Books, Bedlam, and A Lively Hope

In and Around the Home This Week

Very shortly, there will be seventy trees, each around seven feet tall, delivered to our property for immediate planting. It was an odd weekend.

First, the Deacon arrived with a backhoe. Why is our deacon driving around in a backhoe? Anyway, he tore out this concrete pad we uncovered outside next to the kitchen, which we can see used to be a well, but we don't know what the concrete was for. Then, after that was finished and my husband had left to haul some wood to his parent's farm, the phone call came. It was my mother-in-law's cousin, a nice man who owns a nursery.
"Hello, Monica? I have about half your order of trees. We're going to dig the rest on Monday. Do you know if your husband wants us to drop them off today or should I just store them until Monday?"
"Um...I...don't...know....He's not here right now and I don't know when exactly he is getting back....so....I'd say store them until Monday."
"Okay, just have him give me a call on my cell phone when he gets in."

What? Are you kidding me? He ordered how many trees?

As it turns out, this was a case of my husband working very fast to make something happen that we had discussed the week before. As you know, the road outside of our house is a constant source of anguish for me, as we continuously pick up trash thrown out from car windows, deal with high levels of noise from delivery trucks, and even witness people having nasty traffic altercations with one another, all on a two lane road! Not to mention, we have zero privacy. Well, a couple weeks ago as I was driving home from the library, it occurred to me that some fast growing shrubs planted as a border along the road might help with some of this. Sure enough, as I turned down the road to our house, I noticed many of our neighbors are on the same page and have put in forsythia bushes. Anyway, when I told my husband about the idea, he interpreted it this way: WE NEED TO BUILD A MASSIVE WALL OF FLORA AROUND OUR PROPERTY RIGHT NOW.

So, it was a bit of a surprise, but I am not complaining in the least. We got a very good deal on the shrubs from our cousin, and my husband sees noise reduction as a priority, too. Especially since it is now motorcycle season.

In the Garden: Just ten more days until planting time! Meanwhile, the seedlings are coming along and we are stocking up on lime and other soil additives. It seems like every other day I am erasing and re-penciling in where things will go on the garden plan, while knowing that once we start planting, it will all change anyway.

Hi

09:17, Monday, April 21, 2008 .. Posted by MyThreeDaughters

I have been wondering that too.

I grew up with a forsythia, but didn't know what it was called. I assume it is the woody shrub with yellow flowers in early spring?

I bought three tree tubes from ebay this week, robinias. We have a new house with a spare block that has never been developed. I am almost too scared to plant the trees in case I wish they were in a different spot later.

Motorcycles, hmm, very hard to drive with. We had some at Easter time, saw some recently.

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03:00, Monday, April 21, 2008 .. Posted by Kitty

I know how you feel about the road. I once lived on a lot that was located in a really bad curve in the road about a block away from where my father was killed actually. At the time I had two small children whom I never let play in the yard. Young drivers would fly so fast around the corner they would literally end up in my front yard upside down. All hours of the night I would be awaken to horrible crash noises and people laying on the road and in my yard. One car came within feet of my home. Needless to say we were renting and I soon moved from there.
I can't wait to see the trees once they're planted in. And as for ?, I wonder that too...........Kitty

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11:20, Wednesday, April 23, 2008 .. Posted by gabbie427

LOL. I am still laughing at your husband running out and buying so many trees. He sounds like my husband!!! I bet it will look wonderful when they are all planted though.

God's Blessings,
Amy Jo