Town House Homestead Tuesday

I sure hope that everyone had a great 4th of July holiday. We sure did. It was work and relaxation with friends and family and a small cookout under the gazebo. Should I say that I am smiling? Life as been overwhelming here at the new town house homestead. As everyone knows, to bring a piece of land back up to par requires long hours of hard work. This past weekend we received help from still another neighbor. 

If you remember the first two weekends we were here required a lot of tree removal. The result was this pile of logs and brush. As May passed by and then June the grass took over. I realized that putting a larger garden in this year was really out of the question and cutting up the wood to store was being put further and further on the back burner. Until...

This neighbor, and may I say a fine gentleman, and his help came to clear the wood. He lives two houses away and they like to sit around a fire and enjoy family and friends and time in their pool. We met him for the first time Saturday evening and at nine Sunday morning they were there with all they needed to cut the wood and haul it away. All we provided was electricity for his chain saw and weed trimmer. 

They removed the grass and kept cutting away and we were glad someone could use the wood and was willing to work hard getting it out. 

They worked for four hours and left to go share time with their family and company. Before leaving however Scott explained that he'd be back the next morning (July 4th) to finish up. By this he meant he would remove all the old garden fence and posts and cut the grass down to a manageable level. Here is the last barrel of wood he hauled away. 

This is the beautiful cleared future garden spot as of this morning. There's lots to be done. There's some weed guard down under some of the grass and it needs to be raked well, but for now we will be able to keep working and prepping it for next summer's vegetables. We feel so blessed to have such wonderful neighbors and this experience is new to us. I gave them each a pint of home made triple berry syrup and they went on to enjoy their holiday.

My daughter is once again tending bee's this summer. We went and checked out the hive and it is thriving beyond belief. This is an awesome thing to see a strong hive at work. In a couple of months they have filled two supers and built the third to fill with honey/brood. You can see how busy they have been. 

She inspected the hive and saw that it was growing at a fast pace. She was going to add one super to the hive, but because of the activity she added two new ones. When she goes back in a few weeks to check on them again she expects to see more honey and good activity. They were flying strong and I was impressed with the speed and accuracy of the bees. 

From my herb garden this week I was able to harvest a good variety for drying. I have winter savory, sweet marjoram, basil and thyme. I wasn't expecting anything to grow or to be able to plant a garden this year after the tree episode, but the containers with tomatoes are doing well and the containers with peppers are also thriving. I've planted bush beans in pots and spinach. I will be able to harvest some spinach in a couple of days and I started another pot for when the other is depleted. Not a lot, but enough for a couple of meals and that's something. That's what's new at the new town house homestead this week. Thank you for stopping by and have a wonderful week.