Feeling Accomplished!

     Well spent my first day off work after working 10 days in a row to plant a few of my roses took me almost all day, counting the trip to town to get a few bags of soil. All that is left now is to water them. Not only do they need it, but they deserve it... Not a single cut! Well maybe one bit back but no blood.

     Not only did I manage to get this done with my time off, but I also was able to hunt for morel mushrooms today. No luck, on the bright side though I rounded close to thirty more pictures for my nature blog. I'm hoping to start posting in that fairly soon, as I now have probably close to four hundred pictures to share! Just having a difficult time figuring out how I want to share them. I could either post my limited fifty posts a day, or set it up to post a few a day. Either way it is a lot of photos to upload -.-. 

     A few weeks ago I had gotten a new phone, the iPhone 6s. With the phone comes a built in pedometer. I have been trying my best to walk the average amount of steps a day being three to four thousand. Well lets just day I walked enough today to fill in for the past few days I wasn't able to reach that amount. 

     This is only day one of a project that will probably cost me a few paychecks, though well worth it if you asked me. I plan on doing a 10' by 10' square of roses. Once I get that done I plan on doing my orchard which will only be a few trees now instead of however many I was wanting. I used up part of the area for my orchard to do a rose bed. Along side those projects I plan on planting a few more grapevines... now only to figure out where to put my flower bed.    

 

Outside Fun

     Today was a nice day for me, I was able to get some things done for once. A lot of it had to do with the sun being out, and being 60 degrees. I went and collected a good some of pictures today. I arrived home last night around six in the afternoon, so the pictures were taken here at home. Luckily I was able to capture some pictures in Pennsylvania while I was there. I'm thinking I got a little over a hundred pictures. Most of which I will share on my photography blog, but I will add a few I took specially for this blog.

     I'm not expecting this post to be to long, I'm feeling fairly lightheaded and dizzy, and I haven't even taken my medicine yet, I think I may have over done it today. I pushed my past my limits, which is good in a sense, but with me being on the medicine it probably wasn't a good idea for me to be outside as much as I was.

     It wouldn't surprise me if I already had a light sun burn. For some reason, I don't remember it being a side effect or a long term effect from the medicine, but the first time I took it; three to four years ago, I burn easily now. I use to be able to be out in the sun and heat for hours and days on end without getting burnt, that has all changed now.

     What did I do outside? I'm glad you asked. I was able to lay out and mark where I wanted to plant my trees for the orchard. Laying it out showed me I had more room than I thought. At first I was planing on caring for around twenty trees, but I may try to do more. The only problem is, that is a lot of money, so I will probably plant a few this year than plant more next. Still a bit undecided on the fruit baring trees I will be buying. I know for sure apple and peach, but I'm also thinking of doing some cherry and plum trees.

     Also when I get my bee boxes done, I will be place them behind my orchard to help pollinate the trees. I know bees move and can travel long distance, but I figured behind the orchard would be great for beekeeping. Mainly because the bees will mostly be around the trees and their vicinity. Which will help keep the bees away from people. Not that they are territorial or anything, I just know people don't like being around them, even though they really harmless unless you bother them.

     Not only did I get that done, I also was able to work a bit more on I guess what everyone is referring to as a zen garden, though I'm unsure if that is the correct term for it or not. It took me near two to three hours just clearing the grass out of a small section. Grass wasn't the only issue, it was also a lot of bird seed. I took a rake and ended up gathering enough bird seed to fill the containers again... a few times at least. I was shocked to see how much lower the area became once I took the rake to it.

     Once I got that mostly done, I took pine needles and used it as mulch around my strawberries, and a few of my raspberries. I probably should have worn gloves when fulfilling this task, but it was quicker for me to just gather the needles by hand, rather than looking for gloves I could wear. I just can't wait to finish mulching around all the raspberries, not only is pine good for the raspberries, but it also looks better than regular mulch.

     I forget how, but I found that pine needles are good to use for mulch around strawberries, raspberries, and roses. Using it around roses and raspberries made a bit of since. At least with my logic. Roses and raspberries are a part of the same family, there is something in the pine needles I suppose that is great nutrition for many plants. The reason I see it working for raspberries and roses is because that all poke you or scratch you. Strawberries don't make a lot of sense to me because they don't have thorns of any sort. Anyways hopefully everyone was able to enjoy the nice weather outside today!      

Summer Plans

     I have a good amount of activities planned for this summer. I did plan on doing a separate post over each thing but I felt I wouldn't be able to come up with enough to say for just one project. If I feel like to split this post than I will, and I will more than likely find more things I would be willing to try this summer as well.

     One of the things I planned for this summer I had mentioned in my article Backpacking. For those who haven't read it yet feel free to, but basically I plan on traveling around a bit. By foot is ideal since that is backpacking. Traveling in general though would be just as fun. I had also planned on taking a plentiful amount of pictures for my nature blog, or a new photography blog if I feel the need to be organized about my photos.

     Aside from backpacking however, I also plan on trying to plant a flower bed, and possibly a rose bed. I love plans, if it were up to me the whole yard would be nothing but flowers and trees, but my parents aren't to keen on that idea for some reason. Part of the reason I want to plan beds is so I have more plants to turn into stars. I would be able to take pictures daily and upload them on my photography blog Opachii's Photography. More than likely if this happened I would create separate blogs for different types of flowers to stay organized... I hate feeling the need to be so organized but it bothers me if I'm not.

     Along side the flower and rose bed, why not try an orchard? I want to plant a forest but my parents of course don't like the idea of that and frankly there just isn't enough yard left to do so. I rather enjoy tending to nature. I can help it thrive without the worry of offending someone or being judged. I plan on planting something around twelve to fifteen trees, all depends on how much space I have left over from the beeboxes.

     The last thing I have in mind for this summer at the moment is bees. I'm hoping to become a bee keeper. Not only would it be a fun experience, but it would also be a smart move. My plants would thrive, and anything that bares fruit should produce much better bushels. One of the reasons I want a rose bed is, because the only way to get rose seeds is if bees pollinate the flower. I would then use the seeds to make starts, and either breed different verities of roses or just sell them the way they are. I'm unsure about rather or not I want to take the time to cross rose breads.