there's only one and it's going slow. Not sure why; I'll blame the long, cold winter. There were too many days when the woodstove just wasn't up to chasing the chill out of the cave. It's hard to sew when you're wearing mittens. Maybe I should jettison the computer and turn this porch into my sewing space. I'm always up a couple hours before the S.O. I could use his laptop. I'm a morning person; he's not. I'd probably get more done. For sure I'd be less likely to waste as much time as I do wandering around the murkier areas of cyberspace.

As for the museum, there's the usual cataloging and filing. It's not going to end for a long, long time. I'm almost done with the filing cabinet mess, but there's still the gazillion boxes of miscellaneous crap in the "attic" and the storage building. And I do mean crap: one of the little gems I found in the attic was a bizarre mangled papier mache model of something unidentifiable. For sure it's going on the Vappu bonfire. I also need to clean out a storage closet so the S.O. can help me put in decent shelves (the existing shelves were poorly installed, aren't deep enough, and sag) sometime next week. Lots to do, and never enough time or bodies to do it all.
Feral apple trees, March 28, 2014

4 comments:

  1. I think I would like to turn my apple tree into a stump.

    I would love to have room here for some sewing projects, I'll try to get rid of some of this shit this year.

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  2. I like the idea of long stretches of down time at home to fill with projects but I don't think I am cut out to live in such extreme weather!

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  3. A former neighbour at http://barbstruestories.com/ was merciless when she pruned their apple tree. She said that she read an apple tree should be pruned so a big bird could fly through it. Her husband and I thought they didn't mean a 747. The joke was on us as the tree was loaded with apples after her efforts.
    Pruning on snowshoes is a new one. Only as you say in UP.

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  4. Our snow is finally receding. Only about a foot left in the yard and the dirt road is not a mud track.

    Stay sane - spring will still come this year.
    the Ol'Buzzard

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