Wagmore Daily: Ziggy Goes Forth

Ziggy continues to enjoy Wagmore.  Last night we went for a family walk through the trees we planted this winter (I'm trying to figure out a drip irrigation plan for them), and all humans + dogs joined.

Here are some pictures showing Ziggy's happiness.

Into the field.

Stop to gaze.

 

Stop to sniff.

Sniff.

Sniff deeply.

Gaze.

Crash.



Wagmore Daily: Uncle Denzil Spends the Day!

My parents had to go out of town for the day and didn't want to leave their boy home alone, so we had a special guest - Denzil!  Those who've been following the blog since its inception will remember that Denzil was an original member of the Trio of Trouble (along with Maggie and Ziggy).  You can learn more about Denzil on his page.

The Humans and Ziggy love to have Denzil around.  Blossom the c*t spent the day upstairs (that's where the food, cat tree, and litter are, so don't feel bad for her).  I wasn't sure how Rip would do - but he was very accommodating.

Here's how the day went:

We started the day with coffee on the porch.  

Denzil hung out with me.

Then Denz joined the boys in some wandering and sniffing.

When we came inside, Ziggy & Rip thought some bitey play was in order.

Denzil sat in front of me, keeping a close eye on things.

Then Denz remembered he was the Party Police.

So he moved in to break things up.

I love Rip's expression here - very contrite.

He had this expression each time Denz reprimanded him.

Good boy.

The Party Policeman succeeded in his goal.

And later in the afternoon, Zzzz all around:

Another great day at Wagmore.

Wagmore Daily: Rip Tastes Freedom

Yesterday Rip had an exciting day in the country.  Too exciting for our liking.

It all began here:

You may remember this picture from a couple days ago.  

Rip gazing out down the drive.

Combine this with Rip's LOVE of sniffing.  

And the fact that our neighbors have chickens, turkeys, sheep, and cows….

And what do you get?  

A missing dog!

Yes, Rip escaped under the gates yesterday.  He found a low spot near the drive, and shoved his way under the gates.  Thankfully we were outside, and noticed quickly that the only dog in the yard was Ziggy.  Then I noticed the neighbor's cows running around their pasture bucking.  I have no proof that this was Rip, as it would take some squeezing to get into the field with the cows, but the crazy cow frolicking punctuated to us that Rip was indeed missing.

So we walked around using the dog whistle and calling Rip.

The Husband was panicked.  The Small Human was VERY UPSET (who knew he liked Rip so much).  I was hoping that Rip wasn't getting himself into something he couldn't get out of.

After about 20 minutes that seemed like 3 hours, we finally found Rip.  The Small Human and I drove around our area, calling his name and blowing the dog whistle.  On the way back down a dead-end road, about 500 yards from our house, we saw him.  He was gleefully trotting along the road, peeing on mailboxes and recycling bins.

Thank doG we found our boy.

After his great escape, Rip was only taken out on a flexi.  The rest of the time he spent inside, by our front door, barking and pawing at the side light.  Freedom was calling and we were in the way!

So today The Husband Rip-proofed the gate area.  It doesn't look fantastic, but it works.  And let me assure you that Rip has put it to the test. :)

Stakes and chicken wire to fill in the swale under the gate.

Chicken wire all the way up the fence on the side of the gate.

Mesh hanging down on the other gate 

to cover up a very small (but perhaps corg-possible) gap.

And the finished  product.

Sorry, Rip.  Wait, no, I'm not really sorry.  Too bad, Rip.

Wagmore Summer days 1-3: Happy dogs!

To say that the Cardi boys like it here at Wagmore is an understatement.  Ziggy in particular seems a much happier dog here than he is Iowa.  He seems to have more energy.  He's playing more, he's more active, and as a result he's lost some weight.

The C*ts love it here, too.  More places to explore, more projects to hamper.

Here are some happy pack pictures.

Gloria finds the afternoon sun

Blossom "helps" to build The Small Human's new bed

 A yard with no plantings is great for frapping!

Basking in the sun is nice, too

Then a corgi needs to come in and rest using a human pillow

Summer at Wagmore!

I realize that I haven't posted anything to the blog for a while.  We've been busy, but I was feeling a little less than inspired, resulting in a dearth of blog posts.

Inspiration has returned, though, as The Pack has decamped to Wagmore for the summer!

The Small Human, The Husband, and all the pets traveled out early this week (I'll post more about that when I get some good pics from The Husband).  Meanwhile I worked in my company office.  Later tonight, I head west to join the rest of The Pack.

I'm so looking forward to spending some quality time at Wagmore. We're making this work by me taking some vacation time, working remotely for a few weeks, and traveling back to my company office a couple times.

Our big projects for the summer include installing an irrigation system for the trees we planted this winter, and replacing the fence on the west side of our property.  There's a lot of other work to do as well, and we'll certainly be taking some time to enjoy Wagmore.

My goal is to post something every day.  Not long posts, just daily updates & pics. So until tomorrow, here's Rip guarding his domain.

Wagmore Farm: The Bloody Great Forest Begins to Take Shape

My last few blog posts I've talked about the need to create a Bloody Great Forest on one edge of our property.  I made the plan, I found trees, and now….  The Great Forest is taking shape.

A couple weeks ago The Husband spent a long (rainy) weekend at Wagmore, working with a crew to put 146(!) trees along the fence line.

Here's the story in pictures:

The First step was to clear part of the fence line. 

Apparently, the crew cleared this out really quickly. 

Which makes all the time I've spent clearing brush on the property seem like a silly pastime.

As an added bonus, I can do some burning next time I'm at Wagmore!

If anyone wants to come over for S'mores, I'll give you a call…

The first shipment of trees arrived.

These are the Excelsa cedars for the fence line screen.

Once the line was cleared, the hole digging began.  

The Husband and his post hole digger couldn't keep up with the trained crew.

It was a rainy day, so digging was a little sloppy, but the trees were well watered in.

Then the crew got to work putting the trees in.

The crew was vital to getting this done, we could NOT have done it on our own in a reasonable time frame.

The Husband used the tractor to move trees into place.

Here's a shot of the line of Excelsas all in place.  

But our Great Forest is not just Excelsas.

We've added other layers of trees to select areas, in anticipation of blocking site-lines.

The trees in front are Green Giants - another fast-growing evergreen. 

In other areas, we added even more depth.  

Here we have Incense Cedars, too.

Here's an "in The Great Forest" view.  

I'm so happy we were able to get such large trees for such a good price.

And I can't wait for them to grow!

We even added more trees to the screen we planted earlier.

This will help to build a more dense forest with a nice diversity of evergreen trees.

This one's a Deodar Cedar.  

It grows to be a tree with a lovely shape and a lot of appeal, 

so we planted them on the side of The Great Forest nearest the house.

And my favorite picture.

I think Mother Nature approves of the beginning of The Great Forest, too.

I'm so thankful that The Husband was able to get all this work done.  Thanks, too, to My Dad and My Brother for helping out during the weekend.  I feel a sense of relief and purpose that we're doing SOMETHING in advance of the potential Monstrosity next door.

Wagmore Farm: How We Found Cheap Trees

In the last post, I talked about the trees we plan to plant in The Bloody Great Forest.  Since we need to find and plant more than 300 trees, and my last name isn’t Gates or Buffett, finding inexpensive sources of trees was paramount. 

I started with one of the helpful tree people who helped me evaluate options for the screen.  His business is based North of Seattle.  If you need trees and live up that way,  I highly recommend contacting him.  Unfortunately, the shipping would have been prohibitively high given the number of trees I need, so I had to find trees in and around Wagmore.  One would think that would be easy (it is in the Evergreen State afterall), but it took me a surprising long time…

All the trees we’re planting this time around I find via Craigslist.  I love Craigslist.  I found one grower and one large nursery who, together, provided us with nearly 150 trees.  Cheap.  Apparently one can get good deals on trees in the middle of winter.  Go figure.  We ended up paying between $25-$50 for 5' - 8' trees.  I am very happy with this!

The Husband is working on getting these trees in the ground.  I'll share more of his adventures in tree planting in the next few days, once I get an update.  In the spring, we'll stand back and take a look at the overall screen and try to imagine how it will look from the house.  I want to make sure we have a natural forest look from the house, backed by a thick-you-can't-see-anything-through-it screen.  This might mean buying more larger trees from the nurseries we've already worked with.

If our screen is in good shape, we'll likely fill in the rest of the forest with trees from the county foresters association seedling sale (the same place we got the our first lot of baby trees).  The babies require more tending for a few years, but they're a heck of a lot cheaper, and it's fun to watch them grow…

Here's an image my nephew created for me.  

It captures the impenetrable forest feel perfectly.

If I can't have Ents maybe I can have Flying Monkeys?

Wagmore Farm: Trees! Bring Me Trees!

In my earlier post, I shared the reason I suddenly want to forest a good portion of Wagmore.  Once the decision to plant The Bloody Great Forest was made I entered what I shall now call "The Great Tree Quest."

The stuff to figure out includes:
1- What kind of trees work best for our needs
2 - Where to get affordable trees
3 - How to convince The Husband and My Dad to get the trees in the ground.

Step 1 - What Trees to Choose?

Clearly, a key decision.  We need trees that do well in the climate, grow quickly, remain full year round, and will grow together as a screen.

I, of course, started on the internet by searching for screen tree ideas.  Once I had enough information to be dangerous, I started to talk to people.  I learned that tree people really like to talk about trees (which is both unsurprising and lucky for me), that cedar trees make a great screen, and that cedar trees really like it in my part of Washington State (lucky me, again!).

One of these very helpful tree people has a very helpful website, with a great guide to screen trees.  This helped me decide that the Excelsa Cedar is the best screen tree for Wagmore.  We'll be putting these trees 6' off the fence line, spaced around 8' apart.  When the trees are mature they'll be very full and 30'-35' tall.  They also grow at about 2' a year once established, which will help us get a big screen quickly.

Since no Great Forest is made of just one type of tree, the second layer of trees will include Port Orford Cedars (which can reach 100' tall), Incense Cedars, and maybe some Western Red Cedars.  We'll place these in a second line, close together, and close to the other line of trees - to make our first line of defense very thick.

My goal is to create a dense, imposing forest.  Think Fangorn Forest from Lord of the Rings.  And I'd love some Ents, too.  But I realize that I'll likely have to settle for Corgis and Guinea Fowl as forest protection.

I want my screen to be this thick - and cedars will stay more full than these!

(many thanks to xedos4 / FreeDigitalPhotos.net for use of the photo)

The next layers of trees will include Deodar Cedars, Hemlock, and various other evergreen and deciduous trees to make the Great Forest look natural.  Most of this layer of trees will be added in the spring - with more baby trees from the County seedling sale.

Overall, we anticipate adding 300+ more trees to Wagmore.  That's a lot of trees, so I'm continuing my quest to find them cheaply and get them in the ground.  More on that next time!

Wagmore Farm: A Bloody Great Forest

We recently had some very bad news relative to Wagmore Farm.  The 20 acre property next to us was sold to a group that plans to put up a very large building (about the size of a Kohl's department store) with an accompanying parking lot the size of a Walmart Superstore parking lot (enough to park more than 600 cars!).  And all of this will be within approximately 250' of  our house.

To say I was upset when I found out about this is an understatement.  I think I went through all the stages of grieving - maybe staying in the anger phase longer than most.  After all, I've dreamt about a property like this for as long as I can remember. The property is so peaceful - a really special place to be.

Now I've come to acceptance and we've tried to figure out what we can to do maintain the bucolic setting of our dream property - despite the monstrosity planned for next door.

We realize that there are a lot of hoops to be jumped through before anything of this size can be built, but I dread sitting by and doing nothing.  So now, with acceptance, has come a plan.

We've decided to move the location of our planned barns, and create a bloody great forest instead.

Here was our original tree plan and barn plan:

The blue ovals, purple line area, and red triangle are where we have planted our baby trees already.  

The blue rectangles near the bottom of the property indicate where we planned to put the barns.  

Knowing what we know now, here's the plan:

The orange area indicates (roughly) the area we plan to forest.  This also shows the general area we'll likely relocate the barns.

So instead of looking out our window and seeing what we see today - a lovely field that goes on for a long, long, time...

On this side of the second fence (the one in the back w/ the scrub trees in it) - we'll now see something like this:

Which is a WHOLE lot better than seeing something like this:

Now that I have a vision, it's time to plan, and I almost have a tree plan finalized.  I hope to have things nailed down later this week.  I'll let you know what I figure out.

Wagmore Farm: "Forever" Homes for the Baby Trees

You might remember from a previous post that The Husband and I, with lots of help from my Dad, bought 40+ baby trees from a local forester's sale to make up for some of the trees we had to get rid of when we bought the house.

We bought them and put them in the "tree nursery" in spring of 2012.

The baby trees - summer of '12

When we went out this spring, we noticed that the babies were really starting to grow.  Starting to grow so much, in fact, that we really needed to move them.

A couple trees didn't make it, but we were left with a great selection of western red cedar, incense cedar, deodar cedar, hemlock, and 3 giant sequoia.

The baby trees - fall '13

Oh what a difference a year makes!

To minimize the amount of watering we'd have to do, we chose to wait until the fall to move them.  Since the land is in the Pacific Northwest, we figured Mother Nature would take over the watering soon enough.


First on our list was to plan where the babies would go.  While I knew the general areas for all the trees, I wanted our trees to look like a forest -- not like lines of screen trees -- so I took care to place each tree individually.  This involved figuring out how far apart each type of tree needed to be, deciding how to make things look as natural as possible, then measuring (algebra used!), and flagging where each tree went.

Here's the rest of the story - in pictures:

First, we mowed the areas where the trees were to be planted.

This is the largest area - along our side fence line.

The Husband dug up each of the trees.

You can really see how big they've become when a person is next to them!

We were smart enough to buy a post hole digger for the tractor,

so at least that part was easy...

Our first couple trees in their "forever" homes.

30 more trees went along this line.

This is the last tree in the line.

We put newspaper around each base, and finished it off with mulch.

Hopefully that will keep the weeds down a bit.

We also soaked all of them in using 

a root builder fertilizer recommended by our local nursery.

Grow babies, grow!

We put a few of the trees out near the road, 

so we'll have a nice view of them from the house.

The last few trees went in the area SE of the house -- adding some evergreens to the deciduous trees already in the "forest" area.

I can't wait to watch them fill in!