Monday, July 29, 2013

No blog posts recently, but change is coming in the garden


Goodbye hammock room!
So, I haven’t written a blog post for some time. I have heard from some of you to get back on the ball (Amber- you should talk, you haven't updated your blog in almost a year). For whatever reason I haven’t been that inspired to write, but I think that will change soon; change is coming to the garden.

There are a few reasons I guess I haven’t written any blog posts in a while and here are a couple and one is the reason I will start writing again…

Some background:
  1. This spring I trained for my first marathon in over three years- injury and illness have kept me from running, but this year I was able to train and complete a marathon again, and I hope to resume running regularly.
  2. My wife and I bought a vintage travel trailer (a 1966 Security Traveler) to restore- my wife has wanted one for a long time. It has been a big and time consuming project.  It has kept me really busy, and I have loved it.
  3. The garden takes care of itself. I have really learned that now that we have no lawn, don’t water anything, and the garden is really dense, there is very little maintenance; mainly cutting things back. So I haven’t written much.
It may seem like restoring a camper has nothing to do with the garden, but in our case it will. In the off season, we will store the camper in the backyard. Actually a better descriptor is that we will incorporate the camper into the landscape. A guest house or a little studio is what we are envisioning complete with a pergola covering it. To accommodate this, I have a lot of work to do.

Although my wife started her own blog to chronicle her camper (check it out at http://toastercamper.blogspot.com/), here are a few before and after pictures:

Curbside before
Curbside after
Although I don't show it here, I re-framed nearly the entire camper, re-re-plumbed and re-just about everything.  My wife re-upholstered the cushions, sewed the curtains and made the awning (among other things in the camper).
Here are some inside pictures...
Dinette before
Dinette after
 We kept the original stove, sink, oven, icebox (though I super-insulted it) and furnace.
Kitchen before
Kitchen after
Bedroom before
Bedroom after
 And a couple of more exterior pictures for good measure.
Streetside before
Streetside after
In order to get it in to the back yard, we had to remove the raised beds in the alley,, including all the soil (thank you Craigslist!), which is done(!), remove fence panels and build a big gate, then I have to clear the area for the camper. This will involve relocating a lot of plants, and it will require me to remove the hammock room (see photo at the top of the post)! 

This is a favorite spot in the garden for many, but I don’t mind the change. I like change in the garden.

I built the hammock for my wife a long time ago, and it has served us well, but I think the camper will serve us even better!

So, if you are interested in the hammock pergola, I am going to be getting rid of it, but I haven’t figured out exactly how.

There are still a lot of projects I need to finish, too. For example last fall I started building a fence for our front yard. Started, that is, not finished! To follow my garden and blogging friend Susan's (of the Bicycle Garden) lead, I am posting my garden projects on a frame on the right, rather than burying them in a post. I am hoping this will hold me more accountable (to myself, I guess).

4 comments:

  1. Good to hear you've been having fun and keeping busy on such rewarding projects. I bet that camper will be lots of fun. And it looks better already!

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  2. Saw Montana for first time in May 2010 on a trip to Glacier Park up at the top of state. We then traveled on down to Jackson Hole. My grandfather was born in Helena Montana but he ran away from home at age 16 so we never knew his people. I garden, feed the birds, and photograph them. Hoping for another trip this Sept to Glacier before the snow flies. We saw very little the end of May as most passes were blocked. http://candypfau.blogspot.com/

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  3. Thanks for sharing such a wonderful images. Many organic gardeners are sympathetic to the philosophy of wildlife gardening, and will usually try to incorporate some aspects of the wild garden into their own plots in order to both act as a means of biological pest control, as well as for its value in promoting biodiversity and generally benefitting the wider environment.

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  4. This project looks great! It is such an amazing experience to read your topic about the garden, pergola and a cute vintage traveler trailer. I read also your inspiring Toaster camper, looking forward to see more from this blog.

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