Current view of Villa de Chalet

at last I found out how to adjust the picture as the blog loads.  The attic ducts have been replaced with quiet flex ones insulated end to end wthout breaks or joints. There is more room to get around.  The temperature at the registers dropped considerably. Interior west walls are the next to be covered and taped as they had air leaks.  Working on the little front room ceiling as the temperatures on the outside edge can get up to 90 degrees.  There must be some missing insulation.  Going off to check the hitch ball, its a 3/4 shaft in a 1 " hole. We will visit Thibideaux Texas and pickup some cedar chips and then a white boganvilla from Market Daze.  Gonna pass on the 4th of July parade though Uncle Mike is driving one of Noahs old cars.  Too much noise for us.

Spater

It's Thursday I spent the morning in the attic re-insulating the ducts in the second floor. I need to spend another day doing it but I got them have fixed anyway I used some reflect X foil with the bubblewrap anyway works. The elbows coming out of the Plenum were basically uncovered are poorly covered and so I wrapped the foil around them and then there were places along the metal ducts that needed wrapping also. The whole system is pretty rough I need to work on the Plenum but that will be moving all of the stuff that stored in front of the door where the air conditioner is.

This morning I checked the Burr Oak and it's doing fine but none of the cover crop that I planted in the area around it is coming up there still bits of Bermuda grass training in through but I keep pulling those I may just give up and mulch the whole thing and not try to cover crop the Baroque is doing very very well and I'll put a link to the YouTube maybe tomorrow. I went out to the compost this morning and found that we've got soldier flies and one of the compost piles which is kind of neat there pretty active style I went out got more water and re-watered all three compost piles. I really need to filter the oldest one just not sure where I'm going to put the material. First they need to make some containers for all the soil is good to come out of there.  Maybe tomorrow morning first thing I will cut up one of the blue barrels and that will give me containers for the dirt which also means I should cut up the self watering system for the bottom of it too much work.

The footlockers now have cages on top of them and the cover crop particularly the Cayeuse oats are doing really well I think it's crowding out anything else. I looked down to see if any of the chard head seedlings that I put in there had made it but I think it just couldn't compete for sunlight there's plenty of water but not quite enough sunlight for some of the smaller crops. The second footlocker with the charcoal in it seems to be doing the best.

The lavender is doing very well or at least hasn't died, it's kind of hard to tell... lavender it just sits there most of the time. I finished up a video on the lavender and the Imagine farm we visited just so everybody would realize that lavender really don't need anything that looks like a decent garden soil. I'm using the east Burr Oak flat planer.  That oak made it so I pulled it out and dug down 3 inches and saved all the dirt and then replaced it with the funkiest dirt I could find from around the property you know something that I hadn't put any cover crops and or anything like that it's a mixture of white red clay in just everything anyway it looks like everything in the video and we'll see if that makes it. There are three lavenders in this small island and they're just sitting there they don't look like the gena died in Outlook like you can thrive I'm just hoping that they get enough sunlight in that their under the trees And really only get morning sun from the east and afternoon sun from the West.
 Here's the link
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AJGtIKjn8Ik&list=UUTCrZkBXtSllBEFGdNrsTOg&feature=share

This weekend where going to Houston and I probably won't get anything done around the house. Projects I'm still working on include the ballot of the Burr Oak tree and I need to write up how I fixed the exit from the driveway to the street I added a bunch of stone from Alex's place and interspersed it with walkpost and rye seed in the rye seed is already started up. I put down a mix of walk post and rye seed whenever I pull up stick a bar and then rub that in to the ground where I pulled the stickabur out it's working out pretty well in the Rye won't last very long but at least I won't get any stickaburrs. The Rye has a natural herbicide that keeps other plants from germinating.

The trailer is great and light enough for us to trailer but a bit more then we can spend.  It will be used for a year while we rebuild the house.
The Burr oak I cut off is regrowing from the roots and looks quite happy; the Pennington annual  rye seems a bit slow.  I have covered everything with white  cloth.except for the burr oak coming out of the center.  I seeded oats and rye with walkpost down on the flats area.  Some I used the aerator and then swept the seeds and the compost into the holes, a little was just on the surface or into the water ruts outside the fe

nce.  The picture is a couple days ago, those burr oak leaves are nearly 7" tall. Rye is starting in other areas but not here.  I may sprout some oats and put them down there, in hopes of outcompeteing the bermuda grass around the area (the hole is surrounded with black rubber edging material but the bermuda is really persistent).
     This morning I moved the black tunnel and some milk crates to the Johnson flats for a dew harvesting test.
      Will post a picture of the land and its water shed just to have it  in the blog.

thats all for now, need to head out while its still cool enough for outside work.
Dan.

Great rainstorm this morning! I had headed out to get some Off an essential when working outside. Picked up some shellac and 2 tubes of adhesive. I also picked up shellac also for the beadboard project.  I stopped at the new feed store and got rain guages and oats.  I will split the oats with Jody T and will use them mixed with the rye as a cover crop.  Jody reccomends just a stand of grain for the critters and birds to play in,.  Came home and got some rye mix for pulling sticker burrs great project after the rain stops. Gonna look at a trailer tonight.

I got two more pails of old landscape mulch and  then wend back and picked up a curly yucca. Culled the bermuda grass out of the oak planter and reseeded with annual rye yesterday. I edged along the spur and walked stones down 5 to load and lined the whole path.  Looks really good maybe 20 loads got 19889 on my pedometer and  10 flights of stairs credit.  Weight dropped to 187.5, most of thats probably water.  Things were fine til Chris mentioned the girls are learning to ride their bikes, I guess I will replace any really pointed stones with flatter ones. 
      I place some walkpost and annual rye seed mix over each stickerburr I pull out. It goes right into the hole as I pull the weed out.  Its working in a few places.  I still need to get a strategy for the Greenbriar ( local name is devil weed).  Maybe hit it with the horticultural  vinegar and then come back in a couple of days to pull it out thru the Annual rye mix.

Finished the cedar paths yesterday and repacked the shed again yesterday.  I set 4 stones in the walk to the driveway, including sifting the dirt adding compost and maybe moving in some plantings. Margarets preference is for a walk where she does not have to look where she is walking.  I seem to be the only one who likes the stones.  If they were all continuous and planar I guess it would be ok.  Maybe Ryan and I will do that at Christmas.  I cut the burr oaks and will do areas there in annual rye later today. 

Ponyfoot is a silver leaf dichondra which will even droop a bit out of planters.  I wonder if I can do this in window boxes?  Its a native and drought tolerant.  no mention of deer or wild stock preference.