Golf Season 2010 is over

Well, as far as we are concerned the golf season is over for now. Mind you, if the weather warms up I’m sure that Tillsonview Fairways will reopen. When we moved here in 2005 we played day before Christmas Eve, so anything can happen. But, for now, the bags were moved from garage to basement for cleaning, re-gripping and general look-over off all pockets, etc. I usually empty whole bag and then flip it upside down. All in a sudden you find things that you lost months ago J! Of course, shoes have to have spikes changed, white shoes will have to be washed and leather painted, shoe laces checked and if required, changed. Once I broke a shoestring on my backswing. Not a good thing, almost fell on my kisser. Anyway, in 3 weeks days are getting longer and in February there are Golf Shows to go to…

I just realized that this is my first golf post and I wonder when the next one will be. I should have posted last week when we played Tillsonview with our neighbors and friends and I have done something that I have never done before. Since Tillsonview doesn’t book tee times it is first-come-first-play thing. We had six, SIX, slow and I mean slooow, groups ahead of us. But, it was likely last round and we didn’t play alone so we waited and passed time by yapping with other eager golfers.

See you next year! March? April?...

Weeping Mulberry and Japanese Lilac

We had Works Department of our town remove Weeping Mulberry and Japanese Lilac that were planted when house was build 14 years ago on town property. Mulberry was not exactly attractive and healthy and Lilac didn’t flower for last 2 years and was very close to another tree so that it was hard for me to cut grass between and around them. Next year I will have only two trees and one island to go around with my lawn mower! Cool.

Brute force removed the tree in 1 minute...

and left a mess to match.

Lilac's turn. Notice the monster on my wet and soft lawn.

All done.

I am grateful to town Works manager for getting the job done so quickly but I am not exactly thrilled with the mess left behind. Oh well, another garden job before the year is over. I’ll get on it as soon as it warms up again, hopefully next week.

Garden Walkway

Last year we have decided to plant most of our flowers and some vegetables in containers. To do that one needs some paved area; after all it is not a good idea to place large containers directly on the lawn. Only paved area we had was west facing 8’ x 16’ tiled patio. Well, I was more then happy to design and build a walkway that will go around the house. I build it in several stages over two years and the pavement runs along three sides of the house. East facing front of the house, south facing deck and sunroom, then towards patio and continues north along west side of house and along 3’ x 14’ cold frame. To say that there is a lot of room for containers of all sizes is understatement. According to AutoCAD that I used to design the layout all paved areas cover 820 sq.ft. That’s a lot of grass that I don’t have to water, fertilize and cut. At the same time I designed and build one large island for trees, shrubs, ornamental grasses and flowers. That’s another 1,200 sq.ft. of lawn gone. I just love it!
Here is a short tour.

Acknowledgment:

There were lot of pavers, bricks and flagstones to lift several times each, plus a lot of crushed stone and sand to load and lay down for the base. Since bagged aggregate is very expensive I had to look for other sources. I didn’t have to look very far, just 3 km from our house, and what a lucky find it was! Kirwin – Oatman Excavating had moved to present location at south-west town limit of Tillsonburg from another location in town few years ago. We drove by few times a week on the way to Eden golf course but it never occurred to me that I could buy directly from them. One phone call solved the problem. Since they sell by cubic yard for large projects we had to do some calculating for 2 cubic feet at time; that’s all I could shovel into a recycling bin in my Toyota trunk.

My initial call was picked up by the owner but after that only contact I had with the company was incredibly friendly and efficient secretary Gail. What a pleasure it is to deal with somebody that is so friendly and always smiling. Let’s just say that I paid same price as big volume buyers and that it was just a fraction of what it would cost me retail and also the quality of sand and crushed stone is also much better. They also carry screened topsoil, asphalt/stone mix and other aggregates.

Thanks goes to Gail and Kirwin-Oatman without whom I would be way over budget on this project.

Gail, hard at work.

One of the products they sell is screened top soil. Contracted screening machine at work.