Marsia's Diary

[Cate]

A friend of mine used to say whenever it was raining "Can you hear them?" & when anyone asked she would then say "the plants are singing". It has stuck with me. Your strawberry plants will be singing. I saw somewhere that a good trick is to paint some small rocks red & place them around your strawberry plants. Birds hate biting on something really hard & it might deter them from coming back for the ripe strawberries. Worth a try & it would look cool. It would be a fun project finding some strawberry shaped rocks to paint

The cicadas are singing up a storm now and the sun is setting behind the trees and it's a symphony of all sorts of insects and frogs and some birds chirping here and there. I love sitting on the porch and enjoying the yard.

I can just picture you there. It sounds wonderful!

 

[Llama]

A friend of mine used to say whenever it was raining "Can you hear them?" & when anyone asked she would then say "the plants are singing". It has stuck with me.

How lovely! And the sound of drops on different kinds of leaves does sound like music.
Marsia if your area is so warm and humid does it get a lot of plant fungal infections?

 

[Marsia]

A friend of mine used to say whenever it was raining "Can you hear them?" & when anyone asked she would then say "the plants are singing". It has stuck with me. Your strawberry plants will be singing. I saw somewhere that a good trick is to paint some small rocks red & place them around your strawberry plants. Birds hate biting on something really hard & it might deter them from coming back for the ripe strawberries. Worth a try & it would look cool. It would be a fun project finding some strawberry shaped rocks to paint

Love this! Singing strawberries!! I always notice how happy the trees look after rain. They get so green and lush looking and have this special vibrancy. K would love to paint strawberry rocks - that will be a fun project!

How lovely! And the sound of drops on different kinds of leaves does sound like music.
Marsia if your area is so warm and humid does it get a lot of plant fungal infections?

I love the sound of raindrops falling off of plants. Yes, there are fungal infections here, so I got fruit trees that aren't prone to them and will put protection over my tomatoes and summer squash so the leaves don't get rained on, and will water them from below. Luckily the soil is sandy so it drains well, but that also means it needs lots of amendments. I am going to try weed whacking a small meadow and using the weeds for weed tea, which will be a free source of nitrogen. Also there are lots of pine needles from the pine trees, so mulching with something coarse that doesn't trap in too much moisture around the plants (but does keep it from drying out completely) might help.

Got up really early this morning and want to do some early morning gardening and painting before the contractor drops off the tile finally to our house. They supposedly start right after they deliver the flooring Tuesday, but I'm not holding my breath. It's nice and cloudy out, so I go get a few loads of soil in my remaining raised beds.

 

[Cate]

Your garden really does sound lush. I'll cross my fingers that the contractors get right onto the tiling on Tuesday

 

[Marsia]

Thanks Cate and LaMa! Got a load of rotted logs and a load of soil in the next bed, then got distracted planting garlic, shallots, and onions. The basil, parsnips, carrots, and beets are up. They are just little areas in the same bed as the sweet potatoes, but still nice to have a little of each veggie. Had a putter around day touching up the trim in J's office and now the room is done and looks nice. Supposedly the contractor picked up the tile and will deliver it tomorrow morning. We'll see. Tomorrow morning I'd like to wake up early again. That was lovely working in the relative cool. I'd like to get the citrus in pots and keep slowly filling the rest of the raised beds and planting things in seed trays. The day zipped by. I watched a lot of gardening videos and hung out with Lumi a lot. I wish the contractor would actually come deliver the stuff so I could go do nice things. I really want to go out stand up paddle boarding soon!

 

[Llama]

Fingers crossed the contractor will be there punctually and you'll get to have some fun!

 

[Cate]

Fingers crossed the contractor will be there punctually and you'll get to have some fun!

I hope so too

 

[Marsia]

Thanks LaMa and Cate. No contractor today, but he did finally answer texts and the flooring/tiling guys will be here tomorrow to start sanding floors and ripping out tile in the kitchen. So yay, they are starting! I spent the day getting the rest of the stuff in the basement and bathrooms where it's protected from dust. Didn't feel like doing much as it was hot and someone was burning brush outside, which is not nice in high humidity. Good news is that this will just take 3 or 4 days and I am done waiting for people and can go exploring and paddle boarding and things! I was so hungry for sugar so had a lot of frozen cherries and fresh mango. Feel better now!

The wildlife here is either very trusting or they like me for some reason. A snake came slithering toward me because I was watering a potted fern and I think it was attracted by the water, and it went right under the fern and was very trusting. A frog in the screen house let me walk past and just looked at me, and a rabbit eating grass watched me for quite a while. Funny. So just a nice mellow organizing day today.

 

[Cate]

Thanks LaMa and Cate. No contractor today, but he did finally answer texts and the flooring/tiling guys will be here tomorrow to start sanding floors and ripping out tile in the kitchen. So yay, they are starting!

Yay!

I was so hungry for sugar so had a lot of frozen cherries and fresh mango. Feel better now!

Well done!

The wildlife here is either very trusting or they like me for some reason. A snake came slithering toward me because I was watering a potted fern and I think it was attracted by the water, and it went right under the fern and was very trusting. A frog in the screen house let me walk past and just looked at me, and a rabbit eating grass watched me for quite a while. Funny. So just a nice mellow organizing day today.

I think you’re a wildlife whisperer. I hope the alligators stay well away

 

[Marsia]

I promise not to cultivate alligator whispering skills!

Today was rather hectic and sweaty. No one said when the contractors were coming, and I wasn't ready for them when they got here, so frantically dragged my mattress away and covered it, but forgot about Lumi, and she hides somewhere I have never been able to find. So she spent the day in her hidden spot, and still hasn't come out. I am in the basement in the spare room there organizing what can actually be put away in the basement. I am making up baker's shelves and coordinating bids for the different flooring projects (half of which I think were in our last bid, so everything's messed up) and figuring out how to switch who picks up our tile order tomorrow. They are very strict and won't give the order to the new person unless we figure this out. Pain in the neck. So the kitchen tile and mortar under the tile are all ripped out, the living room floor is sanded, and many carpets are ripped out so far.

I am so sweaty from running up and down the stairs, watering in the hot sun, and dragging boxes around. I am definitely not going to be able to cook in the kitchen so may head out to the supermarket after a shower to get some healthy convenience food. One nice thing about being back on the east coast is that they have dark rye which is called pumpernickel here. I missed that on the west coast. It's good living in a hot climate because I get full fast. So if I eat bread, it fills me up and though it isn't the most healthy thing, I only have a little and feel fulfilled. One thing they don't have here though is sour dough bread, and that's K's favorite, so I think I'll get some sour dough starter and make it myself. Ok, off to shower and shop, and hopefully go catch the sunset!

 

[Cate]

Surely you must be burning up any excess calories! Wowsers, M!

I promise not to cultivate alligator whispering skills!

Ah, but you may have this inherent talent
I hope the chaos is over soon & you can find some calm.

 

[Marsia]

Thanks Cate and LaMa! It's morning and I ate a nice yogurt and mango breakfast and wash dishes in the bathroom sink. Had to climb over the rubble in the kitchen to get dish soap. Last night I sat out in the screen porch with Lumi because she was so happy to get outside. I got to the store after sunset, which was still a beautiful drive in the dusk. It feels really good organizing and making the house ours before moving in, so everything will be just how we want it when we put all the stuff in it. I think I'll pot up some of the citrus trees this morning before it gets hot out. Hopefully no hidden alligator talents emerge!!!

 

[Llama]

I like crocodilians in zoos. Definitely don't want them in the back yard!

 

[alligatorob]

Hey Marisa, good to see you getting settled in. I have not been keeping up, where in the east did you end up?

I wouldn't worry too much about the alligators, lived with them a long time. They mostly only eat small children and dogs...

 

[Emilyrose]

Haha, I love hearing about your interactions with the frogs!

Making your own sourdough bread was a huge thing here during lockdown.

 

[Cate]

Making your own sourdough was huge here during lockdown as well.
Getting your house ready before you all move in is such a good idea. I'm looking forward to seeing some more photos xo

 

[Marsia]

I like crocodilians in zoos. Definitely don't want them in the back yard!

Hi LaMa! I'm very glad alligators in this area are rare. Where I saw them was further inland on a big preserve. Having a big glowing white cat, I would have had the yard fenced in immediately otherwise!

Hey Marisa, good to see you getting settled in. I have not been keeping up, where in the east did you end up?

I wouldn't worry too much about the alligators, lived with them a long time. They mostly only eat small children and dogs...

Hey Rob! We moved to an island near Charleston. It's wonderful here, but the humidity is really hard to get used to. It's going to be around 90 all week, and that's quite hot for me, so I try to garden in the mornings and evenings. I'm mostly getting the house ready for when J and K get here, but am exploring a little, too. It's utterly beautiful and the people are so friendly! We have the most gorgeous beach very near us, and we are in a community with a dock on a river. Once the contractors leave, I'm finally going to go paddle boarding and exploring the river. How are you doing?

Haha, I love hearing about your interactions with the frogs!

Making your own sourdough bread was a huge thing here during lockdown.

Hi Em! The frogs are so funny. There is a glass brick wall in the basement room where I'm staying while they work on the house and yesterday I was watching a frog hop across it. And there was one tiny one in the screen house that was jumping at least 3 feet in the air. They are little acrobats.

I remember seeing my brother in law post about baking bread during the pandemic. Funny what trends catch on.

Making your own sourdough was huge here during lockdown as well.
Getting your house ready before you all move in is such a good idea. I'm looking forward to seeing some more photos xo

Hi Cate! I'm taking photos as the remodel progresses to document it for J and K so they feel like they are included in the process. I'll post before, during, and after pics at some point.

Not much new here. I got a lot organized in the basement and will tackle all the stuff the last owners left me in the garage today to see how much of it I actually want to keep. The contractors got all the tile and subfloor ripped out of the kitchen/hall/laundry room and all the carpet out of the upstairs and almost all of the hardwood floors sanded down. They should be here through Saturday, and then I'll have a house again. I may ask the painters back to touch up the baseboard because there is just so much of it and I'm so bad at painting straight lines. So I'll have enough time to unpack before the next load of stuff gets here. Perfect timing.

 

[alligatorob]

We moved to an island near Charleston

Nice, I have been to the Charleston area a few times, and I really liked it. I think you choose well, and your neighborhood sounds great!

I have always liked hot and humid, but I grew up with it. We always told people they would get used to it... by about November, LOL.

 

[Cate]

The frogs are so funny. There is a glass brick wall in the basement room where I'm staying while they work on the house and yesterday I was watching a frog hop across it. And there was one tiny one in the screen house that was jumping at least 3 feet in the air. They are little acrobats.

Is there a bathroom in the basement as well, M? The frogs sound so cute!

 

[Marsia]

Nice, I have been to the Charleston area a few times, and I really liked it. I think you choose well, and your neighborhood sounds great!

I have always liked hot and humid, but I grew up with it. We always told people they would get used to it... by about November, LOL.

We really lucked out finding our house. They were getting snatched up in the first 5 days on average, so it was just very good luck to have gotten something in such an amazing neighborhood here. I really like how it's a mix of happy Southern people, interesting happy Gullah farms, beach community, retirees from New England, and lots of boaters out on the rivers. Even if I don't get used to this until November, I will celebrate massively! I feel like I am in a hot yoga studio trying to do my normal pace, and I just can't or all my strength will get sapped! Southerners are super-human, and I can't believe how they don't sweat!

Is there a bathroom in the basement as well, M? The frogs sound so cute!

No, but there is a ton of space down there. You could have a small dance studio if you wanted! The frogs are adorable but also inscrutable and kind of Yoda-like. And they climb everything. I saw one on some tall grass the other day, hanging out casually like it wasn't nearly levitating!

The contractors got massive amounts of work done today and stayed past 6 pm. They got the subfloor in for tile in the kitchen/hall/laundry, laid out how the hexagon floor tile will go, got the wood on the stairs to the basement and two bedrooms, hand planed a lot of floor where the electric belt sander can't get to, and stained the floor in one of the rooms.

I didn't want to stay indoors, so potted up 2 grapes and made bamboo tee-pees for them, potted 4 citrus in big pots, put together a much needed box spring for the bed I'd been sleeping on (which was falling through the cracks in the bed frame and resulted in me sleep on an "s" shaped mattress all night), and shucked peanuts for planting. I did a lot of coordinating with the contractor, so didn't get to the basement today. Good day, and nice to sit in the screen porch with Lumi listening to frogs and enjoying dusk.

I wish I could do more with my day, but just being here making sure the contractor is doing everything correctly is good in and of itself. I hope to fertilize the garden and add some rich garden soil to all the potatoes and such tomorrow. The screen house looks lush and inviting now with all the trees and grapes and things. The passion fruit vine even has fruit even though it's not in its big bot yet, and the key limes and berry bushes have little fruit started, too!