woohoo! our temps went up to 24-25C (80F) and it was so warm and gorgeous outside! we started the morning in tank tops and shorts but after doing some yard work, we threw our shirts to the wind. and then asked each other - "why are we still wearing shorts?" so those were tossed, too. it was wicked awesome and what a nice treat on March 22!
we got a bunch of work done in the yard. we also went out and picked a pile of radish seeds from last year's radishes that we let go to seed. we are going to start sprouting those for salads - we love sprouts! and radish sprouts are so spicey!!!
jambaloney lugged 10 loads of big rocks in our garden cart from down our road to the river. big, giant, beautiful, multi-coloured rocks that i am landscaping an area of the front yard with. i lugged about 7 or 8 wheelbarrows of rocks that jambaloney has been digging up while digging the trench. the reason: we are making a rock garden!
we have one area of our front yard, that has 2 apple trees, and has a mish mash of everything growing in it! here's a pic of it when we first bought the place:
here's a pic of it after jambaloney's Mom spent several days painstakingly trying to clear out all of the grass:
she did an awesome job clearing it out - but man did it take some work!
and here is a pic of what we are planning to do with it:
because we just don't want to have to deal with all of the grass around the trees, and because there is now a year's worth of birdseed around the trees - it is going to be difficult to keep cleared. so i thought that a nice rock garden around the trees would make a nice landscape feature and once the lawn grass starts growing it will still be beautiful and green, but much easier to keep the tree area cleared.
we spent the majority of the day hauling rocks. we will finish the job in a few days and i will take pics when it is done. we are sore from hauling rocks but it feels really good to get those muscles all stretched after the winter! and we also both got a little bit of a suntan - woohoo!
this week we are back to normal temps, highs around 2C (37F). and in the next few weeks we will get in to the teens. nice and normal. but yesterday was a real treat and we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves!
today, we are priming the upper kitchen cupboards in order to paint them white. i think it will make the kitchen feel lighter, brighter and less tiny, at least i hope it will! i will take pics of those when they are finished.
from the sounds of the blogs that i have been checking - lots of you, all over North America, had wonderful weather yesterday! i hope that you all got a chance to get out and enjoy your day!
We are having wonderful weather here in the UK too! Really warm and sunny.
ReplyDeleteYour story on my blog was so lovely. Thanks so much for sharing it with me. I'm so pleased that you managed to get that young man into the restaurant to eat, I hope his hard work and determination paid off in life.
Joey - i am glad that you all in the UK are enjoying some wonderful weather, too!
Deletei hoped that you would like the story but i should have known that you would. i love to share things with you because you share so much of yourself on your blog. i hope that my young friend is happy and healthy and still filled with all of the vigour that he had when i knew him. thank you so much for stopping by and letting me know that you enjoyed hearing about him. thanks buddy, thanks a lot! xox
Spring is in the air up there and everything is looking beautiful. Looking at the before and after pics, in the very first one, its hard to tell where the apple trees were... Yall have been really busy.
ReplyDeleteJust be careful with the naked gardening thing--I don't want to hear about any sort of bug bites in places where you shouldnt get a bug bite.. : )
JUGM - when we first bought this place it was a real jungle!!! the previous owner had obviously been a gardener but had left the place alone for about 10 years. it was really hard for us to know where to mow or weedwhack and whatnot. but we did it slowly and tried our best - it was jambaloney's Mom who dug out the apple trees for us - she worked for days on that area!
Deleteand hey - we have been naked gardening for years! even back in the city, because we had such a private yard - we always garden naked! not saying that we don't get scratches in strange places or bug bites where bug bites should never be - bahahahah! but it is worth it to be able to run around naked! xox
Bug bites ?? I don't want to hear about being burned in places where the sun don't shine or toasted buns...;)
ReplyDeleteHeh, Rob, I was thinking the same thing, especially with chiggers....
DeleteKymber, you two are crazy... and I love it!
oh Rub, buddy - for the first few years of naked gardening - we got sunburns in all kinds of places! but we have acclimatized now! bahahahahah! you should have seen us the year that we first toasted our buns - and jambaloney had to ride his bike 14km to work the next day! he was in a lot of pain, let me tell ya! bahahahahah!
DeleteMatt - what's a chigger? and ya - we're a little "off" but we mean well...thanks buddy!
DeleteLook up Trombiculidae in wikipedia. They are one of them. They general clan live everywhere, but are much worse in the hot and humid Southern U.S.
DeleteLOL everyone who moves around here from the North complains of chiggers the first Summer. They are terrible little things.
Deletethanks Russ! and PP!
DeleteIt was a beautiful day yesterday. Your place is really looking lovely ! I love gardening, especially with lots of varieties of sedum crawling on the rocks. Be careful about naked gardening. If you ever did that in Virginia, the very conservative hummingbirds would attack, and it would not be pretty ! (And I am only HALF kidding here.)
ReplyDeletehey Jane - i am glad that you had beautiful weather, too! and we have tons of naturally-occurring sedum all over the place here...some in pinks, reds, greens, yellows, browns...most of it is probably just moss but i love all of it! and we have been naked gardening for years - actually we have been naked doing everything for years - there's just something so awesome about not having to wear clothes!!! we should be getting our hummingbirds back pretty soon - they come every spring but leave when the true summer hits! and they are way too interested in the flowers and sugar water that we feed them to attack us! and yes - they are sweet and pretty - but they are vicious little monsters as well. we love watching them knocking each other off the hummingbird feeder! xoxo
DeleteLove, love, LOVE white cabinets!
ReplyDeleteIt's so funny that I am trying to learn how to make sybiotic relationships between plants and having planted one twig for fear of making a mistake lol, and you two dove right in and had fun. Yay! Kudos!
Yesterday was HOT for me. The MS really toys with body temps. I was so hot and irratable by supper time that I yelled at Renoman when he got home from work. He figured out pretty quickly that I wasn't myself. and put me under the over head fan in the living room with my legs up. He even brought me ice water a personal fan, pizza and then rootbeer. Boy, did I feel like a schmuck! But not for too long. The rootbeer was good! lol
I'm glad to see you got so much work done, Kymber. It looks wonderful.
Sue
xoxoxo
P.S. Sorry for all the type-o's! I'm wearing a rubber glove - in the middle of cleaning the bathroom, and waiting for the marble polish to dry on the vanity! lol
Deleteoh Sue - we just finished putting the first coat of primer on - over top of cherry stain - now it looks like a white and purple mess!!! we will do another coat of primer and then put a coat of glossy white to match our bottom cabinets. i think it will make the room look bigger and really punch out the red sink and red accessories - i looooove red!
Deletewe practiced a lot of our gardening and understanding relationships between plants, etc. when we were back in the city. at our old house we had a fully established and mature garden that we were able to practice with and add to and learn. it takes time and of course you always make mistakes but that is the only way to learn. and we love learning - especially here! this year we are going to try and transplant some blueberries and blackberries that grow on our land into our new "berry patch". i'll show you when you come to visit!
i am sorry that it was so hot for you yesterday. you will have to pay attention and remember that when you get hot, you get a little "cranky and nasty" - bahahahah! from now on - have that fan at the ready and a few rootbeers in the fridge. Renoman loves you and understands. and i am so glad that you have him!
teehee - typing with rubber gloves - too funny, hon! xoxo
I hope it's not too hot when you visit! It's great that you have the beginner gardner info under your belts ... oh, wait, naked gardeners don't wear belts hahaha! You know what I mean.
DeleteBTW I'm changing the url on my blog before I go to bed tonight just so you know. It's going to be the little acre that could (dot) blogspot (dot) com.
What a great job! Good move with the rocks.How nice to be able to be naked outside and not have to worry about neighbors!!!! Rick is envious :)
ReplyDeleteoh Donna - that area is just so overgrown and impossible to mow or weedwhack - so we figured rock garden it is! and we have such beautiful rocks on our land that i thought it was time to showcase them! and yes - one of the prime reasons that we chose this place to bug out is for the privacy. and all of our neighbours and community members know that we run around naked all of the time - and they don't mind and respect our privacy. we have told everyone that the chain is always up at the bottom of our driveway, but, if they want to stop in - pull up to our driveway and toot the horn. that gives us time to put on clothes and run down and unlock the chain. most of our neighbours know where we keep the key for the chain so that they can toot, unlock it themselves and then wait for one of us to run out to the top of the driveway. then we don't have to run down the 130ft thing. our neighbours are very respectful and we appreciate that so much!
DeleteRick (and all of you) are welcome to come for a visit! if Rick wants to come alone - we will drive vandura down by the river and he can run around naked all he wants. and have complete privacy! we'll hook up in the evenings when it is cooler and wear clothes - bahahahah! wouldn't that be a hoot! xo
NaKed and working??Holy smokes you guys have skin of steel! If you went naked here in the desert of New Mexico you would end up with thorns in places that should never have thorns!!
ReplyDeleteWell vitamin D is important though, so yay for being healthy!!
btw-I love how you are transforming your place into a lovely home!!!
xoxox
Jennifer
hey sweetie - our skin is used to being out in the sun since we have been "nudie-patooties" for years. and our sun is never as strong as the sun you get down there. plus there is the ocean breeze which always keeps you cool! and you got way more thorny things down there than we have up here - as long as you stay away from the rose bushes - bahahahah! and although we are sore from yesterday - we both feel absolutely invigorated from getting a day of sun - we have enough vitamin D to last us another month till we can be naked in the sun again! and i love what you are doing at your place - the beautiful and renovated laundry room, the awesome new kitchen tiles, and that blue sink cabinet is to die for! it's so much fun to make your place nice, eh? xoxoxo
DeleteOops I forgot...if you have not tried this, I recommend it-take your radishes, slice them, squeeze fresh lime juice on and salt! Oh they are so delicious!!!
ReplyDeleteBill claims all foods are better with a hint of lime added!!
gonna give that a try in about 20 mins when i make some salad with radishes for lunch! gonna put aside a few and squeeze the lime on them. i haven't ever tried it but i can imagine it is delicious.
DeleteBill is a very wise man indeed! xoxoxo
I don't understand it. Funny, but I still don't understand it.
ReplyDeleteMDR, buddy - we gotta get you up here and get you naked! woops - that didn't come out the way i meant it!
Deletei meant....oh never mind. stick foot in mouth now!
Better get your sunglasses ready then because the only things tan/red on me is my arms and neck. To tell you how white I am, I illuminate in the dark. LOL
Deleteteehee....sounds like you got a "farmer's tan" or what we used to call in basic training a "farmer's tan" - bahahahah! no probs about being ghostly white - we can use you to "illuminate" the back deck at night! LOL back at you buddy!
DeleteNice job on the rock garden. Bet jambalony is one tired fella.
ReplyDeleteStephen, dear sweet one - if i let him he would haul rocks until he dropped! back in the city, i wanted to line one side of my yard (120ft) with rocks to delineate the lawn from the shrubs that grew all along our fence. jambaloney got up every saturday and sunday morning at the crack of dawn for about 5 weeks and went up the hill and collected rocks! actually he stole them from a hill on the side of the road - bahahahah! he always went early so that he wouldn't get caught (we weren't sure of the rock stealing rules!). here, he can get rocks all along the side of our road down to the river. he loves hauling rocks, sand, seaweed, digging trenches, shovelling dirt - he is a workhorse and strong as an ox. he makes me very proud!
DeleteI don't like rock gardens, they always sprout new rocks that end up under the lawnmower blades. I have more of a red brick garden, each shovel of dirt anywhere in the yard produces some part of an old red brick.
ReplyDeleteGrats on the naked as well, it must be nice to have the location for that so you don't get arrested.
Max, buddy - that's the whole reason we are covering that area with rocks - and filling in all the holes with beautiful white sand from the beach - we simply can't stay on top of the grass that grow around the apple trees - it all has to be pulled out by hand, weekly - we just have much better things to be spending time on!
Deleteas for getting arrested - i am not sure that you can be arrested for being naked on your own land??? and we are so set back from the road that no one can see us. and between the property on one side of us (our friend E) and us - is full-grown forest. and she and her sons know that we are always naked. the property on the other side of us has been vacant for 15+ yrs. we really are on 10 acres out in the middle of nowhere so i don't think we need to worry about getting arrested. however, i am now going to look into by-laws about that. thanks buddy!
NEKKID gardening???!!! Oh dear, that just sounds like all kinds of trouble! LOL Don't look, Ethel!!
ReplyDeleteAnonymous Homesteader
teeheehee AH - avert your eyes! ya - we bin NEKKID gardening for years. we been NEKKID everything for years! bahahahah!
DeleteKymber - What awesome weather you have and what a great landscaping transformation ... the pics look super ! I love rocks and would just have such fun working in your beautiful nature too! And you have natural growing sedum in different colours ... oh I'm getting envious here.
ReplyDeleteEnjoy guys ! xoxo
oh Helga the weather has been just fantastic - back to normal temps for the next week which is fine with us - and then spring will start creeping up - can't wait! you would love gardening here, my sweet friend! and i would love to have you! xoxoxoxo
DeleteNot sure why grass was such a bad thing to grow under apple trees. Guess I'm just a lazy gardener. If grass grows under a tree, I mow it rather than yanking it out. It seems to be the perfect solution around fruit trees. Near harvest time, let it get a little long and it will cushion the landing of windfall apples. Orchards do it that way, and it is their business and livelihood. Beautiful as it is, that rock garden is going to massively bruise the apples when some fall off the trees.
ReplyDeleteHope you don't regret painting those cupboards white after they get the chronic finger smudges and dirt that all white things get after a while. Good luck keeping them looking clean!
Enjoy your vitamin D.
Clothes are wonderful safety equipment when gardening. Can't say that I'd ever want to be outdoors without clothes; my skin would burn very badly.
Have fun checking each other for ticks. There is a country song with that basic idea by the way.
Mrs. S - the grass grows extremely long under the trees over the course of the spring/summer/fall. and the previous owner had started a rock garden kind of thing so amongst all of the grass are rocks that have threatened to break both of our weed whackers. even using the weed whacker you can't get in close to the trees and the other plants. as the trees are decorative apple trees - they haven't fruited since we bought the property in 2009 and i am not sure that they will - we are not concerned about apples falling on the rocks. if they do fruit this year * crossing fingers * we will stay on top of them in regards to picking the fruit.
Deleteour bottom cupboards are white and i keep them very clean by wiping them every time i do the dishes - which is at least twice a day (i hate doing dishes btw!). we also have a white stove and fridge and those get wiped every second or third day. we haven't had a problem with smudges and dirt and i think the white cupboards will make the room feel bigger and lighter.
we love our vitamin D and as i have mentioned in several comments above - we have been gardening naked for years! of course you get scratches and bites but you get that with clothes on too. and we just love the sense of freedom that comes with being naked. and if you burn easily, i do not recommend naked gardening!
i do not know what country song you are talking about? i would love to know tho - it sounds funny! we don't have any problems with ticks either *crossing fingers again*.
Kymber,
DeleteHere's the link to a youtube video of the song. Hubby hears it sometimes on the radio when driving home from work.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3tiPndMqxLQ
thanks, Mrs. S - i can't wait to play it on jambaloney's computer - mine doesn't have speakers!
DeleteNaked gardening? That woman will surely keep her sons away! Somehow, even though the thought of being naked all day may titillate others, it seems that after a day of nekkid people, that going home at night, everything would be so mundane...like nookie.
ReplyDeleteDon't get me wrong. I go around in just panties in the house since I married, sew that way, scandalized husband who came home in middle of day. But, people who do naked yard work, naked welding....gotta wonder somedays.
As for rocks under apple tree, all I see are smashed apples falling, people stumbling over rocks trying to figure out where to walk as they look up and where to put a ladder for picking. Since apple trees don't grow on beaches, I would not put sand under an apple tree. Besides, grass and weeds are determined when it comes to growing through sand and other things. My rocks provide nice crevices for weeds to grow, unhindered until someone takes a weedeater to them or pulls on hands and knees.
Guys have dangly parts that no man I have ever known would want to risk getting poked by a stick, never mind thorms.
Vitamin D won't last a month in your body. Heaving any kind of rock to my body would leave abrasions I would not want to wear. I would be in a very bad mood after abusing my body that way. Maybe I just have tender skin under my clothes. I turn brown instead of burning, but I figure why expose my whole body to skin cancer. If your skin can take the abuse, I am happy for you.
I don't even go without gloves when I garden! Your skin must be tough as leather, all good for going naked in the garden. My neighbors would not take kindly to my toughening up outdoors.
oh Practical P - we loooove naked gardening! it's so refreshing to not have to have clothes on - and we both hate clothes. we never wear clothes unless we have to! even in the house during the winter we wear as few clothes as possible. we hate clothes!
Deletethe people in our community are very libertarian in that they say - "you do whatever you want on your own land! no one can tell you what to do". we like that. and everyone is very respectful - no one ever comes up the driveway on foot - they toot at the bottom of the driveway and then wait for one of us to come. our nearest neighbour, E, thinks it's a hoot that we run around naked all of the time. and because her boys really like us and like spending time with us - they are always respectful and always call before showing up. one thing that we really like about the people here is that they are very easy going. and alot of them have admitted to being out in their yards in underwear or not properly dressed - it's just not a big deal here. some of the men will go to the beach in a t-shirt and pants and just strip down to their underwear to go swimming - same goes for the women.
(PP - even though it is not the point - nookie is NEVER mundane. sorry. but have you seen jambaloney? he is freakin' gorgeous!)
see my comments to Mrs. S above about the apple trees.
when jambaloney is welding or out in the woods with the chainsaw, etc. he always wears appropriate clothing and safety equipment so no worries about his dangly parts.
as for vitamin D - we get our dose daily by going outside every single day, even in snow storms and rain or whatever to be sure to be exposed to the sun and get our daily D.
oh and just for fun - jambaloney's step-dad has been running around their farm and the woods for over 40 years!!! he has a perpetual suntan year round! and is one of the healthiest 70 yr old man that we know! and we hope to turn out just like him and jambaloney's mom! when they were here last summer they worked their butts off - we were soo appreciative and impressed. we pray every night that we will be as healthy and happy when we are their age!
Being so far north and both having dark hair and probably tanning easily, I suppose you need more exposure to get enough D. I do, too. I read that darker skinned people had more trouble getting enough D, especially as the hit 40 years. RATS! At least I am much further south.
DeleteI am glad you cleared up the dangly parts protection.
Looks are not everything when having great sex. I have had men gorgeous and toned. I have had them sort of homely and out of shape. A guy's looks have nothing to do with his performance in bed or my desire for more...just my experience. And, a homely guy looks like Adonis when he is good to me....again, just my experience and opinion.
Yes, the more rural it is down here, people just peel off at the drop of a hat when they see water...lol. Even the uptight, Christian, right wingers who have no libertarian thoughts seem more eager to get naked. My body is for private display only. But, I am certainly not against others getting naked. It is just a quirky repression in me, I suppose.
However, I do scandalize my friends by going out in my nightgown, sometimes it covers all; sometimes, it is short and flimsy. My yard is sort of like a secret garden, but if I can see the people on the street, they probably can see me if they were walking, but not in cars. Sitting in my swing in a nightgown is one of my favorite things to do! I am certainly no prude, but have my own rebellions.
Naked gardening? Much like PP above mentioned my dangly parts would be a bit too exposed for me to work that way.
ReplyDeleteDo you get a lot of drop by visitors? Around here there is at least one person I do not know pulling in the drive at least once a day what a surprise for them eh?
I have a challenge for you now though....
NAKED BEEKEEPING !!!!
Mahahahahahaha
PioneerP - i am not sure that i would recommend naked bee-keeping to anyone - bahahahahahah! oh you nut! but when i get my mason bees, i'll give it a try for you buddy! and as i mentioned above - all of our community knows that we run around naked all the time - even in winter. and even though most of them know where the key to our locked gate at the bottom of the driveway is - they would never unlock the gate and come up unannounced. they pull up to the bottom of the driveway, toot the horn to give us a chance to put clothes on and then wait for one of us to run to the top of the driveway (its 130ft long). they are very respectful of privacy around here. as well, our house is set way back off the road so no one can see our house or yard from the road.
DeleteNow THAT's what I want! A place where I can garden nekkid! Hey y'all were as warm as down here in North Mexico, though our nice weather lasts longer. 37F? YUCK!
ReplyDeleteoh Craig - it's one of the reasons why we chose this location to bug out - total and complete privacy and we can go months without leaving our home or seeing one if we so choose. and as i mentioned several times - people around here are very respectful, laid back and don't push their ideas on anyone else - you would so love it here! maybe plan for a visit if it is possible in the future? we'd love to have you and you could use vandura.
Deleteya 37F is a nice temp for this time of year. but you would probably freeze to death. even wearing clothes and a skidoo suit AND sitting in front of the fireplace - bahahahah!
Sounds like a lot of fun.......rock gardening I mean, I love rock gardens.
ReplyDeleteDear Duke - ya, it is a lot of fun. and we have some of the most beautiful rocks here on our land. and when our friend Jimmy made us the road to the river, he unearthed a ton of rocks. we got rocks to last us forever!
DeleteHi Kymber
ReplyDeleteI occasionally lurk here but decided to comment at long last. First, thanks for sending me prayers over at Practical Parsimonies site when I was facing surgery. That meant alot to me. So thank you both for that.
Its great that you have so much private land that you could be naked and nobody would see you. I have a friend who is the mayor of his nudist colony, so I am not a prude generally speaking and don't really care if people run around naked or not but I think I'd draw the line when it came to gardening nude for safety issues as well as anti skin aging stuff and like others posted, I hope Jambaloney put on some knickers for the rock moving! LOL!
I look forward to seeing your rock garden. My husband is a mason and is finishing up some things for me outdoors out of found rock.
LindaM - i lurk at your blog too - teehee. you are very welcome for the prayers and we both hope that you maintain your health. we believe in prayers and believe that they really do make a difference and can help. and it was our pleasure.
Deletejambaloney was naked as the day he was born when he was lugging those rocks - but he has been doing that for years and knows how to do it - me too!
we will finish off the rock garden soon as it is back to normal temps (read chilly outside) and we still have a bunch of jobs to do inside the house. we started on the rock garden just because it was such a beautiful day and we wanted to take advantage of it.
45er buddy - i resemble that remark!!!
ReplyDelete