Rainy Tuesday - May 20, 2025

Yesterday morning, a tree removal service was cutting limbs away from power lines on our road.  I asked for their wood chips, and they delivered a whole truck load, which they dumped at the edge of the field across the road from our house.  It's a big pile, and it's a long way from the garden where it will eventually be used as mulch for weed control.  This will give The Husband an opportunity to drive his tractor AND use its bucket.  When he came home from work last night, I said, "I got you a present!" and showed him the pile.  I hoped we could start moving it this evening, but it's raining again, and the garden will be soup.

This is the second time in my life that I've come into a truck load of wood chips.  The first time was at least 30 years ago, in early fall.  At the time, there were 5 puppies running around our yard.  They loved to lay on top of the wood chip pile, and I could not figure out why until the pile began to smoke.  I guess it was warm up there.  Back then, we didn't have a tractor, and probably didn't even have a wheelbarrow.  Fearing the pile would actually ignite, I moved it the whole pile (which was the size of an old Buick station wagon!) with a shovel to mulch flower beds and pave a path through the "nature area" I was trying to build, which somehow never quite took form.  

After the tree-cutters dumped the new pile, I did some you-tubing to see if it was a good idea to put the raw chips and leaves on top of the garden soil.  (You may remember that I ruined the garden soil for a year or two by tilling un-decomposed leaves and wood chips into the garden soil in an effort to fill a low spot.)  A garden guru said tree-cutter debris makes terrific mulch and compost, especially when it contains green leaves as well as wood chips.  We won't till it into the soil until next spring.

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Granddaughter #3's quilt is close to done.  The binding has been sewn to the back of the quilt and is folded over to the front and clipped in place, ready for the final stitching.  I'm going to stitch it on the machine.  I don't have the skills to do it perfectly, but it's not going to be entered in a quilt show.  This time next month, #3's cat will probably be sleeping on it and sharpening its claws on the embroidery.