Chapter 167...My Poor Garden And Repairing Our Driveway

One more final project and my poor pitiful garden from this summer.

Mike helped me mow the lawn the other day and he pointed up to a huge wasps nest.  I have never seen one this big.  It's amazing how I never heard them all sumer long.  They are right above our kitchen door:

Mike took care of it by hosing it down and then spraying it with wasp killer.  Hopefully they don't build a new nest.  Thankfully Mike did not get stung.  There were a lot of wasps in there.


Getting cleaned up for the next season.  Mike's daughter, Nicole, gave us a cage to sell at the store.  It has been sitting on the side of the shed all summer.  Mike and I cleaned it off and loaded it onto the trailer to take to the barn.  It's one step closer to the store:)

And for the really sad part.  A look and a recap of my garden.  Each spring Nicole and I get very excited about our new gardens going in.  This year was no different but it does not have a happy ending.  It was a late start to begin with because of the weather.  Finally I got it all planted and then we had a bad hail storm and lots of continuous rain.  Through July we had about 24 inches of rain above the norm.  Not enough sun and too much rain caused the tomatoes to blight so by the end of August I tore out all of the bad plants.  Some of the flowers did well, the basil grew really bug, and some of the purple bell peppers made it:

Just a couple of peppers:

My sweet pepper plant:

My basil really liked all the water but bugs got to the leaves:

Sweet herb which was supposed to be Stevia.  That did well:

And some Dahlias:

My strawberry plants.  They are still wild.  I gave up on them after I caught a raccoon in my garden:

A picture of our trees in August.  They do not look good.  There should be no brown yet and the trees are already dropping leaves:

That pretty much sums up my gardening year.  It did not go well.  I got some beans before the cows got to them.  I got about 10 cucumbers, 1 zucchini 2 yellow squash and some peppers.  It was a very sad year for gardening.




Mike and I found some blacktop repair to use on our damaged driveway.  This stuff is amazing:

Mike cleaning out the leaves and debris that is in the broken off section of our driveway:

We bought seven bags of the blacktop repair.  It is like a very solid mix of gravel and tar and it is very sticky.  We made a slit dow the middle of each bag.  Mike pouring the first bag into our hole:

Getting it filled:

Mike was going to use a tamper to tamp it down but he decided to use himself instead.  Of course he put his old tar sneakers on:

Shoveling the extra up to make it neat:

We got out holes filled and it should be safe for the winter:

That is all for now.  The next story. which will be soon, is about our pack up for our move to Florida.  We stripped every tool we could think of to take with us.  Our poor TN house is empty but we will need everything for this FL remodel.  It is a huge one!!!


I'll get you all caught up soon.

Chapter 166...Digging In The Underground Electric Line And Clean Up At The Store

This is the last chapter for the store this year.  We are leaving soon but we will be back after the winter to get the store up and running.  For now I will show you some pictures of Mike and our grader, Jimmy, getting our electric line in from the building to our electric pole.

Jimmy digging the hole to put the electric wire in the ground.  Nice machine:)

Mike using the reciprocating saw to cut the pipe.  The electric wire needs to be inside a pipe from the ground to the building:

Once the ditch is dug, we lay the electric wire in the ground all the way to the electric pole.  We cover it with a little dirt as we go.

At the other end by the electric pole.  Jimmy holding the pipe while Mike cuts it:

Once the pipe is cut down, Mike feeds the wire through the pipe and feeds the wire into the electric box:

Mike finishes hooking up the electric while Jimmy fills in the ditch where the underground electric wire is:

After that is done Mike and I go back to do some grading work of our own.  We need to work on the dirt along the edges of the building.  It needs to be built up and re seeded.  Mike uses the tractor to scoop some dirt for me to spread:

Dumping the dirt along the side of the building:

We raked out all of the rock and sloped it to the building:

We also did this on the back side and part of the back of the building.  Once we got it raked, we seeded it and added straw:

Now we wait for the grass to grow:)

A couple of weeks later and it is starting to pop:

The back side is happy:

And behind the building:

Here is the area that was filled in where the underground electric wire is.  We had so much rain that it sunk in a little.  Thankfully we have a pile of dirt and Mike has his tractor.  We will fix that when we work on the drive next year:

It's sad to say but that is all I have for the store this year.  As many of you know it is not like Mike and I  not finish a project.  We have just had such a bad year here with all of the rain that we really need a change.  Hopefully we will get recharged and have great weather next spring.  We don't have a lot left on the store but we still have work to do.

That is all for now.  Next up....getting ready to do a Flip:)