Wildernest - Featured in the (February 29th, 2012) Mineola Monitor Spring Lawn & Garden Section!

"Master Gardener Wields Light Touch on Natural Masterpiece" - What's not to like about that headline!  This lady knows a lot of adjectives!  After reading the article I had to go walk the trail again to see what she saw!  I'm really happy with the write up - it touches on most all of our favorite outdoor things about our home. Five nice color pictures too.  (If you double click the pictures you can read it.)

Nostalgia overload!!

This little place used to be the library.  I went here a lot! 

So we've driven through Irving several times in the last few years but yesterday Glynda attended a Dulcimer festival that was in, of all places, the First Methodist Church in Irving which is where I went to VBS when I was a kid - they didn't have things like that at the Christian Science Church.  So yesterday I spent a couple hours walking around old downtown Irving and our old neighborhood.  Overload!  Anyway - here's some pictures I took - with captions. 

Irving Shoe Repair - It was just a couple doors down from dads' "Ray Willis Paint Store" in the early 1950's and it's still there now and a guy took in a pair of shoes while I was there.  Who repairs shoes anymore?  Back then you always re-soled shoes at least once!

Not at all as it was then so I just took a photo of the number - 120 S. Main Street.  Used to be dads' store.  Now it's a florist that looks sorta like a head shop once you're inside. 

Big State Drug store - opened in 1948.  Glynda had lunch at their soda fountain and later in the day I had coffee there.  Lots of old folks eating there - looks like their clientele will die off in a few years.  I also took a picture of a shelf of old prescriptions - looks like they have them all from the beginning!

306 High School Lane - Dad had it built while we were living next door at 704 E. Third Street - a house that he had built using concrete blocks.  Both are still there.

704 East Third Street.  I was probably 4 or 5 when we moved here.

On the right - Griff's Hamburgers - they were 5 for a dollar.  Straight ahead - the Irving Theater - movies for a quarter.  And to the right a convenience store - nickle candy bars and nickle cokes.  For $1.00 Linda and I could go to the movies and have a hamburger and coke afterwards.  (No sales tax then either.)

One of my favorite stores was the Army & Navy store.  It's still there only it's now called the Army & Navy Pawn Shop.  I bought my back pack for school there - army surplus - and they still have them and they are close to the same place in the store!

Different building and even a different denomination now - but it used to be the Presbyterian church.  My Cub Scout pack and Boy Scout troop met there and Suzie and I got married there.

A community building - it's where I went to take my tests to get my drivers license.

Around the corner was the fire station

The little white building was a barber shop and was where I got my hair cuts.  The house on the right faced one street and the little building faced another street.  It was just a few blocks from our house on High School Lane.

519 Union Bower Road - Herb and Meree sold it to us when they moved and it's where we lived when Bambi was born.

Dads' lodge - the same sign was there then.

I know I'm sounding like an old guy here but that's the way it is! 
And now I'm learning why old guys act like old guys and don't even care!

February Gardening - Floral and Vegetable

 Here's a mid-February post about the gardening activities we've been enjoying this month.  We started a few seeds towards the end of January - those that say on the package to start indoors 6-8 weeks before the last expected frost. All have now been transplanted into 2" pots. Those included some Butterfly Weed (the taller ones in the picture below), some Salvias, ornamental peppers, early jalapenos, and Big Bertha bell peppers.  The last four are all out in the greenhouse now.  There was not enough room under the lights for everything so some of each variety spent some time in a southern window.  Those that were kept under the lights did noticeably better!

The taller plants to the front of this picture are marigolds that were planted about 7-8 days ago.  They came up in three days and are reaching too much for the light now.  I'm going to lower the lights before today is done!

Not in the picture are four flats of six packs of another variety of marigolds, two varieties of zinnias, and some pickling cucumbers!

Starting seedlings in the house with supplemental heat (a pad) and light.

Some seedlings just moved from the house where they were started to the greenhouse

Some of the plants over-wintered in the greenhouse

The bougainvillea - enjoying the greenhouse

An experiment - some peppers (only four) into a cold frame in mid-Feb

  A couple years ago I used a small frame structure covered with plastic to start seeds.  I've made it into a temporary cold frame now and have put a few peppers in it to see how they'll do.  I've got extras so this will be a good experiment.

First plants into the garden (purchased plants)

 Yesterday I was at the co-op/feed store in Quitman and bought six four packs of some of the cold weather plants - lettuce, spinach, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, and cauliflower.  They are now in a raised bed that I prepared several weeks ago.

Rose of Sharon

daylillies

I've also started in the greenhouse some Rose of Sharon trees from cuttings, some ferns, sweet potato vines, a few succulents, a tray of daylillies, and a few other plants.

  
Here's a detail from one of the pictures above and it's still hard to see the subject but between the little heater and the reddish pots is Shadow!  She loves it in the greenhouse and would stay there all day every day if I would let her - except when she got hungry enough to go hunting! 

The bigger view

So far, the pictures of the stage that I've put on here were take to show the details of what we are building. These two are meant to give a hint at why it was a special place to many of the musicians that played here in October. One shows the stage and its' surroundings and the other was taken from the stage.

Wildernest Treehouse MusicFest stage - close enough to done to call it done!

Shadow loves the stage and is intimately acquainted with all parts of it!

The final touches this week were the lanterns on each side of the door, the milk can, and - most importantly - the "tin roof" over the left side of the stage (over the windows and doors).  Click the picture to see it better.

The inspiration for the stage design came from a John Fogerty video that Alex has.  The main elements are the "house" with the tin roof on the left side of the stage, the tree growing through the stage on the right, and the extension from the front of the stage.  The one on the video was huge but we got the main parts. Presentation will also include colored lights.  The last things we will add for performance times are (1) curtains and a lamp in the windows, and (2) the Crossroads banner that will take up most of the space between the totem pole and the door.  The "wings" can also be used for sponsor's banners.  We are about finished too with the backstage part of it that includes a big built in table for guitar cases and a short ladder/steps to a small landing behind the door so performers will be able to enter the stage that way.  There is a small cleared area for seating there too.  We've also done lots of clearing in front too to accommodate the larger crowd expected.  Several trees had to go but that makes the area more "park-like" and it also gives the remaining trees more room to grow.

The new stage after five days work

I like this shot!  It says that we are getting where we're trying to go.

Gonna look a lot better after we get the skirting on it.  Will probably happen today.

And this one really shows where we need to stain the new wood. The darker wood is the old stage (old like in October)

We'll probably finish the construction work today or tomorrow and then do some more clearing of the area.  Unfortunately the oak tree in the center will have to come down.  There are more trees too to cut down but most are dead, small, or redundant.  The stage is looking good!

Progress on multiple fronts

A dam at the West Bridge

After many months of drought the pond is full again

First day's work on the new stage

The upper picture shows the little dam at the West Bridge that I finished yesterday.  From previous measurements this looked to be about the correct height to keep the pond full.  Now after all of the rain, the pond is full but there is about 3-4 inches of water going over the dam.  So I'll add one more row of bags of concrete mix and that will keep the pond at about the level it is in the second picture.  Before the dam, water would back up like this but after the rain it would quickly drain away.  Maybe we can keep more of it now - and this should keep water in the creek too.  The last picture is the stage after one day's work.  We've moved it back and added to it.  It was 96 square feet and will now be 240 square feet.

JamFest Photo Book

So we're sitting at the bar at Brewbaker's Pub this evening having dinner (all the tables were taken) and there on the shelf behind the bar is a copy of the Wildernest Treehouse JamFest photo book.  This one's is special though - Jeff is getting each performer to autograph their page.

Phone camera photo

When I went into the living room this morning the sun was just coming up and the only direct sun in the room was on the G. Harvey (Dallas, The Early Years) and, even that, was through the lace curtains.  Visually, it just had a mystical look about it.  So I took a picture or two and then decided to play on the feel of it a bit by changing the setting to sepia.  Of course the light was very low so the picture is blurred a bit but I think it all came together to make a very interesting image!

Going home from Brewbakers on a rainy Blue Monday night . . .

The fourth of four posters

This is the fourth of four posters that I did in December.  I started this primarily as a learning project in Photo Elements 9 and it's a natural extension of the Master Gardener project at the Wildscape and the Shutterfly photo book I made about it.  The MG's have a state meeting in March and there are competitions in several areas (write-ups of things that took place the previous year) and one of them is a poster competition.  From what I know about it, it looks like this one will give us a decent chance to place. We've brought home six or more awards the last two years!

Happy New Year everyone!!!

Another Poster - This one is for the Winnsboro Farmers Market

The manager of the Winnsboro Farmers Market this year is a member of the Master Gardeners and when she saw the Spring Conference poster I did she asked me about doing one for them.  This is it!  I did several versions and they selected the one I like most.  I'm going to the printer this morning to pick-up yet another one.  It's a one-off that will be used for our entry in the Master Gardener state awards competition in March.

We recently found out what breed of cat Shadow is:

She's a Russian Blue and this description explains a lot about her:

"The Russian Blue is a cat breed that has a silver-blue coat. These cats are known to be highly intelligent and playful but tend to be timid around strangers. They also develop close bonds with their human companions and are highly sought after due to their personalities and unique coat."

As many of you know, Shadow often comes running up to us when we step outside.  She goes with us when we walk the trails or go to the mail box.  She loves to stay with me when I work in the greenhouse and she just has a very fetching personality.  We didn't really want another outside cat but quickly learned - when Shadow decided that she was going to live here - that she wasn't your ordinary cat..

World Famous Wildernest Zipline

This is Brian and the water in the background is the English Channel - and on this day it's a cold and blustery part of the North Atlantic between England and Europe. And what does that bumper sticker say?