Tree Removal

My contractor took down more trees today--tall scraggly trees with very few branches. Trees that were clearly past their prime. This improved the landscape enormously, way more than I had imagined it would.

Now we must select an excavation company and get that new driveway underway.

Farm Share

One of the things I enjoy most about summer is my participation in a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) farm This is the second year I have purchased a farm share in the Mountain View Farm at the Blue Ridge Center for Environmental Stewardship. Tuesday is my pick up day, so this afternoon I climbed in my Jeep and drove 50 miles to the farm to fetch my share of the week's harvest. Here's what I received: French breakfast radishes, spring onions, red leaf lettuce, Salad Mix with baby chard and brassicas, basil, Swiss chard, and a big bag of several varieties of new potatoes. Yum.

The vegetables are grown with no pesticides and harvested with care. They are always fresh and flavorful--beautiful and delicious. And it so much fun to plan meals around the harvest rather than purchasing produce based on meal plans. While I have always considered myself a good cook, the CSA experience has both challenged and improved my cooking and meal planning skills.

Acid Water Solution

Yesterday I placed an order with Culligan for a new water system to address the acid water situation. Essentially, all we are talking about here is a new, and more expensive chemical tank. It will be installed on July 8, assuming said tank is delivered on time. (Since the depth of my well house is only 64 inches, a 51 inch tank will be special ordered.) The price for this solution is $1550 installed and ongoing annual service fees anticipated to be $100.

Goodbye green hair!

Owning a Well

Formerly a city girl, at the time I purchased the Moonlady Ravine I found the prospect of owning a well to be rather exotic--very cool. Since the property had been vacant for a while, I took the precaution of having the water tested. Good thing I did because, initially, it was unsafe to drink. However, that condition was quickly and easily cured and I was pleased to find that the water from my well was cold, clean and delicious.

But nothing is ever easy. Subsequently I learned that my well water has a high acid content. This is a problem since it leeches the copper from my pipes, and turns my porcelain fixtures, shower curtains, laundry, and possibly my hair, green.

The first solution was to install a chemical tank in the well house. This system required continual water testing and frequent "well jumping"--actually climbing down into the well house to add soda ash to the tank. Eventually this system came to the end of its usefullness.

I have spent a good bit of time stewing over the problem and have finally settled on a direction to fling the check..

Another Home Remedy

My general contractor, the "stingee" of yesterday's post, has come up with another home remedy for a hornet sting, to be administered immediately after it happens. It is as follows:

"To reduce swelling following a stinging incident, a person may use several sting remedies. A convenient material to place on the sting site is moistened table salt. Mound the dry salt on the sting entry point and moisten with a few drops of water. Leave the salt on the site for several minutes. This procedure must be applied within three to four minutes following the stinging incident to be effective."

The best plan is sting avoidnace.

Hornets' Nest

My general contractor happened onto an actual hornets' nest nestled among some of the massive boulders behind my house and was unmercifully stung on his ankle. We immediately treated his wound with a recently learned "grandmother's home remedy". It involves putting a small amount of baking soda on the wound and dousing it with vinegar. The vinegar foams up and, supposedly, pulls the poison out. Did it work? Who knows. Apparently the "cure" didn't decrease the pain. We also applied ice. Tough break for him, but he was an amazingly good sport.

I am sure that hornets have a beneficial effect in the world. After all, Mother Nature designed things that way. But I am not prepared to be open minded about hornets. They are distinctly unwelcome here unless they do laundry.

Extreme Makeover

Even though summer has arrived quite convincingly, I am still in a spring state of mind. With able and dedicated assistance I am in the process of completely changing the look of my mountain home. The Moonlady Ravine is undergoing an Extreme Makeover.

The overgrown perennials have been removed from what is now a beautiful meadow of vinca. Mick, the treeman put down the tall, double-trunked cedar tree that has been slowly dying for years and hauled it away. Smaller gangly trees and bushes have been taken out as well. Scraggly azalias, gone.

A new driveway will be built--actually two; one will be for the guest house. An extension to the deck is being designed, orienting the steps towards the newly reworked garden path. The final change will be paint color, yet to be determined. The Moonlady Ravine has always been a beautiful place but it is becoming more beautiful by the day.