Coop is installed in the back yard. Now we need some fencing!

We can’t plant edibles until we have a deer fence, and we can’t have a deer fence until we locate the new patio, and we can’t do the patio until a utilities trench connects the house to the cabin, but flowers are nice! The deer can share, if they must.

The variegated cattail we planted six weeks ago has produced a cattail! Thanks Linden! And we built another bridge. Our woodland path now reaches almost to our west side property line.

Anne and Shawn on our newest walking bridge.

Variegated cattail seems to be taking. We were told it’s not invasive. We’ll see.

It was gorgeous today — partly cloudy and in the mid-70s. The front that brought the heavy rains yesterday made working outside really comfortable. So …

John moved more logs from the NW corner to the SW corner to line the path we’re making through the woods. Then we mulched the path beyond the bridge we built last week, using the mulch our contractors made when they chopped up a view dead trees for us. The plan is to build an easily walkable path that goes all the way around the pond.

Then we finished lifting the sod from an expanded bed in front of the front porch, where we planted the crepe myrtle Linden bought John for his birthday. She also bought him a couple of sweetbay magnolia saplings, which we planted down by the pond. Oh, and last week we planted two pawpaws along the path through the woods. They were a housewarming gift from our friends Bob and Miriam.

After planting the crepe myrtle, we still had a little in us, so we finished constructing our first raised bed garden in the backyard, which is near the hugel we built a few weeks ago. We laid the sod from the crepe myrtle bed at the bottom of the raised bed, put cardboard on top, and finished up with about six inches of composted topsoil. The sod will compost and should give us some really nice dirt to work with next year.

Signing off for beer o’clock.

Anne showing off her big biceps after we set the bridge frame on its footings over the creek.

Anne has begun keeping a paper journal. We will see if we can keep it electronically.