Preparing the Garden and other Happenings

There was much work to be done last weekend in the backyard.

First thing's first. Our poor, lone aspen tree is nearing the end of its life. We've been told that aspen trees just don't like it that much in these lush, low altitudes. What's more they really like having other aspens around to keep them company.

What remains of the aspen and its surrounding planter box

I'm not ready to completely chop down the aspen, but last fall I cut off all of its dead branches. This left little more than a glorified telephone pole. In preparation for its eventual demise, I'm downsizing the big planter box that it lives in, at the south-west corner of the yard. As part of this mission, we decided to move the huge rhubarb plant that was growing in that planter across the yard to the garden, where we already have several other rhubarbs growing.

Digging a new hole for the rhubarb

Moving the HUGE rhubarb and parts of its root ball, using our snow sled

The rhubarb, in its new home in the garden with all of its friends

Last weekend I also helped to prepare the garden for Spring. Our next-door neighbors Bob and Marion have a dandy little rototiller that I borrowed for a few hours. It rained just enough to get the soil moist, but not enough to make a huge muddy mess.



This photo captures Alex and Dana's bond perfectly


After the garden was tilled, it was time to play in it with Alex's huge dump truck

Now for some completely unrelated photos from the last 2 weeks...

Alex will make a terrific corporate executive

Earlier this month we caught a huge centipede. We kept it for a day, and fed it a big white spider. It devoured the spider, legs and all, in just a few minutes! Amazing critter.