We had a few days of amber skies from the forest fires south of the border this August/ September. I took these phots from my house looking out over theEastern entrance of the trait of Juan de Fuca.. A predictable occurrence as our planet heats up and forests dry up in the heat of late summer.
There was an unusual split rainbow over Victoria today which Ginger and I viewed from Taylor Beach
A slice through a willow .. I took this photo of the patterns in a split willow. This summer we purchased a new wood-splitter along with our neighbours…now splitting wood is fun !!
So I am always looking for ways to solve problems with my Kyoti tractor to give me an excuse to play on it, Here are a few more unusual applications of my tractor, for instance, what is the best way to pound in a fence post? :
And when you want to move a neighbour’s bathtub… no problem:
Or for the removal of that bad invasive shrub in our area called Daphne:
…and in the process of digging with the backhoe, I unearthed a bottle of Crystal Spring Water Supply Ginger Beer… Victoria BC .. circa 1910: still in excellent condition.
But I didn’t get a picture of the process of the tractor moving some large rocks for the base of a rock retaining wall that I built for my neighbour.. anyway here is the finished product:
In the last week I have been removing old diseased apple trees from the orchard, as we plan to plant new rootstock and better varieties.. Heres how the tractor helped in that operation
I find that using a raised bed with recycled windows for cover and planting winter crops in September is a great solution here for supply of winter lettuces and spinach for early spring harvest. Here is the process I used:
12 – 2’X2’concrete pavers were used and scrap lumber was used to tie it together
We needed a flat area for the picnic table so I undertook to extend the small patio, peeling off the soil first to extend the floor of stone.
In December of 2017 I had a set of 14 solar panels installed on our house by Rik Perron of Perron Electric in Metchosin
Well not much of a harvest yet this year but my two trees planted over 10 years ago have finally produced some cones..2 each!! They fell off near the beginning of September and now I am keeping them in a warm place until they ripen. The cones exude sap so its best to wear disposable gloves when handling. The key to transplanting Pinenuts is that you must scatter soil and needles from the ground around another pine… any variety, around the base of the new tree in order to inoculate the soil with the mycorrhiza necessary for growth.
There are many websites available with information on how to grow and harvest the nuts.
Apparently the real challenge comes in having to crack the hard casing of each seed in order to yield the nut inside which is prized for eating.